Nestled in the valley with Rio de las Vueltas, El Chalten is the hiking capital of Argentina. Friendly park rangers give all new arrivals a helpful overview before letting you into town. The town is tiny as is, further dwarfed by the sheer grandeur surrounding it.
Rancho Grande was my base, a friendly hostel on the edge of town with some of the best staff I’ve encountered; Cecilia, Jorge, Carolina and the others do an excellent job. Cecilia was marvellous, helping plan the most action in the shortest time.
Cecilia – local guide extraordinaire 
El Chalten was established about 26 years ago, solely to service hikers. It’s the Argentina hiking capital
The afternoon walk to Chorillo del Salto waterfalls was a mere entree of what was to come, offering a decent 2hrs round trip over gravel road and hiking trail to a splendid waterfall. The headwind blasts down the valley doing its best to blow you back to town, whipping up the dust and sand, depositing it in the creases of your ears for you to find later. It does make the return trip with a tailwind feel a lot faster though 🙂
A drink of the freshest water around and back to town to rent some “real boots and a real jacket” in preparation for the next day.
Faced with the chance to trek on another glacier, and since I didn’t meet an untimely end last time, I signed up for the ice trek on Viedma Glacier, the largest glacier in Argentina Patagonia, with Patagonia Aventura. I was fortunate to meet Marie-Jose from the Netherlands, also trekking solo so we paired up to share the day.
Tibu and Joaquin are the guides I stole a dual-cheek kiss from at the end of a stunning experience on a gorgeous sunny day. A bus trip and a boat ride brought us along the side of Viedma where we did our best impression of mountain goats scrambling over the rocks to the edge of the ice. The wind whistled between the towering blocks of blue and white ice, criss-crossed with crevasses and water courses.
Head guide Tibu 
Assistant guide Joaquin
The views over the tongue of the glacier and out to the lago featured giant icebergs, streaked with deep blue veins, the opaque, milky aqua melt water and bright ochre, umber, gold and rust coloured rock. It stretched so far into the distance without interruption from humankind, I felt like the smallest speck on the planet.
With more time on the ice than Perito Moreno we were able to sidle up the edge on top of some of those towers of ice. It is entirely possible to lose perspective and scale when you peer across and down into the crevasses that disappear many metres down to the bedrock and waterways. Slip and fall and you can bid the mob good day.
The wind gusted and tore around us in the exposed areas and left us in peace when we dipped below the ice to venture underneath. The sound of rushing water cascading down the holes in the ice and a constant “drip, drip, drip” greeted us as we walked under the edge of the glacier into a cave that glowed a brilliant fresh blue. We celebrated with glacier ice cooling a generous cup of Bailey’s, like I say, they know how to celebrate in style here!
Touching the glacial underbelly
Back onto the rock to dry out, warm up and eat lunch at the next most stunning picnic area in the world, we waited for the boat ride home during which I could not stop smiling and marvelling at the beauty all around me. This is such a special place.
