UKC

I'm currently cycle touring in South America with my girlfriend and will be in El Chalten in around a week. While there I'm keen to do some trekking/ easy climbing.

We will probably walk up to the Fitzroy and Cerro Torre viewpoints but will probably spend around a week in the area.

Any recommendations for treks that are less busy with tourists (up to around 5 days) or easy peaks/ climbing that don't involve snow/ glacier travel? (As we're travelling by bike I don't have boots or any climbing kit with me and I'm not keen to use hire boots so everything needs to be doable in approach shoes.)

Thanks.

In reply to SWalls:

Hi, I was there about this time last year doing the same thing! There's loads of trekking to be done, to avoid the crowds, try the path up to the piedra negra bivvy site, I can't remember what it's called and I think you have to pay a small entry fee if you're trecking up to the glacier at the end, loads of cool views, and it gets you round to the valley behind the mountains. There's lots of sports climbing on the other side of the river from the town, you can hire ropes and shoes from the shops. Are you heading north or south?

In reply to SWalls:

are you coming down Ruta40 from the North?
We tried to take the backroad to El Chalten from Chile: Ruta 7 south from Chilechico via Villa O'Higgins and a boas trip across Lago St Martin... no bikes tho - and public transport was just too time consuming / unreliable.
Much more interesting route, but it's ripio all the way.

Probably worthwhile taking a trip north up the valley from El Chalten just to get into the proper "deep Patagonia"....

Thanks for the suggestions so far. We're cycling South. We're currently waiting in Villa O'Higgins for the weather to improve enough for the boat towards El Chalten to run.

I was considering bouldering/ sport climbing but I'll be pitifully weak at the moment after 4 months of cycling and no climbing. I was really looking for suggestions of easy peaks doable in approach shoes or climbs up to around VDiff in standard I could solo.