UKC

Hi all,

Currently (in the very very early stages of) planning a trip to the Fitzroy range and wanted to know if anyone has a recommendation for a map?

The only one I have found recently is a 1:75K which seems a bit useless for actually nav'ing on the mountain.

Any other tips greatly appreciated! 

I used

http://www.stanfords.co.uk/Patagonian-South-Icefield-Monte-Fitz-Roy_9781879...

for trekking in the area.  1:50,000.  If Stanfords do not have anything better you are unlikely to find anything better elsewhere in my view.

Been there a couple of times, as far as I know no map exists to be of any use for actual navigating, only rough trekking maps which are far from accurate. But given the nature/ shape of the mountains, a map is rarely needed anyway. Hard to get lost on a pointy granite spire. I've never needed a map despite some fairly brutal storms. A compass would be useful to gain a general sense of direction I guess if you somehow get caught in a whiteout on top of Fitzroy or something with a broader summit area like that, but generally speaking, if anything like a whiteout is even presenting itself as a possibility, you'll already be on your way down the way you came. Or you certainly should be, but increasingly people seem to fail to treat those mountains with the respect they deserve, and keep climbing into storms. Just don't do that and you'll be fine 

We had the map linked above and used it briefly when we got a bit confused - ridiculously - on the approach to Piedra Negra. Other than that it stayed in the bag.

For Torre Valley approach to Niponino and Polacos the current mapping is actually incorrect as the approach has shifted from the west to the east side of the valley. We didn't need a map for this, just some local directions and a lot, a LOT of willpower - the approach is awful. 

If you go into Niponino, my advice would be that if you can, try to follow somebody in first time as it’s quite difficult to find. Even on our third trip in we struggled. Polacos is a little easier (even though you skirt Niponino on the way there)  by dint of the enormous boulder sitting there up on the talus which is visible from miles away.

We didn’t do anything from Paso Superior so don’t know what that approach is like. 

There’s a good shop in town sat back behind a massive lawn. I never did work out what it was called, but it says ‘souvenirs’ on the front and its steps are chained off when closed. It’s the best (and only really) shop for mountain food (though no freeze dried/foil meals etc) and sells a ton of maps too. 

Agree on getting someone to show you the walk in to Nipo. The walk in to Pieda Negra couldn't be more straightforward. Paso Superior not too bad either, Nipo is by far the worst. The approach to Nipo changes every year due to glacial retreat/erosion 

Just remembered when we tried to climb Cerro Torre and walked around the icecap, our American friend Tad had some sort of app a bit like Viewranger which he was using as a gps. We didn't really need it, the Stanfords trekking map above was enough, and even that was hardly necessary, but you could look into that potentially. I'll try find out what it was called.

Maps.me maybe? We met a few folks using that. 

Re’ Piedra Negra. Agreed. We managed to get confused at Electrico! That’s just because we’re idiots though.  

You mean at the road head? Yeah, knowing where to head from there is quite confusing with all those crossing paths,  but once on  your way you can't go wrong! When were you out Tom, we must have just missed each other 

Yeah, exactly that. We got dumped by the cabbie and hadn’t a clue where we were. 

Yeah, only other Brits we met were Graham and Helen. Got back end of Feb, missing the boiler room at Ailen Aike already  

Hope you had a successful trip  

Ah shame we didn't cross paths, we were there all of Feb. Yeah had a great time thanks, hope you did too. Amazing place, the OP and anyone else with any interest should definitely go there

The app is called gaia

Thanks everyone for your help. Will start planning and downloading apps!