El Chaltén

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View to El Chaltén from the trail towards the Fitz Roy mountain.

View to Río de las Vueltas from the trail towards the Fitz Roy peak.

El Chaltén is a small mountain village in Santa Cruz Province, Argentina. It is located in the riverside of Río de las Vueltas, within the Los Glaciares National Park (section Reserva Nacional Zona Viedma) at the base of Cerro Torre and Cerro Chaltén mountains, both popular for climbing. For this reason this village is well-visited by trekkers and climbers.

The nowadays National Trekking Capital was founded in 1985. The village is located 220km north of El Calafate.

"Chaltén" is a tehuelche word meaning smoking mountain, as they believe it was a volcano for its peak is most of the time covered by clouds. Other visited tracks and sights are Torre Glacier, Laguna Capri, Piedras Blancas Glacier, Chorrillo del Salto and Laguna de los Tres.

The village provides free camping and national park information for visitors, as well as commercial camping (with showers) and a very limited number of beds, catering mostly for backpackers. The tourist trade has spawned a few restaurants and basic shops in town, and some of the accommodations provide internet and phone access and show regular movies. Other than that, the town is fairly far removed from the normal flow of news and communication, even during high season (November-February). The town is nearly deserted during off-season (the southern hemisphere winter).