Argentina Glacier Adventure - Nov. 21, 2011

Arrive to Argentina today and transfer independently to your comfortable hotel. Buenos Aires, the country's largest city, is famous for its colorful neighborhoods and amazing architecture. Spend your free time exploring the city, or simply relax after your long international flight. Overnight.

A morning flight takes you to the lively town of El Calafate to begin your Argentina travels. Upon arrival, take a four hour drive across the rugged landscape toward Chalten. During the drive, a Patagonia guide will introduce you to the region's ecology, history, and exceptional geography. This evening, meet your trekking guide for a briefing of the next day's trek and enjoy a complimentary cocktail gathering before dinner to get to know the rest of your trekking group. The rest of the evening is yours to enjoy at your leisure.

7 hours of hiking covering 11 miles (18 km). Begin your 4-day trek, hiking through subantarctic forest and passing the small glacier lake named Piedras Blancas that is situated below and filled by waters from a glacier that bears the same name. Your route runs parallel with the Rio Blanco. The toughest part of your trek follows - a fifty minute climb that zigzags up a 45º slope until arriving at the eerily still glacial Laguna de Los Tres where you're rewarded with one of Patagonia's best panoramic vistas (and quite possibly in the world)! Enjoy lunch and feast on the views of the colossus of granite, ice, and sky. As you near your campsite on Lake Capri, Mount Fitz Roy looms ahead in the distance.

7 hours of hiking covering 9 miles (14 km) if completing the full hike. Enjoy breakfast this morning near Lake Capri. Next you will start your trek to Camp Torre and pass two lagoons appropriately named Madre and Hija (Mother and Daughter). Keep your eyes out for Andean condors, Magellenic woodpeckers and other Patagonian wildlife along our way. You'll be passing through a living natural history lesson on glaciation and learn about the history that created this stunning landscape. This segment lasts six hours to get to the camp. There is an optional extra hike from Lago Torre to Mirador Maestri for an extra two hour hike to the old base camp for climbers who explored the Torre Massif in the early 1970's.

9 hours hiking (2 hours on the glacier) covering 15 miles (24 km). After an early breakfast, prepare for the most active day of your trip, and make your approach towards the Torre Glacier after crossing the Fitz Roy River by rope harness. You will then put on crampons, and after some instruction, begin to trek across the Torre Glacier (this is designed for people who have never tried ice hiking with crampons). You'll have your lunch with you so you can enjoy the ethereal experience of picnicking on the glacier, with the 10,259 feet granite pinnacle of Cerro Torre towering above you and the jagged Adela mountain chain rising beyond. Finish the day hiking through dense southern beech forests as we descend toward the valley of the De las Vueltas River and El Chalten. The most stunning views are found on either side of these great mountain ranges. This evening return to El Chalten.

8 hours of hiking covering 13 miles (21 km). For your last views of the Fitz Roy, hike from El Chalten to Pliegue Tumbado range with great vantage points of the area we have hiked over the past days with Lake Capri, Torre Glacier, and Mount Fitz Roy as well as of Mount Huemul and Lago Viedma to the south. Return to El Chalten for the late afternoon bus to El Calafate.

Today you drive into Parque Nacional Los Glaciares for views of the stunning Perito Moreno Glacier. You'll take a boat across Lago Argentino and pass the massive front wall of blue ice, all the while watching for icebergs. This huge advancing glacier is more than 3 miles wide at its front and over 20 stories high - a highlight of your Patagonia travels! After landing on a small beach you'll start hiking through the beech forest to the icepack of the glacier and have the opportunity to walk on the glacier with crampons. Take lunch sitting on the lateral moraine of the glacier, where you can absorb the magnificence of the glacier's anatomy and listen to its thunderous concerto cracking ice dropping into the lake below. Overnight in El Calafate.

Catch your flight to Buenos Aires and connecting flights homeward, or with more time, cross into Chile to visit Torres del Paine or head north to Iguazú Falls to continue your Argentina travel adventures.