Introduction

Introduction

Mount Fitz Roy is the highest peak of an important group of mountains neigboors to the Southern Patagonian Ice Cap that are included in what is the ARgentine Los Glaciares National Park. It is the most eye-catching summit of a great group of proud and defying peaks that is by no means second to the Torres del Paine in the Chilean Patagonia. This mountain, together with others in the area, is and will continue being the dream, the ultimate goal of the "Conquerors of the Worthless".

The "Fitz" is part of a granitical massif, which includes a chain of several minor spires which is somewhat more distant from the Ice Field than its neighboor Cerro Torre, allowing for it to have slightly better climatic conditions.

The Fitz Roy owes its name to Robert Fitz Roy, captain of the Beagle, the famous vessel which carried Darwin on his trip along South America. But it is not like this that the tehuelches call it since times long past. The Chaltén -which in tehuelche means "terror"- suffered this toponymical change when baptized by the Argentine expert of the International Borders Comission, Francisco Moreno. Today the original name, Chaltén, is coming back to life and being used once again. Nevertheless, it is Fitz Roy the name that has remained engraved in the hearts of the countless alpinists who have dreamed of it.


First ascents

The first attempts to climb Fitz Roy date from the southern summer of 1936-37, ocasion in which an Italian expedition succeeded in reaching the base of the mountain through a breach that is since called the "Brecha de los Italianos" (cf. Buscaini pg.144).

The first ascent of Fitz Roy was achieved in 1952 by a french expedition. Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone reached the summit on February 2^nd after two days of climbing along the South Ridge. After this first ascent, more than fifteen lines have been opened, some of them as famous as the Super Coulouir, climbed by the Argentines J.L Fonrouge and C. Comesaña (16/1/1965) in the boldest alpine style; the Route of the Californians, climbed in 1968 by Yvon Chouinard, Dick Dorworth, Chris Jones, Lito Tejeda-Flores and Douglas Tompkins; the very severe Royal Flush, opened in 1995 by the Germans Kurt Albert, Bernd Arnold, Jorg Gerschel and Lutz Richter.


Recommended reading: "Patagonia" by Gino Buscaini and Silvia Metzeltin.