Sunrise at the Fitz Roy

My Fitz Roy experience was pretty phenomenal, somewhat terrifying nonetheless phenomenal! I have heard that if you walk all the way up to Laguna de los Tres during the night you could watch the sun rising and the mountains turning red and orange during the process. You can imagine that my little wanderlost spirit got eager to experience that!

I set my alarm for 2 am, gathered some snacks, courage and I set off at 3 am towards the woods. I cross the centre of El Chaltén and reached the entrance of the trail with a fast beating heart! The trail was pitch black and there wasn't a living soul around. So I spent about 15min at this spot debating if I should carry on alone or not. I even went back a few meters, only to turn back around. My anxiety kicked in saying "What if a puma comes around? Or what if you fall and get hurt? Go back, go to bed and come back later!". But my brave side said "Come on, you got this! The night is clear, it will be a beautiful sunrise. You'll regret it if you go back!". I took a few deep breathes and looked up to the sky. In that moment a shooting star passed by and took it as a "Go ahead girl" sign! Off I went, headphones on with loud music, lantern in hand (yes, great day to forget my head torch at home) and an eager but scared heart. Man, "the woods are lovely dark and deep" my arse! They're scary as hell, specially if you're afraid of the dark (go me for facing my fears)... The trees looked like monsters and I was flinching every time an insect came close to me. I felt like Snow White when she has to go through the woods alone to escape her stepmother.

A little funny episode during the trail: it was dark but I wanted a picture of the forest (I know right) but I forgot that for the phone to do that, the lantern light would go off. You know what happened next don't you?! Worst 10 seconds of 2020!! I was like "Why Ana, whyyyyy?!?".

After about 1:30hr, I saw the first forms of human life. They were like "you're doing this alone?! Girl you're brave!" (I would have gone for crazy but brave is fine). I decided to join them on the way to the top, having someone to talk to would make the darkness a bit less scary. God knows how, we ended up leaving the main trail and detouring to the middle of peat moss and ponds! Now that I think about it is funny but at the time, sinking in puddles in the darkness with no idea of our actual position was a distressfull. But what's a trekk without a little detour, right?!

As any other Patagonian trail the last kilometer was steep and rocky! As I made my way up the will, the sun was starting to rise on the horizon!

And after 3 hours, there it was: the Fitz Roy or El Chaltén peak in all it's splendor! I changed into warm dry clothes and sat down with my hot coffee, waiting for the sun to hit the stones. There it was slowly, slowly going from dark brown to blood red! Ahhh if this isn't the life?! Yes it's hard and sometimes painful but man, it's so worth it!!

Most of the other hikers left almost instantly after the sun came out, but I stayed for as long as I could handle the strong winds. I remained sitting watching the Fitz Roy hide on and off behind the clouds. What a tease! As I started walking back to town, the rain kicked in and when I looked back one last time, a beautiful rainbow was going across the mountains. Nature constantly reminding me of the beauty in the small things!

I walked down slowly, taking my time, there was no rush now... Made one last stop by Laguna Capri, took my boots off and soaked my feet in ice cold water and my body in warm sun beams.