Welcome to El Chalten

Situated in the Departament called Lago Argentino, El Chaltén is on the northen margin of Lago Viedma, in the confluence of rivers De las Vueltas and Fitz Roy, in the National Reserve Zona Viedma in Los Glaciares National Park.
In this landscape combine the magic of glaciers, hidden lagoons, estancias, Lake Viedma, and the magnetic presence of mount Fitz Roy. The summit of its unmistakable majestic silouete is almost always covered in a cloud that the Tehuelche (aborigines of the region) thought was smoke, mistake that gave origin to the name Chaltén, which means volcano. This aborigines called "smoking mountain" and that sometime later, Perito Moreno would baptize as Fitz Roy.
Two hundred people live in this town, distant 220 km. from El Calafate on provincial route Nº11, national route 40, and provincial route Nº 23.
El Chaltén is contiguous to Lake Viedma and its reserve, and has been declared National Hiking Capital for the variety of activities performed by hikers and climbers.
You can get to El Chaltén from El Calafate, located 220 Km away, by a gravel road that may be blocked during the winter. The Isolation is one of the main characteristics of this North corner of the Glaciers National Park. In El Chaltén there isn't an efficient home telephone network, cell phones don't work and Internet connection is poor and very expensive. On the other side this quality is one of its attractions. El Chaltén is still a contamination free place and its inhabitants and authorities are making every effort to keep it that way. There is a garbage recycling system working in the town, the electric energy wires and telephone lines go "underground" to avoid the visual pollution of the landscapes, it is forbidden to take non-regional animal or vegetal species. And everyone is trying to preserve their treasure: the fragile balance of the surrounding natural environment.

Regarding its climate, its annual maximum mean temperature is 12 degrees and its annual minimum mean temperature is 3.3 degrees.