Loma del Pliegue Tumbado
Loma del Pliegue Tumbado is the least crowded of the three main hikes in El Chalten. The views of Fitz Roy, Cerro Torre, Laguna Torre and of Los Glaciares National Park rival those on the other hikes, but this one has the fewest visitors. This was our first hike in El Chalten and was a grand initiation to the beauty of Patagonia.
Tumbado is steep, rising over 3850 feet in the 13 mile return trip. We passed through several lenga forests, which look like giant red blankets laid over the park. Within the forests, the trees exhibited a vertical color change, in which they were greenest close to the ground, yellow and orange in the middle, and red at their canopy. Not at all the uniform red that they appear from afar.
Once, above the forests, Fitz Roy was ever present. The peak became increasingly prominent as we approached the ridgeline. From the viewpoint, we had vistas to the North of Laguna Torre and the towering mountains surrounding it and, to the South, were views of a martian desert landscape leading to Viedma Lake.
The best views were from the summit of Tumbado. We overlooked the beginning trail of the Huemul Circuit below us to the South, the glaciers of the Southern Patagonia Icefieldand to the West and the entirety of Los Glaciares National Park to the North and East. One of the great 360 degree views in all of Patagonia. On the descent, we enjoyed scenes of El Chalten and the Rio de las Vueltas Valley.
I highly recommend this hike. It is every bit as good at its more popular neighbor hikes, to Laguna Torre and Laguna de los Tres. The bird’s eye views from this hike
