Journey 01 · Argentina
Nine Days of Wind
El Chaltén, on foot
Published 6 Dec 2025 · Travelled 2–14 Nov 2025
- 9 moments
- 12 days
- 34 km
- Autumn
- Argentina
- 23mm · f/2.8 · 1/125
- 49.3315° S, 72.8863° W
- El Chaltén
- 21:40
- 8°C, clear, wind
The overnight from El Calafate gets in when the light is still going, which in November means nearly ten at night. Everybody got off and stood by their bags for a while, working out that the thing behind the sign was the actual mountain. I waited until the bus pulled out and the dust settled before I took anything.
the light here refuses to end
02 · What I brought, what I used
- 23mm · f/5.6 · 1/500
- 49.3018° S, 72.8794° W
- Ruta 23, north of town
- 07:10
- 4°C, high cloud
The road north runs straight at the massif for two kilometres and then bends away from it, which feels like a trick played on purpose. A woman in a red jacket was ahead of me the whole way and never once looked up. I looked up constantly and walked into a rut.
- 23mm · f/1.4 · 1/200
- 49.3308° S, 72.8852° W
- Avenida San Martín
- 13:20
A dozen for what a coffee costs at home. The woman behind the counter asked where I was from, and then told me without being asked that the wind would drop on Thursday. It did not drop on Thursday. I went back on Friday and neither of us mentioned it.
she was right about Friday, which nobody had asked about
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/250
- 49.3050° S, 72.9100° W
- 23mm · f/4 · 1/250
- 49.3050° S, 72.9100° W
- Sendero al Fitz Roy
- 09:05
- 6°C, wind above the treeline
The beech forest is the only quiet stretch of the walk. The wind goes over the top of it and you hear it working somewhere above you without ever feeling it. Then you come out onto the shoulder and it finds you again inside ten steps. I photographed my own feet mainly to have a reason to stand still.
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/250
- 49.2716° S, 72.9930° W
- Laguna de los Tres
- 05:40
- 3°C, clear, hard wind
The last kilometre is an hour of loose rock in the dark and then it simply opens. I had planned this frame for weeks, and then stood there for four minutes without lifting the camera. The water was the colour of a bruise until the sun got over the ridge behind me.
Overheard · Paso del Cuadrado · 06:20
"Nine days I've been here." — "And?" — "And today. Today is the day." Neither of them was looking at the other. They were both looking at the same piece of rock, and so was I.
- 23mm · f/8 · 1/1000
- 49.3167° S, 73.0333° W
- Mirador Maestri
- 16:20
- 2°C, clearing, briefly
Fitz Roy will show itself if you give it a morning. Cerro Torre makes you wait days and then gives you ninety seconds. I got the ninety seconds on the second-to-last afternoon; everything either side of it in the folder is grey on grey.
- Mirador de los Cóndores
- 21:55
- 1°C, still, finally
- Last frame
Last evening, twenty minutes above the town, and the wind finally sat down. The moon came up while I was putting the camera away, so I took it out again. This is the only picture from the whole trip I hadn't already imagined.
- 23mm · f/2 · 1/60
- 49.3400° S, 72.8900° W
The route
9 stops
Journey completed
Twelve days, nine stories
- Distance walked
- 91 km
- Frames exposed
- 940
- Days the wind stopped
- 0
- Mornings I got up at four
- 6
- Mornings it was worth it
- 2
- Favourite moment
- The four minutes at the lake before I picked the camera up
- Best food
- Twelve empanadas for the price of a Kochi coffee, eaten standing on Avenida San Martín
