The story
National Trekking Festival in El Chalten
A small mountain-town festival in Patagonia's El Chaltén, commemorating the first Argentine attempt on Cerro Fitz Roy in 1948. Trail races and a multi-stage challenge run on real terrain inside Los Glaciares National Park, alongside a lumberjack contest and artisan market, with evening concerts by regional and national musicians closing out each day.
El Chaltén's festival commemorates a specific mountaineering date, March 18, 1948, the first Argentine attempt to summit Cerro Fitz Roy, and the town has since backed up that connection to climbing with official recognition: it was named provincial trekking capital in 1993 and, by national law in 2015, designated the country's National Capital of Trekking.