Fitz Roy

A 3,405-metre granite peak in the southern Patagonian Andes, near El Chaltén in Argentine Patagonia. Fitz Roy is the highest peak of a compact massif of granite spires that includes Cerro Torre, Aguja Poincenot, and Aguja Mermoz. The mountain was named in the 19th century by the Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno after Robert FitzRoy, the captain of HMS Beagle on Charles Darwin's voyage. The local Aónikenk name was Chaltén — "smoking mountain" — a reference to the cloud cap that almost permanently obscures the summit.

The first ascent was made in 1952 by the French climbers Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone. The pair climbed the Southeast Ridge in a multi-week effort that involved most of the technical climbing innovations of post-war French alpinism. Terray was the same climber who had reached the summit of Makalu three years earlier, and his account of Fitz Roy described conditions more demanding than any 8000er he had attempted. The weather pattern in Patagonia, even in summer, produced storm cycles of extreme violence and short windows of climbable conditions.

The standard route today is still the Southeast Ridge — the Franco-Argentine Route. The technical difficulty is sustained, with sections requiring 5.10 rock climbing at altitude, ice climbing on the upper sections, and exposed pitches that require commitment well beyond what most rock climbers encounter at lower altitude. The summit ridge is corniced and exposed to wind that can exceed 200 kilometres per hour. Multi-week base-camp stays are standard. Most teams that arrive prepared do not summit on a single trip.

What Fitz Roy represents in the modern climbing community is the Patagonian standard. The mountain has produced, by reasonable measure, more important alpine first ascents than any peak of its altitude in the world. The rock is among the best granite anywhere. The position is uncompromising. Climbers who have summited Fitz Roy are climbers who have demonstrated something specific.