Cerro Fitz Roy

Cerro Fitz Roy

Santa Cruz Province, Argentina
Cerro Fitz Roy (also known as Cerro Chaltén and Monte Fitz Roy) is a mountain in Patagonia, Argentina. It is located in the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, near El Chaltén village and Viedma lake. It was first climbed in 1952 by French alpinists Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone. The first Europeans recorded as seeing Mount Fitz Roy were the Spanish explorer Antonio de Viedma and his companions, who in 1783 reached the shores of Viedma lake. Argentine explorer Francisco Moreno saw the mountain on 2 March 1877. He named it Fitz Roy in honour of Robert FitzRoy who, as captain of HMS Beagle, had travelled up the Santa Cruz River in 1834 and charted large parts of the Patagonian coast. Cerro is a Spanish word meaning hill, while Chaltén comes from a Tehuelche (Aonikenk) word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak.