It was about 9:30 am when we reached ‘Laguna de los Tres’. The loose gravel crumbled as we settled to stand, take a breath and look at everything we could as our brains tried to interpret the magnitude, the colors, the smells. It was an "easy" 900m above-sea-level hike. Getting up there and seeing the Fitz Roy peaks glowing was gratifying beyond description. Especially because during the 2 hour hike to the top, thick clouds were covering everything, instilling self doubt and preemptive disappointment for the possibility of getting there and not being able to see a thing. The actual total hike was done in 26 hours, but the real effort was actually carrying all 20+ lbs of gear —just to capture this photo. May not be Nat Geo worth it but when I look at it, I still feel the crisp breeze, and it never fails to produce me an accomplishment smile.
This is a composite of two 6x7 captures. The film used was 160 Kodak VC taken with an old Mamiya RB67 paired with a Sekor 50mm f4.5 C. As you’ll notice, I decided not to clean the scans or crop the film edges. This helps with the whole nostalgic thing.
If you ever decide to visit this magical place you can find more about it here.