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, 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 word meaning "smoking mountain", due to a cloud that usually forms around the mountain's peak. Fitz Roy, however, was only one of a number of peaks the Tehuelche called Chaltén.
Setting
Argentina and Chile have agreed that their international border detours eastwards to pass over the main summit, but a large part of the border to the south of the summit, as far as Cerro Murallón, remains undefined. The mountain is the symbol of the ArgentineSanta Cruz Province, which includes its representation on its coat of arms.
Notable ascents
1952 Lionel Terray and Guido Magnone via Southeast Ridge
1965 Carlos Comesaña and José Luis Fonrouge via Supercanaleta in 2-1/2 days
1972 Southeast Ridge. Ian Wade, Dave Nicol, Mo Anthoine, Guy Lee, Larry Derby & Eddie Birch. Ian & Larry from USA others UK.
In 1980 following the Col Americano route Gino Casassa, Chilean, monitor of the Andinism Federation of Chile, and Walter Bertsch, from Austria, arrived the peak together. Alejandro Izquierdo, arrived just to 2,800 m.
1984 Franco Argentina Route by Marcos Couch, Eduardo Brenner, Alberto Bendiger y Pedro Friedrich.
1986 First winter ascent, in July, by Argentines Eduardo Brenner, Sebastián De La Cruz and Gabriel Ruiz, over three days following the Supercanaleta.
2012 Jorge Morales and Alejandro Heres broke the speed record of ascent.
2014 Between 12 and 16 February, Tommy Caldwell and Alex Honnold completed the first ascent of the much discussed "Fitz Traverse", climbing across the iconic ridge-line of Cerro Fitz Roy and its satellite peaks in southern Patagonia. The route is 5 kilometers long and has approximately 4000 meters of vertical elevation, with routes ranging in difficulty up to 5.11d.
21 March 2019. Jim Reynolds. Afanassieff. Free solo.
