Why this ride
The stored terrain estimate reaches about 1,300 m; a measured road-elevation profile is not available. A steady touring day rather than a sprint.
CURVESCOUT / MOTORCYCLE RIDE
Ruta 40 Argentina North to South: El Chalten to Rio Gallegos
Plan this ride
- Recorded distance
- 518 km
- Riding-time estimate
- 8 h 00
- Journey
- One way; return travel is separate
Distance and timing basis
Ordered leg totals agree within rounding. Stop distances are approximate sums of rounded legs. Stops, delays, approach and any separate return travel add time. Basis: producer-declared routed record.
Reading history stays on this device. My road watch requires a separate selection; opening it does not subscribe this ride.
Distance and riding time are measured on the routed road. Check local closures and conditions before you ride.
Waypoint introductions and full write-ups
1. El Chaltén
El Chaltén is a young town in a very old landscape. It was founded in 1985, partly to establish an Argentine presence in a region disputed with Chile, and today it is the trekking capital of Argentina, a small cluster of lodges, cafes and gear shops beneath the granite spires of the Fitz Roy massif. Fitz Roy, 3,405 metres, is one of the most photographed mountains in South America, a jagged tower that the Tehuelche people are said to have called Chaltén, the smoking mountain, because clouds so often cling to its summit.
Read the complete El Chalten write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Chaltén is where the day begins. Next is El Calafate.
2. El Calafate
El Calafate is a small town on the southern shore of Lago Argentino, and it is almost entirely about one thing: the ice. Eighty kilometres west, in Los Glaciares National Park, the Perito Moreno Glacier pushes out of the Andes into the lake in a wall of blue ice about five kilometres wide, rising to some seventy metres above the water. Unlike most glaciers it is relatively stable, and every few years it advances far enough to dam an arm of the lake, until the pressure of water breaks through in a roaring collapse. Watching blocks of ice calve from the face and crash into the lake, with a sound like thunder delayed by a second, is one of the great sights of Patagonia.
Read the complete El Calafate write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
El Calafate comes up about 213 km into the recorded legs. Next is Rio Gallegos.
3. Río Gallegos
Río Gallegos is the capital of Santa Cruz, a city of eighty-five thousand on the Atlantic coast, near the southern tip of mainland Argentina, and it is the kind of place that you reach rather than choose. It sits on the estuary of the river of the same name, where the tide, among the largest in the world, drains the shallow water off the mudflats twice a day and leaves flocks of birds feeding on the exposed shore. Flamingos, ducks and shorebirds gather there, and the wide sky over the water is full of gulls. The wind, which blows for much of the year from the west, is a constant presence.
Read the complete Rio Gallegos write-up.
Recorded stop-planning note
May refer to an earlier itinerary; verify against your selected route before riding.
Planning note
The route ends here after 518 km.
Leg by leg
El Chaltén to El Calafate
El Chaltén → El Calafate is 213 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.
El Calafate to Rio Gallegos
El Calafate → Rio Gallegos is 305 km of getting across. Ride it tidily and keep the enthusiasm for what comes after.