Introduction to El Chaltenby FROMMER'SNovember 20, 2006 El Chaltén is a tiny village of about 200 residents whose lifeblood, like El Calafate's, depends entirely on the throng of visitors who come each summer. This is the second-most-visited region of Argentina's Los Glaciares National Park and quite possibly its most exquisite, for the singular nature of the granite spires that shoot up, torpedo-like, above massive tongues of ice that descend from the Southern Ice Field. In the world of mountaineering, these sheer and ice-encrusted peaks are considered some of the most formidable challenges in the world, and they draw hundreds of climbers here every year. (read article)