I'm trying to figure out a multi-day itinerary for hiking around the trails and mountains near El Chalten in early February. I was hoping someone could help me estimate the length and difficulty of the following legs. My group (3 of us) has our own backpacking supplies and are all in good shape. We plan to camp wherever possible in tents, preferably at established campgrounds. We're definitely more than novices when it comes to backpacking, as we've camped and hiked in numerous parks, trails, etc., but I wouldn't say we're hardened backpackers.
-El Chalten to Pollone Glacier (using bus to trailhead) - 4 hours from trailhead estimate from elchalten.com
-Pollone Glacier to Piedra del Fraile - 2 hour estimate from elchalten.com
-Piedra del Fraile campground to Estancia Ricanor campground - 2 hour estimate from elchalten.com
-Estancia Ricanor campground to Poincenot campground - 6 hours???
-Piedra del Fraile campground to Poincenot campground - 8+ hours???
-Poincenot campground to De Agostini campground - ???
-De Agostini campground to El Chalten - 4 hour estimate from elchalten.com
Details:
I'm hoping that we could leave town on day 1 and go to Pollone Glacier and then either camp at Piedra del Fraile or Estancia Ricanor, depending on how long that would take, assuming we take the bus to the trailhead at the start of the day. Then we'd try to get to Laguna de los Tres. Whether that'd take one or two legs would depend which campground we stay at the night before and how long the hike is from there. I'd hope that somehow we could do this in one day, we'd probably have to aim to camp at Estancia Ricanor the night before. Then we'd camp at Poincenot. Next, we'd head to Laguna Torre and stay the night at De Agostini. See Laguna Torre and the mountains in the early morning and then head back to town.