We were quickly reacquainting ourselves with the adventure lifestyle but knew we needed to up the ante to really say we’d visited Patagonia. Without any second thoughts we comfortably settled on climbing a glacier, as you do. If we were abandoning the Australian summer then we needed to swing right to the other extreme: a gigantic piece of ice. This day was all about glaciers, crevasses, water and whisky – don’t believe the last bit? The proof is on Instagram! Settle in for a chilling recap of Gab Getting Lost on a glacier.
We met our guide Ignacio and set off in our car towards the boat that would deliver us to the Perito Moreno glacier. Patagonian roads are a whole seperate experience. For starters, they’re typically only one and a half cars wide which makes for some exceptionally hairy manoeuvres to dodge certain death. But somehow these tourist vans are able to miss each other by – literally – a few centimetres at speeds of 80km/hr. The dirt roads are very twisty so I was often holding my breath when we turned corners waiting for another car to come hurtling towards us. They were also quite bumpy, a bit like Patagonia’s own alarm clock that would shake the van and jostle your bones early in the morning before any activity. One side was open to the cliff which was fairly alarming because it was a very sheer drop and the vans often skidded around the corners. But if we didn’t survive this then how could we contemplate summiting a glacier? So we manned up.
We arrived at the wharf and caught glimpses of the glacier across the water while we waited for the boat. It was quite windy so everyone was wearing about four layers of clothes, beanies, neck warmers and sunglasses for the ice glare. I think I went through a whole stick of lip balm that day! Most people decided to sit inside in the warm for the half hour trip over but we spent most of our time outside on the upper deck. It was a great spot to get pictures – the wake of the boat, the water, clouds and mist, snowy mountains and one the largest glaciers I have ever seen. The Perito Moreno glacier is more than thirty kilometres long and one of almost fifty glaciers fed by the Andes. This glacial basin here in the Los Glaciares National Park is the third largest in the world after Alaska and Greenland. I’ve visited the Alaskan glaciers and I’ll admit that they’re just as impressive as these ones. Perhaps I’m just biased, I didn’t get to climb one there.
Everyone on the boat disembarked and shuffled up the mountain like Teletubbies in our bulky winter clothes. We were given a pair of crampons each, a glorified snow shoe with metal spikes that dig into the ice to prevent you from falling. These shoes were fairly simply attached to our hiking boots with a strap of synthetic material but that seemed to do the job. We were given a quick tutorial on the new walking style we’d have to adopt and off we went.
Perito Moreno glacier moves about two metres a day, meaning new trekking paths need to be cut every two weeks as the old ones change and disappear. One guide remained at the front with an ice pick and would slash large chunks blocking our supposed path. The other remained at the back to keep an eye on the stragglers, or more often my mother who is a keen photographer. We walked for about an hour and a half and successfully tackled the steep ascents and descents of the glacier. The colours were beautiful. For anyone who has ever thought snow or ice is ‘white’, you’re largely incorrect. There were fantastic turquoise hues in the crevasses and the water that flowed through small streams. This blue is a result of snow compaction and light refraction, meaning the glacier looks to be a deeper blue at its base. These
Before we reached our summit we filled our drink bottles with melted glacial water that flowed down small streams across the ice. Our guides told us that the most reliable studies indicate that the water in our bottles had been frozen for four hundred years and had been cycling through the glacier for millions of years. It was now sitting in the stomach of an Australian.
I had been taking pictures of the amazing ice formations throughout our climb but nothing compared to the view we had at the summit. Of course there was the glowing turquoise ice, but that could have been anywhere. Only in Patagonia could you see the snow-topped mountains of the Andes, vibrant glacial-fed lakes, thick forest and the glacier itself. We could get all of this in one picture! This was a really special experience and I’m doubtful I could climb a glacier anywhere else in the world with the exceptionally little mountaineering experience I have. To top it all off, while the tourists were busy doing their thing and snapping away on their camera, our guides had magically pulled out a small table from the ice and a large bottle of whisky. They scooped up handfuls of ice from the glacier and split it across the glasses. Forget whisky on the rocks, this was whisky on the glacier! Thank goodness we only had time for one drink so everyone made it safely down! That was a really special touch and is kept a surprise for all the groups that pass through.
Reluctantly we stomped back onto dry land and handed over our crampons. We had a quick lunch in a log cabin there and caught the boat back over (sitting inside this time). We jumped back in the van with Ignacio and continued down the road to a series of glacial lookouts. I think was a great idea as we’d already experienced the glacier up close and now we could really understand just how expansive it is. It’s about five hundred metres tall all the way across and is constantly chasing the land. On the occasions that it does meet the shore, the pressure of the water will erode the ice to create a bridge. This bridge will only last a few days before it collapses. Unfortunately we’d arrived just in time to see the aftermath, but we did see smaller chunks of ice carving off the glacier.
What surprised me was just how much later the sound would reach us. It would be several seconds after we saw a piece hitting the water that we could hear the echoing boom, crash and splash. That was pretty interesting and it gave me a better idea of how exactly a glacier can ‘move’. There are plenty of boardwalks here and they are split across three main levels: birds eye view, eye level and base level. We walked around further to see the curve of the glacier and met our van there.
An hour later we had arrived back at EOLO and everyone had snuck in a quick power nap on the way. You do feel a bit guilty about missing out on the scenery but what can you do. We filled up on a big dinner of hare and gaucho style spit roasted lamb and re-packed our suitcases ready for the long drive to Torres del Paine National Park. I’m currently writing this a few days later and I am prepared to say that these next few posts will recap the best days of our trip so far. Stay tuned for pumas, guanaco steaks and plenty of hiking.
Gab Gets Lost 