On Thick Ice

We flew from Buenos Aires down to El Calafate on the 26th of August. El Calafate is a small town in southern Argentine Patagonia. It sits on the south shore of a large lake called Lago Argentino. We were rather surprized when we landed at how little vegetaion there was. El Calafate is on the eastern side of the Andes mountains, and by the time the prevailing wind from the Pacific move through Chile, over the mountains and down onto the plains, all of the moisture has been sucked out of it. The result is a dry steppe landscape of scrubby brush and dusty earth. It still has its own kind of beauty though. It is desolate and quiet, and can be nice if solitude is what you're after.

The main draw in the area is nearby Glacier National Park. The park is very large and covers the Southern Patagonian Ice Fields, which stretch several hundred kilometers to the north. This ice field is the third largest in the world after Antartica and Greenland, respectively. There are three glaciers in the park. The nearest, and most accessible one was the Perito Moreno glacier.


The morning of our glacier walk, we woke to a fine layer of snow on the ground. The bus picked us up at around 9 am and we made the hour long drive into the park. We left the bus at a pull off, and boarded a catamaran to cross the channel where the glacier was. On the short ride, we could see several large chunk of ice floating by, some of them were bigger than the boat we were in.

On the other shore, we met our guides, and they took us down to the shore to explain some facts about the glacier. Petito Moreno, which is the smallest glacier in the park, is 35 km long, and around 5 km wide. It begins up in the mountains near the boarder with Chile, and is only 15 km away from the Pacific ocean. At the front edge of the glacier, it sits in the lake. From the surface of the water up to its edge is about 60 meters, or about 180 feet. Below the surface is another 140 meters of ice, meaning that the entire glacier is around 200 meters, or over 600 feet thick, just at the front edge. We both thought that was pretty impressive. It is amazing to think of how much pressure 600 feet of ice might exert over 35 km (around 21 miles). Our guide also told us that in the summer, the front edge of the glacier may move as much as 2 meters per day. Being that we were here in the winter, there wasn't much activity.

While we were standing there, we heard several loud cracks and pops from the glacier. It sounded deep and loud like thunder rolling across the water. We thought that we might see some of the spectacular ice drops we had seen in pictures, but nothing happened just then.

After some more talk about the glacier, it was time to go for a walk on it. We were a large group, so they split us into two smaller groups to make it safer. We then were fitted with crampons (basically large metal spikes you attach to the bottom of your shoes) and got ready to get on the ice. The guides gave us a couple of pointers on how to walk on crampons, pretty much, they just said ¨don't stab yourself in the leg¨and we started our trek. We had to stomp every step to make sure we had a good grip because some of the ice slopes we walked up and down were pretty steep.

The ice is awesome. It rises and falls in sharp peaks and valleys with deep fissures and caverns everywhere. At one point we had to walk across a narrow ice bridge with deep crevasses on either side. The guides told us to try not to fall in because it would be nearly impossible to get us out again. It was a comforting thought. Anna also pointed out that some day, that bridge is going to melt, and whoever was crossing it at the time was in for a nasty surprise. Thankfully, that wasn't us.

Another thing about the ice is how blue it was. Our guide, Mattias, explained to us that pure ice reflects light like the sky. It absorbs all colors of the spectrum, except for blue. The bluer the ice, the purer the ice, meaning there was no air in it. We saw several caverns where the ice was the deepest hue of blue we'd ever seen.

We tramped our way around the ice for over an hour, taking pictures, and having snowball fights with the other group. The guides made sure to keep us in single file for safety, while they, who were much more comfortable on the terrain, ran and jumped around like it was a jungle gym.

After a while, we came over a hill of ice to find tables set up with glasses. The guides chipped some ice off the glacier, put it in the glasses, and produced a bottle of whiskey for drinks all around. The name of the whiskey was The Famous Grouse. Anna and I were convinced it was a knock off of Wild Turkey. It was strong, smooth, and gave a nice warm glow in the belly. Which was good, since because we were standing on a huge block of ice, it was kind of cold out.


After that, we trekked back down to solid ground and took off our crampons for the ride back to our hotels. On the way back to the boat, we heard another of those loud cracks. This time, a large chuck of ice broke off from the front of the glacier and crashed into the lake. The sound was like a huge thunderclap and the waves caused by the falling ice were over 10 feet tall. It illustrated how big the glacier is. The chuck that fell off was about the size of a house, and it still took about 5 seconds from the time it broke off until it hit the water. It was an incredible sight.
I think that we can put this on the list of one of the coolest things we've ever done, both literally and figuratively. I never thought I'd be able to see a glacier, much less walk on one, until today. It was great fun, and if you ever get a chance to do it, I would definitely do it.

Tomorrow, we leave for Torres del Paine, another national park, on the other side of the Andes in Chile. We´ll be there for a little over a week, and I'm not sure if we'll have internet access there. If we do, we'll definitely update you on what it's like, and maybe we'll even be able to post pictures. If not, we'll talk to you again when we get back to Buenos Aires on September 9th. Ciao! - Scott