The Perito Moreno Glacier

A view of the Perito Moreno Glacier from one of the balconies

Yesterday I visited the most famous glacier in all of Patagonia, the Perito Moreno Glacier in the Glaciers National Park, Argentina. The glacier is located just an hour outside of the town of El Calafate and is the main reason so many visitors frequent this town every summer. One thing that makes this glacier so special is that it is one of very few that are actually stable and not receding.

After spending some time exploring the various options for visiting the glacier, I chose to go with the ¨minitrekking¨ tour. The tour started out with a trip to the north side of the glacier, where we were given time to walk around and check it out from above on a variety of viewing balconies. I was truly blown away by just how impressive this galcier really is. It is a 5 kilometer wide, 60 meter high wall of ice towering over a blue lake surrounded by snow-capped mountains. That is a pretty amazing sight alone, but that coupled with watching massive ice towers fall from the wall creating huge swells in the lake below just tops the whole experience off.

The next part of the tour involved boarding a boat which took us across the lake in front of the south side of the glacier. As spectacular as it was to see the glacier from above, it was even more impressive to see it from the bottom looking up. The boats are unable to get too close to the glacier because of the danger caused by the waves from falling ice.

A view of the glacier from the boat (note the size of the boat compared to the glacier)

After our boat ride across the lake we put crampons on our boots and actually walked out on top of the glacier. This is where the ¨minitrekking¨ part of the tour comes. Our guides gave us a quick overview of how to walk on the ice in our crampons and told us about some safety issues we should be concerned with while ice-trekking. The guides also told us all about the history of the glacier and explained how its cycle works.

Me ice-trekking on top of the Perito Moreno Glacier

One of many sink holes formed in the glacier

One of the best parts about the trip was near the end when we rounded the corner to find Jose, one of our guides, standing in the middle of the glacier mixing up some whiskeys on ice!

Jose, Perito Moreno Glacier`s best bartender

I spent most of today getting prepared for my next adventure, the ¨Paine Circuit¨ trek in Torres Del Paine National Park in Chile, just south of here. The trek will involve hiking over 100 kilometers and in my case, will hopefully take 7 days. I have been hearing many great things about this hike from others who have done it and I cannot wait to see it for myself.