At a Glacial Pace

Land approach to the glacier

So Anne and Mark have made it across the River to Uruguay a couple of times and have made it around Buenos Aires, but they still haven't really explored the rest of Argentina.  Over the Thanksgiving week, they finally changed that.  First on the agenda was a trip to El Calafate (that is Spanish for "the Calafate").


El Calafate is a fairly small town in the southern part of Argentina, near the Andes and the Chilean border and it probably most well known for being the place to stay when you are exploring the Andean glaciers.

Anne, Mark and their friend from the Great White North, Erin O'Canada, decided to check out the Perito Moreno glacier, partially located in Los Glacieres Parque Nacional.  You may remember Erin O'Canada as a fan of Rick Steves and chicken parika with dumplings, but not a fan of Hungarian booze.

The Perito Moreno glacier is one of 48 glaciers in the southern Patagonian ice field.  The glacier starts somewhere up in the mountains and is constantly pushing downward.  Eventually, the glacier reaches lago Argentino (which is where we met up with it).  Along the way, the glacier carves up whatever is in its path, creating the topography of this part of the world in the process.  Moving from the mountains down to the lake over hundreds of years, parts of the glacier freeze, melt and refreeze, creating parts of the glacier that are moving at different rates, which creates ruptures (like the two dark blue streaks in the above photo), breaks, caverns, crevices, and probably some other stuff.

The splash is the result of part of the glacier breaking off and falling into the lake.

During their visit, Anne, Mark and O'Canada saw and heard the ice breaking.  When these breaks occur, the ice just falls into the lake and floats away.

So we have a melting, freezing, and cracking glacier.  What should we do?  Climb on it, of course.

The tracks of previous trekkers.

In recent years, climbing on the glacier has gained in popularity.  The trekking (which, as far as Mark could tell, is just a fancy word for "hiking," which is, in turn, just a fancy word for "walking uphill") does not really harm the glacier because the parts of the glacier that you can hike on are going to break off and melt within a few months regardless.

So, is it difficult to hike on a glacier?  Not really, but you do need certain equipment.  First, gloves.  And not because your hands will freeze, but because your hands will bleed.  The ice on the glacier has been moving from the mountains to the lake for between 400 and 500 years.  Over this time it has frozen and melted many times, which apparently, eventually leads to the ice freezing in a shape that is basically just a razor.  Just walking with your hands at your sides or putting out a hand to catch yourself if you slip could lead to serious lacerations.  The tour company had a bunch of gloves and would not let anyone go without them.

The other requirement: Crampons.  (*editor's note, pants, shirts and a jacket were probably also required, but this was not actually stated out loud).  Crampons look like a medieval torture device, made of steel with spikes protruding in multiple directions.  In actuality, you could probably use them for torture, but they are more commonly just strapped to the bottom of hiking boots of people who are hiking in the snow and ice.

Crampons.

Yep, somebody's job is being the "Crampon guy."

Crampons are not particularly difficult to use, but they take a little getting used to.  You have to set your foot down flat, not heel-toe or toe-heel.  You also have to "wide track" it.  You don't want to clip your own leg with the crampon from the other leg and bleed out on the glacier (that would be embarrassing).  But otherwise, no big deal.

So, after getting (our feet) strapped in, the hike was on.  The guides took us through some crevices.  They pointed out the pit falls (literal and figurative) of this type of hiking/trekking/uphill walking.

Wearing too many layers is a pitfall (figurative)

This pitfall is a pitfall (literal).

They explained why the ice turns blue (sorry, wasn't paying attention).  They constantly yelled at some Israeli kids in Mark's group to quit taking selfies and look where they were walking.  All in all, a pretty active tour guide gig.

At the end of the trek, the guides produced a couple of bottles of truly questionable whiskey and a table full of glasses.  They then chipped some ice from the glacier and poured some whiskey over it and the hiking group had a toast.  It was the odd combination of ice that had fallen as snow at about the same time that Magellen first sailed to this part of the world in 1520 paired with whiskey that had been distilled at about the same time that Royals won the World Series in early November.

Cheers!

Sea approach to the glacier.