The Mighty Moreno Glacier

Trip Start Jan 26, 2000
1
5
30
Trip End Jun 14, 2000


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Flag of Argentina  ,
Thursday, February 10, 2000

After a few days rest (I`m not too sure if the rest was needed for the trek or for the after trek alcohol abuse!) in the beautiful setting of Puerto Natales I decided to venture over the boarder to Argentina and the tacky touristy town of El Calafatte. El Calafatte was the closest town to probably one of the most impressive and famous glaciers in the word, the Moreno Glacier. What can I say about the Moreno Glacier, 3 miles wide at the base, over 20 miles long, with up to a 60m high wall at the head and a white and pristine appearance. We spend a few hours walking on some boardwalks above and in front of it watching huge chunks of ice falling off. In the afternoon we took a boat, which gave us a totally different perspective of the glacier. From low down we were able to look up at the huge 60m wall as huge slabs of ice fell off close to our boat. When we got back to where the boat docked we had a small problem, an iceberg as big as the boat had floated into the dock! To the captain this didn't appear to be a big issue. After attempting to lasso this huge piece of ice failed (it was about 30m in width) they decided to start using the boat as a battering ram! I`m sure all the crunching and scraping sounds weren't too good for the boat, and I wasn't too keen on a sunken boat as the glacial melt water appeared pretty cold! We survived in the end and after about 30 minutes we managed to wedge the boat in between the iceberg and the dock and land safely.
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