Trekking on the Glacier - brrrrrrrrrrr
Trip Start
Mar 07, 2009
1
6
35
Trip End
Mar 06, 2010
El Calafate, Santa Cruz, Argentina
Thursday, March 26, 2009
Getting to El Calafate was a breeze and so didn’t really warrant a rest day the following day but we couldn’t resist! We’ve found a really nice hostel with an easy going atmosphere and the temptation to chill for the day was too much. Did I mention the hostel has underfloor
heating and en-suites in all the dorm rooms – bliss! The main thing to do here is to visit the Perito Merino Glacier so we’ve booked ourselves on a tour tomorrow to do some ice-trekking. We were also hoping to get to El Chalten before heading to Puerto Natales but time is getting
tight if we’re going to catch the Navimag ferry on the 7th, so we’ve decided to give it a miss.
Ice-trekking on Perito Merino
Photos:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=109942&id=542586048&l=d888a2d62f
We pulled ourselves out of bed at 6.15am for the bus picking us up at 7am. First stop when we got to the park were the platforms that have been built in front of the glacier. We got a fairly close-up view of the front face and were lucky to experience the thundering roar as a few pieces broke off and went crashing into the milky water of the lake surrounding it. Next we boarded a boat to cross the lake followed by an hours trek through the woods alongside the glacier, before donning our crampons ready to hit the ice! The glacier was beautiful, even under the grey skies that we were unfortunate to have that day, and brought a new meaning to the word ‘ice blue’. A huge valley of undulating ice carving its way between the mountains. There were areas where the glacier was thinning creating blue pools on which rocks seemed to be floating. It was only when our guides led us over one that we realised it was still ice. We spent about three hours on the ice, following each other like a line of lemmings up and down, over deep blue cracks and
around hidden crevices. By the end of the day we were soaked through and exhausted, but it was well worth it. The whiskey (with a lump of ice from the glacier) on the boat on the way back was very much appreciated!!
