Yesterday we went to achieve what we came to El Calafate for, the Perito Moreno glacier. It's a huge, magnificent looking thing that creeps forward upto 2 metres a day, often spitting large chunks (tonnes) of ice for the photographers patient enough to wait. The glacier itself is 97sq miles, and is 19 miles long, it's also the third largest reserve of fresh water in the world!
We booked with Heilo Adventura, who seem to have some sort of exclusivity deal on the glacier. Before booking you have a choice of 3 different options, a boat ride, or Mini-Trekking which is the boat ride plus a 1.5hr trek on the ice, and finally Big Ice which is the same as the former but with a 7hr trek. We chose the Mini-Trekking and to be honest I'm very glad we didn't do Big Ice, it may sound terribly obvious but the temperature out on the ice is pretty staggering (from what we're used to) and I suspect very similar to the temperature back in the UK (*snigger*), more so, the wind there is enough to knock you off your feet, though in the glacier you're sheltered somewhat.
The glacier itself is massive, and no doubt extremely difficult to appreciate when looking at the pictures (which have already been uploaded), I also failed to realise before hand that there's many points of interest on the surface of the ice itself, waterfalls, lagoons, caves, crevasses, holes to the very bottom, cliffs and probably a lot of things we didn't get to see aswell. Other beauty lies in the ice itself, which, when it cracks and exposes itself renders it's deep blue hue to you, very cool indeed. Visually as I've tried to explain it's pretty fantastic, but your ears are also constantly treated to a very deep audible shotgun like noise as the glacier moans beneath you, expecialy apparent when a few tonnes of ice throws itself into the lake at it's face (which is solely created by meltwater).
Suffice to say then that we both had a great day out on Perito Moreno glacier, and that we'd thoroughly recommend doing it. The glacier is around 30,000 years old, and is stable - the Patagonian ice cap is making enough fresh snow for new ice to be formed, at a rate which matches it's movement forward - and so should be here for a few years to come!
Photos are up in their usual place, we're hoping they don't receive a frosty reception!
Finally, we'd like to wish our avid readers, Lewis Bond, Ricky Child and Pru Engel a very happy (and now belated) birthday... we hope you all had a great day!
Showing posts with label trekking. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trekking. Show all posts
Wednesday, January 13, 2010
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)