A Bloody Big Ice Cube


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South America » Argentina » Santa Cruz » El Calafate
October 18th 2009
Published: October 18th 2009
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Another fantastic Patagonian experience - this place is absolutley awesome !!!
The Perito Moreno glacier is massive - in area its the same size as Buenos Aires (>250km2), the front face is ~8km long and between 150m and 180m high (40m - 60m above the water). Its also one of the few glaciers in the world to be still adding ice. It advances quite a lot (~2m per day) so is noisy and calves quite a few icebergs. Just looking at it is impressive but you can also ice hike up it - we had to do this. Its a bit expensive but worth every cent. The surface is lumpy, bumpy and jagged so its pretty hard going, particularly as the crampons are quite heavy. There are crevasses, pools, streams, holes and waterfalls all over the place. Many of them are a deep blue - most of the glacier is a blueish white colour.
We were lucky again with our timing - the weather was clearish and dry and while we were getting our glaciology lesson from our guide a big iceberg calved with a loud bang and crashed into the lake, it was just like watching a nature programme on the tv !!!
After a couple of hours hiking we came to a dip in the glacier where there was a small bar set up serving scotch with ice from the glacier (its about 300 to 500 years old), great way to finish a wonderful experience.


Additional photos below
Photos: 13, Displayed: 13


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Up The ValleyUp The Valley
Up The Valley

South side
Up The ValleyUp The Valley
Up The Valley

North side
The North FaceThe North Face
The North Face

With icebergs and tour boat.
BlueBlue
Blue

The blues were amazing.
On The GlacierOn The Glacier
On The Glacier

It looked like Atsuko was walking on water.
RewardReward
Reward

After 2 hours hiking on the glacier we were rewarded with scotch on 300 year old rocks.


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