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Published: March 29th 2010
“Don’t lean too far forward,” admonished Carlos (who looked disconcertingly like an elf from Lord of the Rings).
He held my hand and a loop of the harness strapped around my waist. I took a deep breath and leaned forward, staring into the intense, bottomless blue of the ice chasm.
***
I had been hiking for several hours already across the arctic (Antarctic?) landscape of the Perito Moreno Glacier, one of two advancing glaciers in South America. Although not even the largest of the glaciers in the Parque Nacional Los Glaciares, its surface exceeds the square mileage of Buenos Aires. To know that I was standing on such a massive, moving piece of ice was humbling in a way that is hard to describe.
It is one of the biggest tourist attractions in Argentina, probably due to the fact that it is so easy to take in all its epic grandeur from so many vantage points. The Perito Moremo picturesquely descends from its birthplace in the ice field between Chile and Argentina and ends in a towering gothic wall on the lake. Occasionally, thunderous reports announce a calving iceberg splitting in slow motion from that wall. It was
impressive enough simply wandering around the walkways that have been set up to take advantage of the panorama.
But nothing could quite compare to actually trekking on the ice, getting to experience its icy architecture up close and personal. We were transferred across the lake to the south face of the glacier, and then hiked for almost an hour along the edge, far from any other tourists. We were issued crampons and harnesses and off we went, four hours of ice time. I never got to go onto the ice in Greenland, but I imagine it would have felt very much the same.
My photographs couldn’t quite capture how beautiful it was. Those blues!
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Sheldon
non-member comment
Cold
Okay I'll give you that the glacier is gorgeous! But is it worth the cold? Some might argue not. I'm glad you're having fun though! Luckily you can thaw out in Khartoum.