Vlad Versus the Ice Cube

in Argentina, there’s this huge ice cube named Perito Moreno. actually, calling it huge would be a ridiculous understatement. it’s fucking enormous. this thing is a glacier that is about 5km wide, 30km long, and at its deepest point, about 700 meters deep. yeah, it really is unspeakably big. seeing it was one of the things that I had been most looking forward to in Argentina even though I kind of didn’t really know what a glacier really was. I mean, what’s the difference between a glacier and just a ton of snow? is it the same thing? if you get enough snow together, then can you call it a glacier?

well, it turns out that a glacier is not at all the same as a bunch of snow. so, this glacier starts off in the mountains where it is basically snowing nonstop. there is so much snow, and it is so heavy, that it compacts on itself and becomes ice. but there is still more and more of this ice being made constantly, so the ice at the top of the mountain is pushing the rest of the ice outward and down the mountain. as one person put it, it’s basically like a river that flows down a hill… but instead of it being made up of water, it’s made out of ice. so, this massive wall of ice name Perito Moreno slowly makes its way down the mountain at about one yard per day and effortlessly plows through anything that gets in its way like massive boulders, full grown tress, etc. finally it reaches the water, and as the water melts the front end, enormous chunks of ice that are larger than tall buildings come crashing off of it. it’s pretty insane to think of this huge thing, larger than all of San Francisco, slowly moving along as if it were alive.

most people that come to see the glacier just go and stare at it from the viewing platforms across the water from it. but caryn told me that there is a company that takes you out to actually do some trekking on the glacier. this way you really get to see some of the more interesting features on the glacier’s surface. that sounded like quite an experience, so I signed up. in the morning, a bus picked me up from my hostel and took me out to the park. on the way to the glacier itself, we stopped to see it from a viewpoint. wow. it was really unbelievable how huge this things was. even from far far away, it really seemed incredibly immense. eventually, we got to the water near the glacier where we needed to wait for a boat to take us across the water. apparently the boat was delayed because there were too many icebergs in the water, and they needed to be cleared away. finally, we got to take the boat across, through a long field of ice chunks, dodging the larger sized icebergs that got in the way.

the glacier from far away

ice on the water

a *huge* iceberg in front of the glacier (keep in mind, that the glacier wall is 60 meters high, as big as a 20 story building

we got off the boat and got ready to go hike. most people who do the short glacier trek, go and walk out onto the glacier from here at its edge, but I had signed up for an extended trek (4 hours on the ice!) and this trek started a few kilometers away, so you were much deeper into the glacier. we hiked for about an hour and a half and then got ready to set out onto the glacier. to walk on the glacier, we had to wear crampons which are basically these spiky things you attach to your shoes to get good grip on the ice. we also wore harnesses just in case we fell into some huge chasm out there.

we got a lesson on how to walk using the crampons, but really it’s super easy and after like 2 minutes, you stop even noticing that you’re wearing them. being on the glacier was awesome. it was so incredibly beautiful out there, just ice stretching out in all directions for what seemed like eternity. so much white. but, the most beautiful thing wasn’t the white. wherever there was a tear in the glacier and you could look inside it, its insides were *blue*. you know the color of blue glowsticks? that kind of eerie artificial blue glow that obviously cant be found in nature? well, it actually can be found in nature… it’s the color inside a glacier. I’m still not exactly sure why the inside of the glacier glows blue, and maybe I’m biased cause I like the color blue but the glow is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen. as we walked across the glacier, and we looked at fissures, caves, cracks, and sinkholes, all of them had that incredible glow from inside.

it was fascinating to see all the different kinds of surfaces this glacier has. a lot of it just long areas of hilly ice, kind of like your average snowy mountain, but a lot of it was not. there were huge chunks of ice that had broken off from the glacier that just sat there like odd geometric sculptures. there were huge sinkholes that were created whenever too much melted ice formed a river that slowly bore its way into the center of the glacier. these sinkholes could be extremely dangerous since they can be up to 700 meters deep, and if they are covered by snow, you could easily fall in and never get back out. there were areas where the land under the glacier was really uneven forcing the glacier to crack and from all sorts of ridges and peaks. so much varied topography out there on the ice.

one of the most striking things out there was the lagoons. often melted ice would form large pools of water, sometimes shallow and sometimes deep. these pools of water were a beautiful light blue color, not as dark vibrant blue as the crevices, but a paler blue. there would be small rivers leading into these pools and the water was safe to drink so we had some. it tasted incredibly delicious. there’s nothing like pure fresh glacier water straight from the source.

we spent about 4 hours hiking around on the ice, and I could easily have spent 4 more. it was just so nice to walk through the whiteness listening to the quiet crunch of ice under my feet. luckily, our group was also really small, only 6 people so there wasn’t a huge crowd plowing along. our guide showed us around and pointed out unique features and cool things to see. 2 of the cooler things we saw were this spot where there were 2 random horizontal holes in the glacier and another spot where there was a natural ice bridge formed that you could stand under.

eventually we came to a spot where the glacier stretched for 2km to either side of us. I just couldn’t stop marveling at the size of the glacier. after we ate our lunch and walked around some more, it was sadly time to head back. we got back to the lodge and there had to wait for the boat to leave. while at the lodge, all of us couldn’t help but stare at the glacier some more. really, even after all those hours, we just couldn’t get enough of it.

finally, the boat came and took us away. on the way back, our guide offered us each a shot of whisky that came in a glass with a huge glacier chunk of ice in it. it had been quite a day. I had taken a TON of photos and even as the boat sped away from the glacier, I kept snapping away. after caryn had seen the glacier, she had sent me an email saying that she had seen the coolest thing that she had seen out our whole one year trip. I can totally see how she could say that. the glacier was really *so* spectacular.

*v