That´s Not a Glacier - THIS is a Glacier

Thursday 10th

Caught the 7am bus back to El Calafate to visit Perito Moreno Glacier. Glacier Grande yesterday has now been relagated to "ice cube" and is in fact rubbish.

This is a glacier.



Well half of one - it just laughs at attempts to photograph it by being too big.

This is the other half.



5km across, 60m high, advancing 2m a day, 180m below the lake water, 13000 square kilometers apparently. Difficult to envision - just BIG!!



And it makes some big noises when bits falls off it. There is no sense of scale as ice drops in slow motion forcing giant waves in the lake as new ice bergs are formed. Apparently 20 people have been killed by waves and rocks crashing down since 1968.
Or was it 32.
Since 1978.

Some people have died in the last few years cos this glacier is BIG!!

Fitz Roy Hiking

Wednesday 9th

El Chalten is famous for the Fitz Roy range of mountains and the hiking is reputed to be the best in Argentina - a bold statement. As Fitz Roy is 3405 metres and the cloud cover starts at 0 metres I could be hiking in my own back garden and see more, but..... there´s not a lot else to do in Chalten a town of about 1000 people, so I head for the hills.

The hike is a really nice route starting right out of town and climbing through beech forests to Torre lake where there are supposed to be stunning views of Cerro Torre - 3100m high towers of rock. I see clouds, Hmmmmmm.

And I´ve found another hiking machine trying to kill me. Nadia, an Australian from Sydney has a bus to catch and is on a mission. We make the lake (4 hours according to the guide) in under 2 hours and are rewarded by great views of Glacier Grande on the far side. There´s a snow covered ridge that takes us closer and as we´ve made such good time - it would be a shame to miss it.

We meet several people who turned back in the snow, and Irishman "David" at the top, replete in his straw boater hat (a de riguer piece of hiking equipment in Galway - apparently) and a waterproof jacket safely contained in a carrier bag. As it´s probably below freezing and the wind is pure ice, I just go along with the old stereotype about the Irish being crazy. At least the inside of his carrier bag is fully waterproofed and won´t be getting cold.

The scene is amazing and 3 sets of footprints in the snow is proof that we are the only ones to enjoy it that day. Shame about the cloud cover obscurring the mountains though.





The hike down is a blur - Nadia ("I don´t like going downhill") runs down all the steeps - apparently it´s easier that way and protects the knee joints. So we complete a 7 hour hike in 4 hours. She´s another one I need to take out on a bike to get my own back!!

Torres Del Paine 2

Wednesday 26th
Day 2 began with mouse tales (tails?) over breakfast. Who´d lost what food, whether to eat or bin it, how many got into the tent, tactics for the next night - a regular feature of camp life for the next few days.

After hiking to the next site, we dropped packs and set off up the "Valle Frances" a glaciated valley between the main Paine Grande massif and Los Cuernos (the horns). About a six hour round trip takes you up the most beautiful valley overlooking the Glacier Frances which creeks and groans below you, to the viewpoint at the top. Awesome is an over used word, so I´m going to go with "humungous" - the ampitheatre of rocks surrounding you and the ever present horns in their two-tone splendour.




The view out over Lago Nordenskjold on the way down is nice too....

Martial Glacier

Thursday 6th
Got a seriously nice day weather wise for a hike up to the Martial Glacier. Cycled (yeah actually used the bike!) the first 5km up a seriously steep hairpin road with the view over Ushuaia and the Beagle Channel just getting better as you ascend. There is a chair lift for wimps up the first half of the climb, but in total it´s about a 2 hour hike up to touch snow in March. I know that sounds like nothing, but this is Southern hemisphere March - the summer kind. The glacier itself is not that impressive, but the views of the bay and the mountains definitely is and well worth the effort.

Strange sight for the day - a cruise ship of Japenese tourists desposited all over the mountain in high heel boots (OK only the ladies), and white felt "Michael Jackson" gloves - men and women. Makes a nice contrast to Gore-Tex I suppose.

Kept up the "Todas del mundo" (rest of the world) end in a hard fought battle of table football with Hernan and Roberto the hostel owners over a couple of cold ones. Serious stuff over here complete with full on Gooooooaaaaaaallllll celebrations.

....And I´ve just fried the memory card from my camera. Bugger. Got a shock from a dodgy old PC and now no photos. Real pi$$er as I had some great shots of the mountains in the sun - that´s pretty rare as they are often obscured by cloud. So apologies pictorially challenged posts for the last couple of days.

Next travel tip - upload stuff to PicasaWeb regularly. Luckily only permantly lost 2 days of photos, otherwise seriously upset!