agustina prigoshin

Wearing almost every single piece of clothing that I brought on this trip, I prepared to face to the -4 degree Fahrenheit weather that awaited me at the top of Perito Moreno.

The glacier was a bus and boat ride away and in order to make time go by faster, I slept through those rides.

When we reached the south side of the glacier, it was actually the shore line that led to the glacier, we started our trek. Up some very rocky hills and through the forest. It was cold and raining, but I didn’t care, I was about to hike a glacier!

Our hike ended at a cabin where we left our back-packs and I was told to change out of my leather, waterproof boots into a pair of hiking boots that a guide provided me with. I was told that because my boots didn’t have laces, the crampons I was going to wear wouldn’t hold safely.

Then we walked across a rocky beach to a spot with a magnificent view of the glacier. We listened to a fascinating explanation of where the glacier gets its name, how glaciers are formed and what makes Perito Moreno so popular:

Perito Moreno is named after Francisco Moreno, an Argentine explorer who helped defend the glacier’s territory while Argentina and Chile were disputing the borders’ location. “Perito” means “expert.”

Perito Moreno descends from a few mountains that are part of the Andes, mountains that are situated right on the Argentina/Chile border. On the Chilean side, these mountains are very close to the Pacific Ocean and receive a constant blow of humid wind. When this wind reaches the summit of the mountains, the precipitation falls as snow and accumulates. In Perito Moreno’s case, about one inch of snow falls every day. When so much snow is piled on top of itself, it compacts and forms ice. Gravity pulls this ice down the mountains’ slope and more snow is dumped at the top of the mountain. This process occurs every day, resulting in Perito Moreno’s moving forward at about six feet per day.

Perito Moreno was formed 400 years ago and it’s still growing. The conditions atop these mountains have to be perfect to create such a powerful structure like this glacier. Perito Moreno gains more mass than it loses and it’s always moving towards the Peninsula de Magallanes. When it reaches land, it creates a damn made of ice. The southern part of Argentino Lake will begin to rise while eroding the newly formed damn. When the water seeps through every crack it can find, it creates a tunnel. Within four to six days of creating this tunnel, what’s left of the damn will collapse and the process will begin again. Lately, Perito Moreno reaches Peninsula de Magallanes about every four years.

In the following picture, you’ll see where the damn used to be. It collapsed just last year:

After that fascinating explantion, we continued our trek up some more rocky hills. Right at the glaciers’ base, we put our crampons on.

Once I was wearing the ground-gripping spikes, we were taught to walk with our feet shoulder width apart so that we wouldn’t clip the crampons together and fall down. We also had to take little baby steps, stomping our feet with every step. If we took a big step, it would be very difficult to bring our down-slope leg up, causing instability and another risk of falling. It was a very funny-looking walk, but it was safe.

Then, up we went!

We walked in a straight line and made sure to step where the person in front of us had already dug their crampons into.

The top of the glacier looked like an ice desert and in some parts, like a white version of the Cappadocia (Turkey) rock formations.

The icy surface was littered with holes that revealed rivers and waterfalls within the glacier. When I held my breath, all I could hear was the wind and running water. It was extremely peaceful.

When we came across our first external river, I just had to taste the water.

The water was deliciously cold and pure, probably the purest I’ve ever tasted. I learned that the water that melts from the glacier is good to drink for hydration, but doesn’t contain any of the minerald that our bodies need. So when scientists spend a few days studying the glacier, while living on it, they have to pack their own water bottles. Imagine that!

We also came across a stunning glacier lake that was easily about 20 feet deep.

While descending from our hour-long climb, we came across a wooden table set up with alfajores, a bowl of glacial ice, several glasses and a bottle of whiskey!

Being that I’m not a whiskey drinker, I filled my glass with glacial ice and waddled my way to a small, nearby waterfall to fill it with water. With glasses in hand, we all toasted to an amazing adventure.

We then climbed off the massive ice sheet while never coming coming down from our glacial high.

We took off our crampons, hiked back to the cabin to eat lunch by a very welcomed fire. Then we hopped back on the boat, then on the bus and headed to our last stop: Peninsula de Magallanes.

From this peninsula, we can see the entire glacier. It was a stunning sight!

This was easily the most impressive and most memorable experience of my life!