El Calafate Day 2 Hiking the Glacier

On our second day we took a boat across the channel to trek on the Perito Moreno glacier - here is our first view on our way to get to the ice

The guide is explaining why the Perito Moreno is unique - it continously "balances" itself by growing and then "calving" off shards of ice and even though the climate is relatively warm for a glacier the incessant winds make the glacier advance quickly - almost 3 feet a day!

Here is the whole Patagonia icefield with a cut out of the Perito Moreno glacier on the right.

The "big ice" looms ahead of us - people are at the lower right in the pic to give some perspective

The group ahead of us - those little black things in the middle of the picture - we had great weather too, clear and sunny skies

Here are the special spikes (crampons) to make us secure on the ice

Here is a video to give you a feel for what it is like walking on the ice.

This is one of the many holes in the glacier caused by water melting the ice all the way down - could only see 40 feet down. Kinda scary - you could easily fall in.

What better than a drink of whiskey after some ice treking, especially when it is your 30th birthday!!!!

Glacier ice makes all things taste better!

A cool view of the blue ice and blue sky

Yay! We survived! (It wasn't that hard, really)

Another panarama of the south face of the glacier - too bad we couldn't trek the whole thing!

As our boat returns us back across the channel

Inside the actual Glacier National Park at one of the overlooks.

These shards have all "calved" off the glacier at some point - this is the north face of the glacier - you can constantly hear cracking and groaning in the glacier - we thought at first they were gunshots they were that loud, some even shook the ground.

This area is why the Perito Mereno is so famous, the ice ruptures in this spot once it closes the gap. There is video all over town of this section of the glacier rupturing back in 2004 - it had basically built up all the way across the channel as a huge dam - then one day came crashing down - they heard the crashes 50 miles away!

Here is a video of the Glacier from left to right.