Pierto Moreno Glacier

We met our guide at 730AM for the 1.5 hour drive to the glacier. We were treated to a beautiful sunrise and learned a lot from our guide during the car ride.

At 9 am the boat crossed the lake to the other side where we got a close up view of the glacier. We landed, found a cubby to hide our lunch and walked towards the glacier. Our guide helped us put on crampons and then we headed towards the glacier. We walked on a well worn path for 1.5 hours in a single file line of about 20 people. A little black cat kept us company on our journey, luckialy no on stepped on it. At the end of the trek they offered whisky over ice from the glacier, Ashley partook and immediately regretted it, hopefully she doesn't get sick!

We took our crampons off and headed to have lunch with a nice older couple we met who were from Toronto. The boat ride back had beautiful, sunny weather and we met our guide and driver at the dock. We then set out to see the other side of the glacier and wait for the ice to fall! The top of the glacier is approximately 200' above the surface of the water and when the ice falls is makes a huge splash and a very cool, very loud cracking sound a few seconds later.

Glaciers are like very slow moving rivers which are constantly falling off into the lake below and being replenished up top by snow. Scientists think that the leading edge of the glacier is snowfall that landed between 200 and 500 years ago. Pierto Moreno glacier is one of the only glaciers that is not currently in decline, it is in a sort of stasis, not getting any bigger or smaller.

On occasion the glacier slips further down the mountain and comes into contact with the land mass on the other side. When this happens the water from Lake Argentina (the biggest lake in the country) cannot get out and the level of the lake rises. In the 1950s the water level rose over 23 meter and was stuck there for over a year.

On the car ride back from the glacier our guide talked more about the floura and fauna of the reigon and explained the term Massif. Cerro (C°) or Mt. Fitz Roy has a Massif which refers to how the mountain is made. Some mountains are made by volcanoes and some are made by erosion, the later creates many peaks, such as Fitz Roy and Torres del Paine, and are said the have a Massif.

Once we got back to the hotel we headed to the city to get dinner. Ashley was awesome and used Spanish to hail a cab to and from the restaurant and order dinner!Read more