The kick was key. There was a perfect angle and force to drive the front pitons of my crampon into the hard-packed snow. Once I had mastered that, the slopes were easy to climb. Usually, though, we avoided the ridges and just followed the gullies through which meltwater rivers ran fast and clear as vodka. I stopped to catch my breath for a second, marvelling at the other-worldly scenery. A distant crash brought me to my senses, a reminder that despite my inactivity I was still moving. Slowly, imperceptibly, the glacier on which I stood continued its inexorable forward motion, inching towards the point where its calving face continually fractured and crumpled down into the frigid waters of Lake Argentino.

As noted in other reviews, Argentina’s Los Glaciares National Park is a tale of two halves. There is a northern section around Lago Viedma running up to Mount Fitzroy, most of which lies within the World Heritage Site boundaries (a slice lies within the borders of Chile), serviced by the town of El Chalten. And there is a southern section around the snaky arms of Lago Argentina serviced by the town of El Calafate. (Strictly speaking there is a central section linking the two but that seems wilder and almost impenetrable). Having spent the previous week preparing for and hiking Chile’s Torres del Paine National Park my partner and I skipped the chance to hike from El Chalten and based ourselves for three nights in El Calafate to explore Los Glaciares.

Getting In

As noted by Nan, getting to El Calafate is easier than El Chalten. There is an airport 15 minutes east of town (100 peso by taxi in 2012, though cheaper shuttle buses also run) which we used to leave for Buenos Aires via Bariloche in the Argentine Lake District. And buses ply the five-hour route to Puerto Natales in Chile for the not-to-be-missed Torres del Paine. In comparison, El Chalten is another three hours away by road.

El Calafate is well set up for tourists as a result. The average age of visitors seemed a healthy 25 years older than it had been in Natales. There are plenty of cafes, restaurants and tour operators. We certainly availed ourselves of the latter, signing up for a gaucho experience on a ranch half-way to the park. This gave us the opportunity to perfect the signature gaucho slouch in the saddle as we rode patchwork mares across the pampas, hares bursting from the undergrowth and guanacos gazing at us stupidly, the distant vision of the Torres del Paine themselves before us, prior to stopping to share a gourd of maté. We also found a chance to explore north of town on our own terms too, walking to Laguna Nimez to marvel at the teeming birdlife. Ruddy ducks and black-necked swans scooted around the lagoon, Chilean flamingos picked their way ahead of us, rufous-collared sparrows hopped in the calafate bushes and harriers and caracaras swooped overhead. Sitting on the beach of Lago Argentina at the end of the day, listening to the gulls and watching the wavelets break on the shore, it was hard to remember that we were well inland.

From El Calafate it is easy to see the World Heritage Site. With your own transport or on a tour you can easily get to the viewing spot on the Magallanes Peninsula. To do so you have to enter the National Park; in 2012 this was 100 peso (around £14 then) but the price has now risen to 800 peso (around £10!) for foreigners. Argentine nationals pay about half that. From here you have the perfect view out to the face of the Perito Moreno glacier. Its stats are impressive: 4km wide, 31 km long, standing proud 70m above the lake surface (and descending another 120m to the scoured bedrock beneath). All that separates you is a narrow stretch of water, the Canal de los Témpanos.

And if we’d arrived four days earlier we wouldn’t even have had that separation. Somewhat uniquely, the Perito Moreno glacier is not in retreat. Enough snow falls over the Southern Patagonian Ice Field to ensure that it continues to advance. This means that periodically the glacier manages to reach the Magallanes Peninsula, completely cutting off the channel. And when that happens the outflow of water from its southern arms into Lago Argentino is blocked. The water backs up and its level begins to rise. Eventually the pressure of the trapped water gets too much for the glacier to withstand and there is a rupture as the dammed water bursts through its icy barrier. Just such a rupture occurred four days prior to our arrival. A spiky cathedral of ice still stood on our side of the channel and the waterways were busy with icebergs.

While this gives you the perfect view of the glacier you are not actually inside the World Heritage Site at this point. According to the map on the Unesco website the site commences at the water’s edge. So to enter the site from here you can do one of two things. You can take a scenic cruise on the lake, getting a bit more ‘up close and personal’ with both the glacier and its icy bobbing children. Or you can sign up for a walk on Perito Moreno itself. We did both.

Hielo y Aventura is the official concessionaire for the park and they operate both cruises and treks. ‘Minitrekking’ involves a 90 minute walk on the glacier (currently 8,000 pesos), and ‘Big Ice’ involves 3.5 hours on the glacier for 15,000 pesos (equivalent to £190 each). We booked the Big Ice experience which involved being picked up at 7am and shuttled to the viewpoint across from the glacier. This is, in itself, an attraction as we were the first bus into the Park and had the balconies to ourselves for an hour. From here we were shuttled down to a boat. The crossing of the Brazo Rico took only ten minutes but docking at the far side was a bit of a palaver as ice floes had to be shunted out of the way. We disembarked in the lee of the glacier and were split into a Spanish-language group and an English-speaking group to receive a briefing. We were then led up a trail skirting the glacier for about an hour. At one point two condors flew overhead, so low and slow that everyone was able to get good photos.

At the top of the trail we paused at a shelter where we were fitted with harnesses and the aforementioned crampons. And then we carefully stepped off onto the glacier (photo).

Having never walked on a glacier before, I was awe-struck. Rather than ‘ice’ the going underfoot was deep, firmly-packed snow. On occasion the snow cleared to reveal transparent patches where water ran beneath our feet. Periodically there were perfect round sinkholes, each formed around a dark pebble. There were fast-flowing river valleys leading to waterfalls tumbling deep into the glacier’s heart. Cracks and crevasses shaded from mint-white to turquoise to the rich blue of copper sulphate. Beyond the ridges and hummocks over which we journeyed we could see sharp pinnacles of ice where the glacier had fractured while crossing a hump in the bedrock.

My one criticism of the experience was that we kept up such a relentless pace that we barely had chance to take it all in. We needed to look where we were placing our feet rather than at the extraordinary scenery around us. This was my partner’s third glacier trek after having walked on both Fox and Franz Josef glaciers in New Zealand’s Te Wāhipounamu. In three-and-a-half hours on Perito Moreno she took only 15 photos; in a comparable length of time on Fox she took 300. Her view? “If you want to see a glacier, come to Los Glaciares. If you want to walk on one, go to New Zealand.”

 

World Heritage-iness: 4

My Experience: 3.5

(visited March 2012)