Janine&Chris'GeriatricGapYear: 8/2 A Glacier and a birthday

Wednesday 8 February Moreno glacier

The day began with the sound of the youngsters cramming in next door to wish Tim happy birthday. Brekky was awful – stale slices of frenchsticks with jam and coffee. They have this thing about cutlery and hardly put any out. Last night we had to deposit 20 pesos for a knife/fork @ spoon.

The group bus to the glacier left at 8.00 so we had a spare hour before we had to go.

It was a 90 minute drive through interesting scenery, approaching the Andes around the edges of glacial lakes (the usual milky turquoise colour of melted glaciers). A prominent ridgeline dominated – very sharp-edged rather like a saw on edge. At the foot of this was the lake we were headed towards. (Largo Argentino) Gradually the big blob of white snow emerged and then a couple of small blue icebergs appeared in the lake.

We stopped at a view point and took some pictures. The Oasis mob were down below heading for the boat.

Shortly afterwards, we were dropped off at a hospitality complex and then took to the steel walkways on the hill facing the glacier, which stands 60m tall, 5 km wide and at the closest point about 60m from the nearest balcony. The walkways were very well laid out and afforded many vantage points from which to observe the ice.

Looking left

Looking right

Close up of ice pack

Some previous icebergs - must have been enormous

Maybe we will let the pictures speak for themselves. We walked a few of the loops then settled at a location where we were pretty close to the snow face but far enough back to have a broad view. The glacier actually crosses the lake and then runs into the hill on the other side. Eventually it isolates the lake to the left and this blocks the outlet for the river on that side, which then builds up until the water finds its way through and a large hole develops. This eventually is undermined and the arch collapses – spectacularly.

The glacier grumbled and snapped to itself throughout the day. It would be quite nerve-wracking to be afoot on or in the glacier and hear it. Four of our group had signed up for a glacier exploration – including Peter the Accident-Prone. They aren’t back yet.

We saw a few flakes fall off the front and collapse into the water. One was quite spectacular – the flake seemed to stand vertically just away from the face, turning bright blue as the light got in behind it, then it slowly slid into the water and disappeared. Moments later, it re-appeared and emerged almost completely! It slowly rotated and then sank again. Just as I was about to say – “hey did you see that come back out” – up it came again!

Great walkways

Note the clear water

Just after the biggest ice drop that we saw today - huge block dropped in

See the dark blue chunks?

Another drop 3/4 way out and an ice chunk just dropping in at the peak of the berg

J thinks she got a picture of that and she stood for more than an hour hoping for the sequel but nothing eventuated. We felt ourselves very happy and lucky to have had such a pleasant day. This included a quick break for a fridge magnet and Irish coffees.