original little hellraisers

day 13 - january 10th, 2010

the big day.  well, the big ice day — this will be long — as i want to properly record this for anyone else who searches the internet for ‘big ice reviews.’

in short — this was one of the most amazing things i think i will ever get to do in my lifetime.  it was humbling, beautiful and, dare i say it, fun.  yes it’s tiring, but it’s not nearly as bad as i was led to believe.  don’t let the agency convince you to mini-trek instead — you can do this.  as long as you’re not terribly overweight and suffer from heart problems, knee problems or back problems.  if i could do it, most anyone can.

tons of pictures here

click through to read the rest — as i said, it’s long, but i wanted to document it properly for us to remember and for anyone else who might go here to benefit from.

equipment: you will need the following gear: backback, boots, sunblock, gloves, waterproof jacket, water bottle (1L will do you fine.)  you might want to consider sunglasses and waterproof skiing pants.  you will also need to bring lunch — there’s a grocer in el calafate to make your own, and hostels/hotels tend to have excursion lunches for you as well.

you can rent anything you need from here: la barraca (emilio amado 833).  it’s a wonderful family run rental place.  two boys and their mom run the place and are so abundantly nice that you should spend money here just to make sure they stay in business as long as possible.

forms and your fitness: you will need your medical insurance card and to know your blood type when you get on the bus.  they should have you fill this out when you pay for the excursion because at this point, they can limit your participation if you put something on the medical form that will raise a red flag.  i didn’t know my blood type — i always forget (mom?) — and left it blank.  they didn’t say anything to that.

let me be fair to the internet here — kara is pretty damn fit at this point — she goes to the gym 3 times a week and looks absolutely fantastic.  i, on the other hand, never go to the gym, have terrible cardio and work at a desk most of the day.  while the excursion is listed as ‘advanced’ and that you need to be in ‘good shape’  i did this hike with a congested chest and clogged sinuses.  past that, we’re both in our mid-thirties — i’m average everything (weight, height, etc.)

guides: the guides were fantastic for us.  pablo and pablo 2 as they called themselves were extremely patient and extremely concerned about making sure we were safe.  other reviews knock the guides for being flirtatious (good on them! they’re young, good looking and surrounded by foreign women!  i didn’t think they were out of bounds myself, even when they DID call kara ‘dancing tiger’).  they also didn’t rush us when we wanted to take pictures which is what some of the other reviews stated.  this will, of course, be dependent on your guide — but no problems here.

the tour itself

the bus ride (~1.5 hours): the tour guide on the bus did a great job of explaining everything from the color of the lake in lago argentina to the flora and fauna of el calafate.  as we hit the national park, we have to pay the entrance fee (75 pesos = ~$20USD) — you have to pay in cash, so have it on hand.

the bus takes us into the park and to the viewing platforms.  note: if you sign up for big ice, don’t sign up for the balcony tour as the balcony excursion is actually included in big ice.

viewing platforms (~1 hour): from these platforms you get to see the glacier’s south face.  perito moreno is a in-balance glacier — meaning that it is not losing its mass every year like so many other glaciers in the world.  the first view from the first platform is worth the price of admission alone.  it is a staggering, humbling experience.  this massive ice formation, probably hundreds of feet tall is just staring back at you.  crevasses in the ice and rivers of water run along it’s top edge and down the face.  every now and again, you’ll hear the crack of the glacier and then the entire group of people (~50 - 60 people) stop and look for what they think will be a massive chunk of the face fall into the water. usually it’s nothing.

there’s 5 or 6 platforms that you go to — plenty of time to take pictures (which we’ll post, promise).
after about an hour of wandering from platform to platform we hike around the south face and then down to the bus again where we get driven to the boat dock to start the actual hike.

i should note that it was 18 degrees celsius out (64 fahrenheit).  i’m dressed in: long undies, khaki pants, waterproof pants, t-shirt, fleece, waterproof jacket, beanie, sunglasses and gloves.  this is what the agency recommends.

boat ride and orientation (~20 minutes): the boat crosses the north face of the glacier in a relatively small lagoon to dock again by the refuge.  from here we’re broken into two groups — spanish speaking and english speaking.  at this point the group of 60 becomes two groups of 30 (roughly).

here at the refuge, you can drop anything off that you don’t want to carry.  traveling light is key for the amount you’ll be moving.  the refuge is also your last stop to use the bathroom.  no peeing on the glacier.
the hike itself is broken into four parts — the hike to the glacier, the hike to the center of the glacier, the hike from the center to the ‘ice factory’ to the foot of the moraine and the hike out.

the hike to the glacier (~1 hour): this is, by far (and by other accounts) the hardest part of the hike.  but don’t let that scare you.  the hike to the crampons station is easy and incredibly well maintained (the mini-trekkers need to use this path too).  the hike from the crampons to the waterfall is just as easy, although the path is less maintained.  the hike after the waterfall and to the harness station is easily the most challenging part of the excursion.  you’ll have a few tricky bits right after the waterfall, but nothing soul-destroying.  there’s a pretty steep set of long-staircases right before the harness station.  this was the hardest part.  your heart rate will get going.  you’ll stop one more time to put on a safety harness (which they’ll only use in emergencies or during your ‘hopeful’ view of the ice river waterfall in the glacier itself).

the hike to the center of the glacier (~2 hours): after the harness fitting, there is roughly 150 meters more to walk to the glacier foot.  here you get fitted with your  crampons and your group gets fractured again into smaller groups of 12 or so.  this is where you get your dedicated mountain guides (2 of them for the 12 or so of us).  pablo and pablo introduce themselves and after a brief “here’s how to walk in crampons demonstration” (which of course, i was the example of how not to do it) you’re off to begin the actual walking on the ice part.  the big ice part of the journey — the thing you paid for.  you have to wear your gloves on the ice.  the ice is incredibly hard and can be sharp in places and there will be at least one part of the hike that you have to put your hand down.

the guides will want you to stay together and to walk the contour of the ice.  the ice at this part of the glacier look like small sand dunes frozen in place.  since the glacier is always moving and the ice at the back end of the glacier is displacing the ice at the front end of the glacier, there is no set path across the ice.

occasionally as they’re trying to find the center of the glacier, the guides will stop (allowing for picture taking at this point) and one of them will run ahead to see the safest path forward.  this happened with some frequency with us — which i didn’t mind, we got to catch our breath, take a bunch of pictures, etc.
they will stop to also cut steps in the ice.  one other review complained about this, but get over yourself, they’re trying to keep us safe.

i should also mention that this part of the hike is like being on another planet. there are crevasses everywhere and plenty of times where you can’t see anyone else other than your little traveling party.  it is truly majestic.

i should also point out that, at this point, i had taken off my fleece, packed away my beanie and was wishing i had one less layer of pants on.  i didn’t find any part of the hike on the ice all that taxing.  i also had my waterproof jacket unzipped down to my t-shirt.  i was plenty warm.

the guides also let us stop to refill our water bottles with glacial water — and it is pretty much what they advertise on those bottles of water you buy at the grocery store.  the glacier water tastes (as you would hope) incredibly clean and pure.

after hiking for a couple of hours and taking pictures during the walk, the guides stopped us for lunch at the ‘blue lagoon.’ at this point we’re in the center of the glacier sitting on the ice near a pretty large body of standing water that is just, well, beautiful.  the guides get to have lunch here every single day. we spent about 30 or 45 minutes eating lunch.  our guides brought some chocolates along which they shared.  in retrospect, i think i would have eaten less for lunch as i was pretty lethargic for the next 30 minutes.

the hike from the center to the ‘ice factory’ to the foot of the moraine (~2 hours): the hike from the center is easier than the hike in — the ice tends to flatten out at the center.  you have to be careful to not walk on one of the ice ledges as they’ll collapse beneath you. (that sounds scary, but you’ll fall a few inches, it’s just an easy way to twist your ankle).

this was my favorite part of the entire day.  this is where you see some of the most incredible stuff the glacier has in store for you (well, we did anyway).  it put everything i described as beautiful and majestic earlier to shame.  eclipses it.

the guides had some surprises in store for us.  the first truly incredible sight was a crevasse filled with water that must have been a hundred meters deep.  truly a sight to behold.  the color of the water goes from these gradients of light blue to almost a sapphire color.  the sheer wall of the glacier itself is visible under the water here for a few dozen meters or so.

and then pablo 1 shared with us his secret ice cave that he had found the week before.  and true to his word, he stopped at the ‘chimney’ of the ice cave that was on the surface of the glacier to break us into smaller groups to walk down into the cave itself. some of the hiking here was tricky, but again, the guides were patient, helpful and mindful of everyone in the group.

the cave itself is hard to describe — it is this perfect blue and incredibly smooth cavern.  it only went back 20 or so feet and it was hard to move inside of it with all the gear you have on, but we got to snap a few photos here.

we also got to see a glacial river and the subsequent waterfall nearby.  it’s an odd sensation — the glacier is incredibly quiet most of the time.  you’ll hear the occasional cracking and creaking sound, but when you get near this waterfall, it sounds like the tropics — the sound of rushing water down a huge, well, glacier cliff (in the middle of the actual glacier, no less).  the guides, again, stopped us at safe distance and then let us, one by one, walk up to the edge of the waterfall.  they held onto our harnesses to prevent us from falling.
it was incredible.

after all that — you start the trek back to the foot of the glacier — where you put your crampons on.  at this point, honestly, i’m freaking tired.  not exhausted and not because what we did was particularly strenuous.  just we’ve been walking for 6 or so hours straight at this point. :P  this hike, for us, tended to follow the edge of the glacier nearing the mountain range on our right.  was a relatively easy walk, but, as i said, we were pretty fatigued.

the hike out (~1 hour): you take the reverse hike out (the first part of the hike).  at this point, our muscles were starting to punish us, but again, nothing too dramatic here.  just watch your footing.  i should note — at this point i walked out in a t-shirt — everything else in my bag.

the glacier face (~30 minutes): after dropping our crampons back off we got to wander down to the north face of the glacier and take a few more pictures and just relax a bit.

the boat ride out (~30 minutes): from the glacier face we stopped again at the refuge where they had coffee waiting for us.  we idled for a bit, drank coffee, and talked with the other hikers (thank you mr. italy — you were hilarious!) while we waited for the boat to take us back to the bus.

i should also point out that i had a wet-ass when i took off my waterproof pants.  i’m convinced it was from sitting on the ice during lunch.  kara thinks it was swamp-ass and i sweat that much.  i was sitting on my crampon bag though while we ate…

on the boat they serve you scotch on glacier ice.  kara couldn’t drink hers, so i drank both of them.  we toasted pablo and pablo.

the bus ride home (~1 hour): can’t tell you much.  most of us slept the route back.

when we returned the equipment we asked the rental agency for the best restaurant in town — and they sent us to a place called don pichon.  when we were stopped again at libro-bar to have a few beers, they called the restaurant who sent a driver to come get us at 10pm or so.

the driver had one more stop to make… at the rental agency.  the two kids and their mom and a family friend were just as surprised to see us as we were to see them.  we got to converse a bit, they told us what to order when we got there.  it was, without question, the best parilla (steakhouse) we have gone to in our time in argentina.  of course there was too much food, and i ordered a bottle of wine when (after our day) a glass or two would have done just fine.

we had the driver scheduled to take us back to the hotel (roughly 1am at this point) and, well, the rental agency family was on our return drive as well.  wonderful people.

tomorrow we move hotels to the design suites and then we fly back to buenos aires to make our way home…