Wednesday 17 October 2007

Guiding the Perito Moreno Glacier

My day at work starts off with a 70 minute bus ride. The travelling is definately the worst part of the job, and makes our days long. We then jump in a boat and take a 15min trip across the lake to the refuge (located at the bottom left of the glacier in the photo).

At the refuge we have breakfast and hang out until our clients arrive. Below is one of the boats bringing our next load of about 50 victims for the main excursion - "Minitrekking".

Below is where our minitrekkers end up. The glacier is only 15 mins walk through the beech trees from the refuge, so you have very easy access to some incredible terrain.
These dudes have about 90mins on the ice, which ends with a toast - whisky on the rocks, and alfajores (typical chocalate treat from Argentina).

"Big Ice" - Is the extended trip. We walk up the side of the glacier on the rocky moraine for an hour. We then fit crampons and harnesses before exporing the glacier for 4hrs. We can often find quite impressive caves like the one below on the side of the glacier with easy access for the punters.
This trip enables clients to get a better idea of the immensity of the glacier, as we walk towards the centre.
There are always beutiful blue pools to see on the big ice.

That would be me.And me again. The Perito Moreno Glaciar is about 5km wide in the lower part, making it alot bigger than our glaciers in NZ. Me in an ice cave. These are formed by flowing meltwater that burrows holes deep within the glacier. Its not always safe or easy for clients to go into these- but us guides, well we always guide with full iceclimbing crampons and technical tools!