We walked down on a cool morning and shortly headed out in a big van. The drive to get there was about an hour and a half on some terrible roads with a van which had little in the way of effective suspension. There were a few slow downs to show us a couple things on the way. Our guides Catalina and Alverado (I think) traded giving instructions in English and Spanish. Over half of the people on the trip were from the US with one from Chile and three from Japan. The Japanese either didn't understand the instructions, or chose to not understand. The Chile guy was a bit of a free spirit too (as well as a bit of a Go-Pro overuser).
The drive also had a few of these rather frightening wooden bridges. These aren't as bad as the bridge from the drive to PR, are definitely single vehicle only.
Eventually we made it to the load-off point for the glacier. The guides gave us quite the list of rules - some of which seemed a little overprescriptive. But I suppose it only takes one.
No pictures while walking... No standing if the helmet isn't on... No fires...
Perhaps a bit of instruction is a good thing since we saw one dude in another group walking around and wearing his helmet backwards. Of course that may have just been a fashion choice as well.
The hiking started off in the woods. The trails were nice with most wet spots covered with wooden planks or logs. The walking was pretty easy with only a few steep sections.
We did get an early view of the glacier we'd be hiking on. It was exciting.
After the woods we made it to a section of glacial moraine. This was much slower going as we had to think where each foot was going to go and sometimes the wrong decision was made. It was still fun and it reminded me of some of the rock piers that go into Lake Michigan - only much, much longer.
Among the deposited rocks were several lagunas - evidence of retreating glacier. It is likely that if 5-10 years much of this lower glacier will be gone.
This transitioned to a mix of moraine and ice, where various types of ice are covered with an unknown thickness of scree and rocks. This added another dimension to the hazards we had. This also showed the last unhealthy breath of the retreating glacier.
Eventually we made it to the glacier with very little in the way of rocks and scree. We stopped to put on our crampons - which came with more rules. Stay in a single file line at all times... Stomp like a kid when you walk... Hands free at all times... Gloves must be worn at all times because the ice is diamonds (we're all rich!)...
Let me just add at this time that nearly every single rule was violated by all of us in the group - often multiple times. But nobody started any fires (that I saw).
I wasn't sure if the crampons were really needed at this point, or if they were just part of the touristiness of the trip. As the trip went on, it became increasingly clear that it would have been a disaster without them.
As we were getting ready to head out we heard the roar of an avalanche somewhere in the distance. It felt almost foreboding.
After a lesson and demonstrations about how to go up and down on the ice with crampons, how to turn and a few more things about walking on ice we began to explore the glacier (in a sort of single file line). I will say the guides were great, and it seemed that once they saw there weren't any real bozos or incapable people in the group, we had quite a bit of freedom. They did have to corral us together a couple times.
It was nice that the entire adventure wasn't nanny-stated to death. If someone wanted to be stupid, it would have been very easy to get hurt.
Seeing the glacier up close and personal was really neat. I loved the layers of the ice and the years of snow and ice they represent. There were numerous crevasses and holes, "If they are filled with water they are shallow. If they are empty they are deep."
At one point they hooked up a rappel line for us to try getting up to an ice cave at a higher elevation. It felt a little gimmicky but it was still fun. The gimmicky-ness was confirmed when the guide walked down after we had all had our chance at rappelling. This is OK, we all need to do these things from time to time.
We also got to explore a few ice caves which was super awesome. They rained down frigid glacial water and were gorgeous inside. The inside textures of the ice were really interesting as well. Across the glacier, the various textures of ice and many types of rocks were fascinating.
Some caves were a combination of cave plus tubes. These almost reminded me of lava tubes from Hawaii - only much colder.
We had a few breaks through the day which was helpful. We got to a chance to talk to others in the group as well. Ginger from Texas was with her parents in Chile, but she was alone on the day's adventure. She was a lot of fun to talk to. Nephew seemed to really enjoy talking to the guides since that was what he originally came to Patagonia for.
All good things must come to an end. After a couple hours on the ice we began to head back. At the higher elevations it was possible to see several other groups on the glacier. They looked like jelly beans since all groups were separated by the color of their helmets. We were blue - because blue is awesome and everything should be blue. The guides did a good job keeping the groups separate, but we did end up in a jelly bean jam on the way back since many of the groups start about the same time.
The weather had started out nice, if a bit cloudy but it steadily improved through the day. As we left, there were only a few clouds left and it was really nice. This also meant it got really hot on the way back. A small price to pay for such a great day.
The weather also gave us a view of Mont San Valentine, which is the tallest peak in all of Patagonia.
The ride back to PRT felt very long compared to the ride there. I actually dozed off a little bit, until the next bump or swerve undozed me, meaning any dozing was very short-lived at best.
Back at the cabana, our lovely host got our toilet to work - making her the hero of the day.
We had a somewhat traditional Chilean dinner of beans, pumpkin and pasta with slightly less common vegies and salad.
I was prepared for the Glacier Exploradores to be a bit prescripted, but it far surpassed what I was hoping for.
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