We spent Christmas day 2011 hiking across a glacier! We had a car journey of some 90 minutes from the miniscule town of Rio Tranquillo to get to base camp, based in a wood. Then we walked a round trip of 6 hours, the first 45 minutes up through woodland and down the other side to get onto the ice.
I am not entirely sure what I expected but was surprised at what a glacier looked like! Firstly, because it churns up the ground when it forms, as it melts, all the stone and durt it churned lays on top of it as it melts away, so the first 2 hours was rough walking over gravel, rocks and boulders from small to huge. As we went along, there were patches where the stone was only a thin layer above the ice and we could see the ice shining through the breaks in gravel ready to send us flying should we place a foot in the wrong place. Then we got to the white ice, which was the thicker stuff that had not melted so retained its crystal colour. It does not lay flat, but undulates in small hills and peaks. Crampons on, off we set, after some lessons in uphill and downhill walking with crampons, crunching over the ice! In places, a patch would melt because something that was warmed by the sun had lain there,mostly stones, so crazy patterns of holes and gashes were formed, at the bottom of which lay the object that had created the melt but allowing us to see the depth of the ice and its layers. In some places bridges of ice were created as warmer melt water moved inside blocks of ice that were colder so ofcourse, these we had to watch out for as we walked.
The glacier never totally melts but as sections do, the lay of the landscape changes almost daily our guide explained. The glacier went on for miles and curved around a jut of rock. We could see it continue up the mountain and sometimes heard the thunderous rumble as a slice fell away from the main body and tumbled to the ground; sometimes we even saw this at a distance, a mass tumbling quickly, resembling a strong waterfall which happens 5 or 6 times a day.
