Today we travelled from Punta Arenas in very south of Chile, starting at six in the morning. Eventually we reached the National park of Torres del Paine, and the Grey glacier. We saw a lot of animals on the way: condors, lamas and foxes. The view on the mountains was just amazing.
Our guide Rodrigo "Trauko" Traub is an experienced mountain climber. He took us to a viewpoint, and pointed out where the front of the glacier was when he first came here. It has retreated a lot since. He took pictures of the Grey glacier in 1996, and showed us how far the ice reached at the time. There is an island right in front of the glacier that not too long ago was covered in ice. It is bare now.
Big chunks of ice and little icebergs are floating by our camp by the Lake Grey. The colour is just amazing: the whole glacier is shimmering in different shades of blue, the name of the glacier has nothing to do with its appearance. The only way to communicate with the outside world from here is by radio. There is of course no Internet, so all this will be posted whenever I get back to civilisation. As a webbie you are a bit limited! There is not much electrical power either.
At the moment we are seven people in our little team here in the “Grey refugio”. We share a little room here in the house. Tomorrow we are off camping outside, after having climbed the glacier. I arrived late last night in Punta Arenas and got only a few hours of sleep. My equipment is still in a mess. Have to sort it, but feel too tired. I’ll need it very soon, so I’d better take care of it now.
Posted by Irene at January 8, 2004 07:27 PM