It is Patagonia's most-photographed glacier, yet as we stand before it I realize that images can only begin to capture its grandeur: the panorama of ice that fills our field of vision, the thunderous cracking sounds that echo from within the glacier as it slowly shifts and advances.
My wife and I have come with our two children to southern Argentina to see and experience its glaciers and mountain landscapes. We are among hundreds of visitors who stand watching from a network of raised walkways on a slope facing the glacier.Suddenly, the cracking sound grows louder and a cascade of ice tumbles down the sheer snout of the glacier. A column the size of a 20-story building slowly begins to tip away and collapses in a giant splash about 500 yards (meters) from where we are standing.
Then other pieces break off and fall in a series lasting more than a minute, leaving a dozen new icebergs floating away.
"Woo-hoo!," my 6-year-old son shouts. "It's just like sand."
The calving glacier reminds him of sand cascading down a steep dune he had climbed a few days before on the Argentine coast.
Perito Moreno is among the most accessible large glaciers and remains relatively intact even as glaciers all over Patagonia have been retreating in the past few decades.
During that trip earlier this year, we all stood gazing at the glacier, leaning on the wooden railing and silently waiting for the next ice fall. Some people lifted cameras now and then, while others sat quietly on benches taking in the view.
Along the section of glacier that had just calved, the newly revealed wall glowed deep blue, indicating the ice had been tightly compressed during its long journey down the mountain slope.
We had heard and read that waiting for a big ice collapse could require patience, so we felt fortunate to have witnessed the spectacle within minutes of arriving. We lingered on the walkways, enjoying the cool air and seeing the glacier from different angles.
Light rain began to fall, and we retreated to a snack bar for hot chocolate.
The next day, we took a boat tour of the glaciers that border Lake Argentino.
There are dozens of glaciers in the area fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, which blankets a wide swath of the Andes between Chile and Argentina. Huge quantities of meltwater flow into Lake Argentino, and then down the Santa Cruz River to the Atlantic.
We started at the port of Punta Bandera and set out aboard a catamaran carrying nearly 200 people. The wind was very cold, so we started out inside the cabin, then put on wool hats and scarves and went out on deck for a better view as we approached several icebergs glistening in the sun.
The icebergs were a gemlike radiant blue, contrasting with the charcoal-colored mountainsides behind them. The ice had been sculpted by sun and lake water into fantastic shapes topped with spikes and curves.
As we headed toward Upsala Glacier we encountered more and larger icebergs, and the boat stopped once we faced a barrier of floating ice. Some passengers posed for photos at the boat's railing with craggy masses of ice floating behind them. I wished I could get a glimpse from the air of the many icebergs floating between our boat and the glacier.
Guides announced over the loudspeaker in Spanish,English and French that Upsala Glacier could be seen in the distance. They didn't mention that it has shrunk dramatically over the past century, nor did they discuss how the glaciers have fared overall in the face of global warming. I wondered how quickly climate change might eat away at these majestic giants.
I later learned that according to a recent study by British and Swedish scientists who analyzed about 350 Patagonian glaciers, all but two of the glaciers have receded significantly since the late 1800s, and have been shrinking at a faster rate during the past three decades.
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