Grey Glacier, Patagonia
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field is the world’s second largest ice field, a remnant of a sprawling ice sheet that covered all of southern Chile during the last glacial period. It extends for more than 220 miles and fills an area of 4,773 square miles, roughly 3,700 of which fall within Chile. The other ~1,000 square miles sit within neighboring Argentina.
In Argentina, this cold, frozen, gargantuan sheet of ice feeds the Perito Moreno, Viedma, and Upsala glaciers. In Chile, it feeds the Pio XI Glacier (the largest glacier outside of Antarctica), the O’Higgins Glacier, the Tyndall Glacier, and the Grey Glacier. Each of these glaciers flows into the fjords of the Patagonian channels of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. Different national parks protect the ice fields, including Torres del Paine in Chile, which we visited in January 2020.
Touring the Grey Glacier
The Grey Glacier (Glaciar Grey, en español), fed by the Southern Patagonian Ice Field, flows southward into a lake by the same name: Lago Grey. The glacier occupies 100 square miles and runs 17 miles long. We visited the Grey Glacier as the first of our three excursions from EcoCamp, our retreat in Torres del Paine National Park.
There are several ways to explore Grey Glacier: a hiking trek from within the park; a kayak tour in Lago Grey; or a boat tour on the same lake. Our EcoCamp guides arranged for us to visit the glacier by boat.
After packing up a van with the other six travelers in our group, we drove to the west side of the park and disembarked in front of the Grey Glacier “marina.” A large lakeside building housed a gift shop, restrooms, and a restaurant overlooking the lake.
From the restaurant, we hiked 30 minutes through a wooded forest with a wide, winding river.
When we emerged from the woods, we were standing on a beach. Clouds hung low over the mountains that rose up behind Lago Grey. As soon as we left the treeline, a fierce wind pushed and pulled at our group.
Although it was summertime, the wind was sharp and cold and I spotted icebergs in the water. We stood at the top of the beach and watched slow streams of hikers trek to a boat that was about to depart onto the lake. From our vantage point, the people looked like tiny ants compared to the mountains.
It took another half hour to cross the beach to reach the boat dock. While we waited in line, children scampered up and down the rocks and dared each other to jump into the frigid glacial water.
The boat ride itself through the lake was about two hours long and included a Pisco sour made with ice taken from the glacier itself.
Pisco Sour 
Grey Glacier Ice
I spent the entire two hours standing on the boat’s deck because I didn’t want to miss a moment. When I finally came inside to drink my Pisco, though, my face was completely numb.
The boat ride starts on the shore of Lago Grey and navigates up to the glacier’s terminus, or ending point. During the first half hour of the journey, we would see mammoth chunks of icebergs dotting the horizon. We passed one that was so large, it eclipsed our view of the lake and mountains when we floated past it. Notice the rare blue ice that you’ll only find when snow has fallen across the ice and compressed it into crystals. We first met blue ice during our trip to the Franz Josef glacier in New Zealand.
As we approached closer to the glacier itself, we began to see more and more icebergs, both large and small. As the glacier warms, icebergs “calve” off the terminus. Larger chunks act like refrigerators, staying cool and solid even in the warmer waters further away from the terminus. This explains why we were only seeing very large icebergs during the first half of our boat ride.
At the glacier itself, the boat paused for half an hour to give us an up-close view of the glacier. It was indescribably massive. Standing on the boat’s deck was an exercise in willpower, as the winds were strong and cold as they blasted off the ice.
Slowly, after the captain had showed off the glacier’s every angle, he turned the boat around and we headed back to the lakeshore. On the way in, sharp gusts of wind pushed the clouds away and the ice-covered mountains started to sparkle in the sun.
We finished the day with our first glimpse of Los Cuernos (the Horns) of Patagonia, which I’ll cover in a later post. Dinner was, of course, a brilliant meal from EcoCamp surrounded by friends from that day’s adventure. We rested easy in our dome that night, warm and cozy after enduring Patagonian gales all day.
