Torres del Paine Trek - Day 9 - Day Hike on Glacier Grey

We awoke at 8:00 am the next day and got ready for an ice walk directly on Grey Glacier. We took a small boat to a larger one, which took us along the face of the glacier, up close and personal. The light blues and whites of the glacier contrasted with the deeper blues in a seemingly random yet patterned formation. It surprised me how different the glacier looked close up as the boat coasted ever so close to the icy behemoth. When my foot first stepped onto the glacier I thought I was still on solid land. That illusion was broken as soon as I hit the “ground” with my ice axe and saw we were actually walking on a living wall of ice.

Walking on the glacier gave us a completely different perception of it. It was similar to the difference felt by those who view the Grand Canyon from the top versus those who descend to the river and see all the canyon’s majesty from a completely different perspective. While the glacier is an impressively beautiful sight when seen from a boat or the trail, when walking on it one gets the feeling it is alive. Strong water currents rip under the icy surface intricately cutting rich blue caverns.

The next agenda item was ice climbing. I thought it wouldn’t be that cool, especially based on the lackadaisical pace of our group, but it was a rush. The guides screwed in a single carabineer up high and lowered a rope through it for safety. One of the guides stayed at the bottom pulling up the slack in the rope in case you fell. Then you climbed by kicking your crampons into the near vertical ice and following it by two swings of your ice axes. You then shifted of your weight by rocking your hips forward into the “sexy position,” as the guide liked to call it. It was just as the mountaineering book I was reading described it, okay, other than missing 6,100m / 20,000’ or so of elevation. The goal was to get to the top and kiss the carabineer. If you didn’t you had to kiss your guide. I went second and reached it, but it was much harder than I expected. About half of the group made it and then it was a hurried walk to catch the boat back to the campsite.

The story continues...