Days 4-7 took us into the heart of the park with the much anticipated crossing of John Garner Pass. We knew that it would be the highest point on the trek and that it could be a formidable obstacle if the weather was bad. At the very least, we were told to expect winds so strong that we wouldn´t be able to stay there for long.
The night before crossing the pass, we went to bed listening to hail and ice hit the tent and watching the trees bend in the wind. But we kept telling ourselves to trust what we had learned about the weather in Patagonia: it changes all the time, and if it´s hailing tonight, that means it will be sunny tomorrow. Well, not sure if we were delusional or lucky, but we awoke to sunny, calm skies. The winds at the pass were strong, but not so much that we couldn´t enjoy it for awhile. And there was much to enjoy, as we got our long awaited view to the Grey Glacier, a 15-mile long valley glacier that spills down from the massive ice field. On to it:
Rosemary enjoys the sun on our way up to the pass.
My feet are actually off the ground as I get my first look down the other side of the pass. Glacier Grey looks like a white lake in the background. We are so happy to be at the pass on such a day! We are lucky.
The view of the Grey Glacier from below the pass. It may be hard to get a sense of the scale, but it is about 2.5 miles across and about eight miles to where it disappears into the mountains to the right. The peaks across the valley are about 6 - 7,000 feet.
A long-awaited photo!
One of the most memorable moments of the entire trip to Patagonia will be our excursion down to the edge of the glacier. There wasn´t really a trail, but we thought we saw an easy way down and scrambled to the side of it. I don´t want to sound too corny here, but I really had a feeling of entering some forbidden, sacred world as I approached the edge of the glacier. We´ve spent time on glaciers before and know their risks and power, but this was a whole different story. The Grey Glacier is so large that it finally made clear to me how glaciers truly carve the landscape, creating everything from what we were seeing to our home Skagit Valley to the Great Lakes and so many other areas of the world. Looking under the side of this glacier and seeing where the ice met the ground felt like looking back in time, at one of the most elemental processes that have shaped our planet. Rosemary stayed up high for awhile and got this shot of tiny me, in orange, at the edge.
The polished blue ice at the bottom of the glacier.
Rosemary standing on relatively brand new terra firma and touching the dirty edge of the Grey.
We hiked along the glacier from about its mid-point to past its end. Here´s where it calves off into Grey Lake.
The night before crossing the pass, we went to bed listening to hail and ice hit the tent and watching the trees bend in the wind. But we kept telling ourselves to trust what we had learned about the weather in Patagonia: it changes all the time, and if it´s hailing tonight, that means it will be sunny tomorrow. Well, not sure if we were delusional or lucky, but we awoke to sunny, calm skies. The winds at the pass were strong, but not so much that we couldn´t enjoy it for awhile. And there was much to enjoy, as we got our long awaited view to the Grey Glacier, a 15-mile long valley glacier that spills down from the massive ice field. On to it:
Rosemary enjoys the sun on our way up to the pass.
My feet are actually off the ground as I get my first look down the other side of the pass. Glacier Grey looks like a white lake in the background. We are so happy to be at the pass on such a day! We are lucky.
The view of the Grey Glacier from below the pass. It may be hard to get a sense of the scale, but it is about 2.5 miles across and about eight miles to where it disappears into the mountains to the right. The peaks across the valley are about 6 - 7,000 feet.
A long-awaited photo!
One of the most memorable moments of the entire trip to Patagonia will be our excursion down to the edge of the glacier. There wasn´t really a trail, but we thought we saw an easy way down and scrambled to the side of it. I don´t want to sound too corny here, but I really had a feeling of entering some forbidden, sacred world as I approached the edge of the glacier. We´ve spent time on glaciers before and know their risks and power, but this was a whole different story. The Grey Glacier is so large that it finally made clear to me how glaciers truly carve the landscape, creating everything from what we were seeing to our home Skagit Valley to the Great Lakes and so many other areas of the world. Looking under the side of this glacier and seeing where the ice met the ground felt like looking back in time, at one of the most elemental processes that have shaped our planet. Rosemary stayed up high for awhile and got this shot of tiny me, in orange, at the edge.
The polished blue ice at the bottom of the glacier.
Rosemary standing on relatively brand new terra firma and touching the dirty edge of the Grey.
We hiked along the glacier from about its mid-point to past its end. Here´s where it calves off into Grey Lake.
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