The “Big Eye” Moreno Glacier ‘hike’ did not disappoint. They call it a hike but it was more mountaineering. We crossed the interior glacial lake on a boat and disembarked at the company’s log cabins. They divided the group into english speakers and non-english speakers, about 20 people in each. We were the first group up the trail. It started with very well constructed boardwalks but quickly turned into a narrow dirt trail running parallel to the glacier. We reached base camp after about an hour. We had climbed a thousand feel in elevation over a little more than a mile and a half. The views continued to get better and better. At base camp we were outfitted with crampons and harnesses – this is when it set in that this was no joke. Once at the ice we split in to two groups of 10, each had two guides. The lead guide, Jorge, would be the front of the line while the second guide, Fabio, seemed to buzz all around us. I think this served two purposes; he scouted out cool formations and brought them to the Jorge’s attention and secondarily, if a pocket gave out below us he would be out of harms way and ready to assist. Lucky for us the outfit was extremely well run. Our guides had degrees in geology and were experienced mountaineers- to this day there hasn’t been serious accident on the ice. They also had a stand up routine that I found most amusing. Particularly when turned on the self-absorbed California techies who continually slowed us down by trying to capture photos of each other mid air/jumping…

We worked our way out onto the glacier and an hour later found a nice spot for lunch. The glacier provided water to refill our bottles. That was pretty cool. Eolo packed us a nice lunch which after the amount of walking we had done, we completely inhaled. After lunch we pushed further into the interior of the glacier and came across some caves. Around this time the sun also came out and our surroundings turned deep blue. It was breathtaking. We rambled about and eventually met up with the other groups on our walk back to base camp. The clouds continued to clear and ice field spilled down the mountain frozen in time radiating colors never before seen. The crevasses were glowing with alien blues confusing the mind – unnatural and so purely natural. Pictures hardly do it justice. Back at the cabin we were greeted with coffee followed by a cocktail on the boat of whiskey over glacial ice.