ICE COLD STEALTH
The Patagonia ice field extends approximately 350 km across the Andes and feeds numerous glaciers with most famous of them all, the Perito Moreno glacier, located around 80km from El Calefate. Covering a total area of over 250 km and 30 km in length, this huge body of ice flows down into the Lake Argentino – with a 5-km wide face, averaging 70 m high above the water and a further 100 m below the surface. In others words, it’s absolutely massive! Our host in Patagonia was local trekking guide, Billy Zabellos, who knew the area like the back of his hand and promised us that he could get us close enough to the southern glacier face to complete our objective. The only other person known to have sailed at the Moreno Glacier is an Austrian pioneer, Thomas Miklautsch who has a famous clip on YouTube where is he was almost killed by ice caving from the face of the glacier. Now it was our turn to try and get as close as possible. Not easy in a national park where, strictly speaking, any water sports are forbidden. We would have to try and somehow sail up the lake below the radar, stay safe and hopefully score our video and photographs. I knew right from the start this was never going to be easy, but now all the planning and hard work organizing this expedition depended on whether we could pull this mission off!