They come in two families. The small ones hang from the Fitz Roy and Cerro Torre massifs, and you reach them on foot from town. The big ones, Viedma, Upsala and Perito Moreno, flow straight off the Southern Ice Field, and you see them by boat or at the end of a multi-day trek.
| Glacier | How you get there | With us |
|---|---|---|
| Piedras Blancas | On foot, half a day: 9.9 km | Piedras Blancas Glacier |
| Grande (Laguna Torre) | On foot, a day: 16.6 km | Laguna Torre, Mirador Maestri |
| De los Tres | On foot, a long day: 19.6 km | Laguna de los Tres |
| Pollone | On foot, a long day: about 22 km | Laguna Pollone |
| Huemul (Lago del Desierto) | A 37 km transfer and a short trail | Lago del Desierto and Huemul Glacier |
| Túnel (Laguna Toro) | On foot, two days with camping | Laguna Toro, Huemul Circuit |
| Viedma | By boat from Bahía Túnel, or from above on the Huemul Circuit | 5-day package, Huemul Circuit |
| Upsala | By boat on Lago Argentino or from the Feruglio range | 7-day package, Guanaco to Estancia Cristina |
| Perito Moreno | From El Calafate: walkways and boat | 8-day package |
Return distances of our own routes.
Piedras Blancas Glacier, hanging off Fitz Roy
The easiest glacier to see up close. It hangs from the east face of Fitz Roy and ends in a lake full of pale boulders, hence the name, White Stones. You often hear it before you see it, when ice breaks away. It is 9.9 km with 220 m of ascent, 4 to 5 hours through lenga forest: right for the day you arrive, or for a day when Fitz Roy is in cloud.
Grande Glacier, at Laguna Torre
The lake lies at the foot of Cerro Torre, at 636 m, and the ice that reaches the water is the Grande Glacier; some call it the Torre Glacier. It breaks up in the lake, so there are nearly always icebergs drifting. It is the hike nearly anyone can do: 16.6 km and 500 m of ascent, 7 to 8 hours. Forty minutes more along the moraine, at Mirador Maestri, the glacier is below you and Cerro Torre straight ahead.
Laguna Torre16.6 km · +500 m · 7 to 8 h · from USD 203
Laguna Torre and Mirador Maestri20.4 km · +660 m · 8 to 9 h · from USD 250
Laguna de los Tres and the Pollone Glacier
Above Laguna de los Tres, at the foot of Fitz Roy, hangs another glacier; early in the season the lake is often still frozen. It is El Chaltén’s big day: 19.6 km and 890 m, with a steep last hour. On the far side of the massif, the Pollone Glacier feeds a lake below Fitz Roy’s north face. Very few people get there: it is a couple of hours beyond Piedra del Fraile, some 22 km in the day.
Laguna de los Tres19.6 km · +890 m · 8 to 10 h · from USD 228
Laguna Pollone22.1 km · +380 m · 9 to 10 h · from USD 270
Huemul Glacier, at Lago del Desierto
It lies 37 km north of town, at the southern tip of Lago del Desierto. A short trail climbs through the forest to a green lake with the glacier hanging above it. Many Lago del Desierto tours leave it out; ours does not, and the glacier has its own entrance fee. It is a gentle day: the Chorrillo del Salto waterfall, the glacier and Fitz Roy seen from the north. It has nothing to do with the Huemul Circuit, which lies to the south, beside the Viedma. Read more →
Túnel Glacier, at Laguna Toro
Laguna Toro is the lake hardly anyone knows. You walk out of town, climb to about 1,077 metres and drop into the Río Túnel valley, where the glacier pours into a grey lake. Lutz Witte and Alfredo Kölliker went up this same valley onto the ice field in 1916. With us it is two days with a night’s camping, from US$650, and it is also the first day of the Huemul Circuit.
Viedma Glacier, the largest in Argentina
It flows off the Southern Ice Field into Lago Viedma and covers between 945 and 978 km² depending on the inventory: with either figure it is the country’s largest glacier. Its front is about 2 km wide. As it retreated it left a trench 900 metres deep: according to the CONICET survey of 2022, Lago Viedma is the deepest lake in the Americas.
There are two ways to see it. By boat from Puerto Bahía Túnel, 18 km from town, among icebergs up to the front: it is in our five-day package. Or from above, on the Huemul Circuit, with a whole day walking the slope over the glacier. Walking on the ice is no longer possible: guided ice walking on the Viedma was suspended in 2017 because of the retreat. If you see it offered online, the information is out of date.
Upsala Glacier, from Lago Argentino
It ends in the northern arm of Lago Argentino and takes its name from Uppsala University in Sweden, which funded the first studies in the area. It is one of the fastest-retreating glaciers anywhere: its front moved back 2.9 km between 2008 and 2011. You see it by boat in front of the ice, on our seven-day package with a night at Estancia Cristina (from US$3,690), or from the viewpoints on the Feruglio range, on the last day of the Guanaco to Estancia Cristina crossing.
Perito Moreno Glacier, from El Calafate
It lies 78 km from El Calafate, almost 300 km by road from El Chaltén. It is about 30 km long, with a front 5 km wide standing some 74 metres above the lake. It is famous for its ruptures: it advances, closes off the Brazo Rico arm, and one day the ice dam gives way. You see it from the walkways and from the boat in front of the wall. On our eight-day package it is day two, before heading up to El Chaltén (from US$2,890).
The others, and why they are shrinking
To the north, the Marconi, Cagliero and Chico glaciers come down towards the Río Eléctrico valley: that is ground for long expeditions. Nearly every glacier here is retreating, and those ending in deep lakes the fastest, because the water melts them from below. The Southern Ice Field lost about 20 gigatonnes of ice a year between 2000 and 2012. The Viedma front you see today will be somewhere else in ten years.
The Southern Patagonian Ice Field: what it is, how it formed, its history and how fast it is shrinking. See →
We go out in wind and rain: a glacier looks just as close under cloud. What changes is the view of the summits. Read more →
Questions
Which glaciers can you see from El Chaltén?
On foot from town: Piedras Blancas, the Grande at Laguna Torre, the Laguna de los Tres glacier and Pollone. With a transfer, the Huemul at Lago del Desierto. Over two days, the Túnel at Laguna Toro. By boat, the Viedma. And from El Calafate, Upsala and Perito Moreno.
What is the largest glacier in Argentina?
The Viedma Glacier, between 945 and 978 km² depending on the inventory. It flows off the Southern Ice Field into Lago Viedma, south of El Chaltén.
Can you walk on the Viedma Glacier?
Not any more. Guided ice walking on the glacier was suspended at the start of 2017 because the retreat made the ice hard to reach. Today you see it by boat from Puerto Bahía Túnel.
How do you get to the Viedma Glacier from El Chaltén?
On the boat from Puerto Bahía Túnel, 18 km from town. It is included in our five-day package. You also see it from above on the Huemul Circuit.
Which glacier is easiest to see on foot?
Piedras Blancas: half a day, 9.9 km and 220 m of ascent, with a viewpoint facing the blue ice.
Which glacier do you see at Laguna Torre?
The Grande Glacier, which comes down from Cerro Torre and the Adela range and breaks into icebergs in the lake.
Are the Huemul Glacier and the Huemul Circuit the same?
No. The Huemul Glacier is at Lago del Desierto, 37 km north of town. The Huemul Circuit is a four-day trek to the south, beside the Viedma Glacier.
Can I see Perito Moreno and Fitz Roy on the same trip?
Yes. Our eight-day package starts at El Calafate airport, includes Perito Moreno with a boat trip and continues in El Chaltén with three hikes and the Viedma, from US$2,890 per person.
Where can you see the Upsala Glacier?
From a boat on Lago Argentino in front of the glacier, as on our seven-day package with a night at Estancia Cristina, or from the viewpoints on the Feruglio range.
Are the glaciers here retreating?
Nearly all of them. The Viedma has lost about 2 km of front since 2014, Upsala 2.9 km between 2008 and 2011, and Perito Moreno, stable for a century, has been thinning fast since 2019.