a mammoth chunk of ice into an icy lake below . With beating hearts , we watch as , yet another great sliver of ice liberates itself to plunge into the frigid water . Grinning from ear to ear we feel incredibly privileged to be witnessing this awesome spectacle .
“ Oh no , I ’ ve lost a boot !” cries an Israeli girl ahead . It is day four , the toughest on the circuit with the ascent of the highest point of the walk ahead - ‘ el paso de los perros ’. We have caught up with another group of hikers and making slow progress , bogged down in a sea of knee-deep mud entwined in an ankle breaking mire of tree roots at the tree line .
Finally , we leave the boot-sucking bogs behind and begin the ascent , the path winding tortuously over the rock-strewn moraine of another glacier . At last , the glaciated peaks of the opposing range appear above our rocky horizon . Another ten minutes of renewed hope and panting and we reach the pass .
There is really no way to describe the effects of such a view as Glacier Grey seen from the pass . It enters one horizon and leaves on the other , filling everything in between with deep blue ravines and white crests , great frozen waves that fan out like the ripples on a sand dune , capturing all the shades of aqua trapped within their frozen world . We stand ; shivering as the icy wind whips our breath away , silent , shocked and moved in some terrible way .
That night we lie shivering in our four seasons down sleeping bags at Campamiento los Perros . Alongside ,
TRAVEL OFTEN . LIVE WELL . 25