El morado glacier

A few weeks ago we decided to make another visit to the mountains with a few friends. This time we chose El morado glacier. This is a glacier in the area known as Cajon de Maipo, which is a canyon a few minutes drive from Santiago.

A map of the route can be found here.

Overall, the trek is fairly easy, though there may be some altitude effects. The path ascents steadily through a beautiful andean valley and culminates in this:

An absolute must for the brave among us is to have a little dip in the near frozen water at the top (yes, I went in, only the head stayed out and yes, it hurts when you dip just your toes)

Zooming in well into the glacier, you could see some people on top (this may give you an idea of scale, photos are very poor at showing scale! - on the image above, the people are a black patch following a straight vertical line 3 times the size of my head above my right thumb). Climbing is only recommended for experienced ice climbers.

A few more photos of our walk can be found below or if you want high resolution copies, try here.

Autumn is starting to arrive to Santiago so we are taking off and the next few posts are likely to be from Peru! ;o)