Upsala Glacier, Patagonia, Argentina

5Drew I 5:00 PM May 16, 2014

A great way to spend a day
Most people get to see the Upsala Glacier from the deck of one of the boats from El Calafate that sail up the Upsala arm at the northern end of Lago Argentina. Others also view it from above - albeit at a distance - if they visit Estancia Cristina and take the trek option. They get some kind of view from the high point of the trail. One of the nice things about visiting the estancia is that their catamaran goes a good way towards the glacier and circles the more interesting and photogenic icebergs before turning back down that leg to continue around to the next leg of the lake where you find the Estancia. My wife and I took the Estancia Cristina trip on Friday 21 March, and I did the trek option, so let me give you my impressions of both views of the glacier. First of all, few if any boats get close to the face of the glacier, there are too many icebergs about! But that is not a problem; the beauty of this trip is in the color, shape and size of these icebergs as you pass among them. I will post pictures to show how close we got to the face and also of the icebergs. The view of the Upsala from the trek on the other hand is from a much greater distance, and you are NOT looking down onto the main glacier outflow where it meets the lake, you look down on just a spur of the main flow where the ice hardly meets the water at a separate part of the main lake. The main flow of the glacier where it enters the lake is hidden by a high ridge from your viewpoint. You DO get to see from this high vantage point however is just how big and WIDE this glacier is as it disappears back into the distance. I enjoyed the whole experience, including the 12k trek, but if the main point of you taking the trek is to get a great view of this mighty glacier, then it might be a bit of a disappointment. If my attempts to describe the layout of the terrain are not very clear, Google Earth shows it very clearly; both the estancia and the surrounding terrain. It helped me understand the layout very well.

4DeirdreinDC 5:00 PM Oct 30, 2008

All Glaciers Boat Ride
Because the Upsala can most feasibly be reached by boat - you are likely going to view it on one of the All Glaciers all-day boat rides. A few tips 1) Bring binoculars. The front of the Upsala glacier sheared off about a month or 2 ago, leaving about a 10KM traffic jam in that arm of the lake with all of its calved icebergs. The ships can now only get about 10-15 KM from the front of the glacier. 2) The above also means that thy likely won't be able to take you to the Onelli glacier either since the pathway to that is blocked off by icebergs. (they told us they had only gotten there about 2 days out of the past month due to the iceberg locations). As means of recompense - they take you to the Perito Moreno Glacier by boat instead. 3) Check into the size of your ship. There are many ships that do this tour every day. ( we saw a handful side by side us on the lake that day). We happened to have the unfortunate luck of getting on the largest of Fernandez Campbell's fleet - the Quo Vadis. There were about 300 people trying to vie for good viewing locations as the boat approached each glacier. AS long as your patient and are travelling with considerate other passengers, eventually you will get a good viewing spot. Still - we would have preferred a smaller, more intimate ship to take in the nature scene 4) The VIP Debate. We had read a lot of review which said to go VIP. Better seats, beverages included etc. Again, I would find out which boat you are on. The quo Vadis was so big, the VIP section sat about 40 with some 3-seat configurations ( which means if you don't get there early enough then you and your travel partner may not be sitting together). We could see the VIPO cabins on the other ships sailing by, and again, they were smaller, more intimate, and seems to be co-located with the captain. All in all - you're going to El Calafate to see the Glaciers. GO see the Glaciers. But if you can arrange it to go on a smaller size vessel - you'll enjoy it more! Enjoy!