Perito Moreno is bigger but Viedma is better. We took a friend's advice and high tailed it to Chaltan for the majority of our visit to this area of Patgonia. What great advice that was! Chaltan is less commercial and has it all -- great food, great hiking and the Viedma Glacier. We did the "big ice" on this glacier first and then the Perito Moreno Big Ice while in Calafate and i really wish Patagonia Adventures was running the show at Perito Moreno! At Viedma our guides were knowledgeable, friendly, well paced and focused on our education and enjoyment of the glacier. We had a small group of six with two guides who were extremely attentive. Very different experience at Perito Moreno. If you can only do one glacier trek, do Viedma with the wonderful guides from Patagonia Adventures. The ride across the lake is amazing, the ascent to the glacier provides wonderful panoramas, and the staff is just amazing. Thank you so much for the wonderful experience!
Great fun. Super helpful and nice guides. Worth doing it.
You get a r/t bus ride to Viedma lake from/to company’s office in El Chalten (no hotel pick-up, but you don’t need it ? “town” is super small), r/t boat ride to/from Viedma Glacier, scramble on some rocks for 30 minutes and a 1.5/2 hour hike on the Glacier in crampons (the highlight), followed by a provided half a cup of Bailey's with fresh million year old ice from the glacier and a trip back. Appropriate almost for everyone.
Wear hiking boots or sneakers, hat, sunglasses, sun block, thin gloves, wind breaker and hiking pants or jeans. Bring box lunch from Domo Blanco in Chalten (best fresh choices enough for 2, on the “main drag” order the night before!), bottle of water, backpack, bottle of chilled Champaign to open on top of the glacier if this is your 1st time, or not ;), camera (if you are serious, bring wide/super-wide zoom that would cover 16mm to 40mm in 35mm full frame terms, or wider if you have it; fish-eye might be interesting if you can attach filters; polarizer filter is a must; combine it with a soft-split 2f-stop ND filter to hold back either top or bottom, depending on light conditions of the moment; no tripod (time constrains and effort involved + terrain make it impractical) ? use your backpack or “bean bag” as support for low level shots; plenty of light provides fast enough shutter speeds for handholding.
Please be aware: Viedma glacier, unlike Perito Moreno, has a Lot of natural sediment that makes it look “dirty”. If you are after photos of pristine glacier ice that most people imagine, you might be better off trekking on Perito Moreno glacier near Calafate instead, or do both. Whatever choice you make ? get on the ice in crampons for the experience and “bragging rights” ? Great Fun and this one makes it easy and fun. Enjoy!
We did the Ice Trek, which consisted of a boat trip, then ice hike and the boat trip back. It was brilliant, a great experience and one of the highlights of our visit. My girlfriend is a bit scared of heights and while there were some scrambling over rocks and steep parts on the glacier, at every scary moment there was a guide at her side. They were brilliant, always minding people on more precarious slopes or edges. The hike on the glacier was great fun, wearing crampons and stomping around. The scenery was mind blowing, a delight to explore
Most people visiting Patagonia will go on our of the tours of the Perito Moreno glacier in El Calafate. While this is more famous and easily accessible (there's an airport in El Calafate) if you can visit the Viedma glacier in El Chalten - do it. It's cheaper, less crowded, bigger and you get a free boat ride!
Patagonia Aventura offer three ways to visit the glacier:
(i) A slow boat ride which visits the front of the glacier. Approx. 3 hour day.
(ii) Viedma Light: Mini-trekking (GBP ?40-45) on the glacier. Approx 5-6 hour day
(iii) Viedma Pro: Mini-trekking plus "ice climbing" (GBP 70-75) Approx 8-9 hour day.
These prices include the coach and boat transfer. I'm not sure the ice-climbing (Viedma Pro) is worth it as the group seemed to spend a lot of time waiting and watching other members of the group. The climbing was largely on large, inclined ramps and didn't really require the top rope they put up. In essence, if you've been ice climbing before you wont appreciate it at all.
We booked our trip the day before from their offices in El Chalten. It's about a 20 minute coach ride from El Chalten to the "port" on Lake Viedma. You then board a boat which takes about an hour to reach the glacier. After scrambling over some cliffs and being given a geological history of the glacier you don crampons and venture out onto the glacier. I think we were gone for about 2 hours on the glacier. The guides were great fun, spoke excellent English and took us to see some amazing features of the glacier. The trip ended with some Bailey's over glacial ice before we headed back on the boat.
Don't forget to bring your lunch!
Definitely worth doing and better than Perito Glacier. However, probably not worth doing both of them.