An half hour bus ride and an hours boat ride from El Chalten brought us to Glacier Viedna, one of the largest glaciers in South America. As this was my first time on a glacier I expected a flat ice surface, similar to an ice rink. Was I pleasantly surprised when I saw, what I can best describe as, "ice waves" with blue colouring at places. The blue apparently appears where oxygen is trapped. There were also many holes in the ice caused by air pockets. We also saw how a big chunk of ice from the glacier front broke off into the water, fascinating to see! This glacier is said to reseed one meter every year.

We went to a tent in the mountain to fit our gear and started walking towards the ice. Once there, we were asked to wear our crampons. It was a rather weird sensation at first to walk on the ice. We were given a briefing on the various walking techniques when going up, down or laterally on the ice. After walking for a half hour whilst taking in the amazing view we arrived at the point where the guides rigged the ropes and I was super excited to experience my first ice climb. I volunteered to go first and the climb up came so naturally to me, I loved it! We started off with medium difficulty and after 6 climbs on 4 different "ice walls" we got to the ultimate blue ice wall which was the hardest yet most exciting to climb. In stead of climbing up and abseiling back down, we had to abseil down and climb back up. It felt rather isolated down there but so peaceful. One couldn't see anyone until half way up, but the blue ice was so pretty and the challenge was on. Along with motorcycle riding, I am convinced I was born for this! I loved every moment of this experience and today will definitely form part of my trip highlights.