Back on the Grey after 12 years
It’s not always possible to do everything as planned, but when the plans are to completely change it’s necessary to know how to re-organize everything.
This is what happened to us during the organization of Patagonia 2016 expedition. The main objective had to be the exploration of Argentine glaciers, but due to bureaucratic problems arose at the last minute we had to move the expedition taking the opportunity to back on the Grey Glacier in Chile, where some of us have explored ice caves many years ago during an expedition organized by the Association La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche.
New caves, new friends..
However, this change of programs allowed us to meet new people, starting a collaboration that we hope will become constant and continue with the CONAF (Corporación Nacional Forestal) and the Parque Nacional Torres del Paine.
Since 2004 the glacier has retreated a lot, but the area with the presence of pits was more or less in the same place.
During the camp of 5 days, several pits (including a pair of beautiful and big sinkholes respectively of 90 and 40 m depth) and some contact caves have been explored, performing 3D photogrammetry models on the entrance of two of the biggest shafts explored to better understand the internal drainage of this glacier.
Here is a short video of the 3D works realized:
This expedition was organized by the Cultural Association La Venta Esplorazioni Geografiche with the support of:
Konus, SRC, Aspros, Tiberino, Amphibious, Gruppo Servizi Topografici, Dolomite, Ferrino, De Walt, Scurion, New Foods, Raumer.