Photo Gallery

Lake Nahuel Huapi (Araucanian for ‘Lake of Tiger Island’), which is comparable in size (529 km²) to Lake Constance, is a vast glacial trough into which several glacial streams converged. This explains its intricate network of fjord-like branches. It is known as the ‘Lake Lucerne’ of Argentina, whilst the surrounding mountain landscape, including the skiing paradise at Cerro Catedral (2,388 m), is referred to as the ‘Argentine Switzerland’. - Book: Picture 196 - Argentina - 1973

As the eastern tongue of the great Patagonian ice field, the 17-kilometre-long Moreno Glacier stretches down to the southern arm of Lago Argentino, where it ends in a 70-metre-high ice wall. Its scientific discoverer, R. Hauthal, had named it the ‘Bismarck Glacier’ in 1899; it was given its current name in honour of the Argentine naturalist F. P. Moreno. Even in Hauthal’s day, clear signs of irregular advances were evident, whilst the other Southern Andes glaciers were already retreating. Since then, the Canal de los Témpanos has been completely blocked on several occasions, leading to a build-up of water in the southern part of the lake and catastrophic flooding, prompting attempts – in vain – to blast the ice wall with bombs. It was only after a transverse crevasse had formed in the 2 to 2.5-kilometre-wide glacier tongue that the floodwaters drained away. Today, the ‘Canal de los Témpanos’ is open again. - Book: Picture 204 - Argentina - 1973