Ushuaia, Argentina: Walking to Glacier Martial and in Tierra del Fuego national park

One of Rafe’s wishes for this trip around the world was to get up close to, and if possible to walk on, a glacier. In New Zealand we sighted the Franz Josef glacier but couldn’t get particularly close to it as it is receding rapidly due to climate change. Here, Glacier Martial is clearly visible from Ushuaia town so it was the natural thing to do to get up the mountain to see how close we could get to it. We tucked a few snacks in our pack and threw in our cold weather gear as we could see it looked quite snowy up there, despite it being a balmy 5 degrees in the town.

The first step was to drive the handful of kilometres north out of town up to the collection of buildings that in winter form the base of the local ski area. From there it was a pleasant ~1.4km walk up to the top station of the ski slope. We took the walking path by the stream, but this time of year there is also option of the slightly more direct route up the gravel of the ski slope itself. Along the way we came across the first little pockets of snow lying on the ground beside the path, and it wasn’t long before sporadic snowball bombardments were exchanged. Rafe enjoyed lying in wait to ambush unsuspecting family members.

From the top ski station it was another couple of hundred metres up to a viewing point which marks the start of the walking route up to the glacier itself. There was a sign here which was comprehensively covered in stickers, but if we had looked closely enough it would have told us what to expect for the walk upwards.

The view from here allowed us to identify the interesting characteristics of the glacier. Glacier Martial is a cirque glacier, with the ice sitting in a bowl shaped depression above the valley cared by ice thousands of years ago when glaciers covered the mountains. Glacier Martial actually comprises three separate bowls of ice.

The next 1.7km was quite steep at times as we crossed the glacier moraine deposits, with loose gravel, as well as intermittent sections of snow and ice. Rafe was pleased to find that we needed to traverse the snowy sections as for him this indicated we were ‘having a proper adventure’. In truth it was safe enough, although this route would have been orders of magnitude more difficult in the autumn or winter (and potentially not possible at all, especially with the kids). As it was, the few other people we encountered were impressed with Rafe and Odessa’s stamina and determination to get to the top.

Just before we reached the end of the trail we took a moment to sample the glacial run-off from the stream in traditional (for us at least) fashion. We subsequently learnt that the Martial Glacier is an important water source for the town of Ushuaia, where the tap water is perfectly drinkable so it ought to be good stuff here.

The challenge from here was to see how close we could get to the foot of the glacier. We could clearly see it now some couple of hundred metres further up. As we climbed this final steep section it soon became clear that to get right to the face which sits at around 1000m above sea level would take some tricky scrambling up the last 25 metres or so – nevertheless a strong achievement to get up this far. Instead the kids set out to hunt for the icicles they had spotted forming on the rocks just below the face. They returned proudly bearing two, each as big as their own thigh bones.

There was just enough time for the obligatory selfie with the majestic view south towards Isla Navarino and Cape Horn, a drink and a snack before heading back down.

Tierra del Fuego National Park

Tierra del Fuego National Park covers nearly 70000 hectares in the south west of the Argentine part of Isla Tierra del Fuego, starting 12km west of Ushuaia, stretching on to the Chilean border and 60km northwards. It is the only national park in Argentina which spans marine, forest and mountain environments and is renowned for its flora, fauna and long hiking routes, as well being well set up with several much shorter trails seemingly tailormade for us.

Tierra del Fuego expands on the ‘end of the world’ claims which abound in Ushuaia. The Pan American Highway starts / ends (depending on your perspective) within the park, and much is made of Ruta 3 ending here too – making it the southernmost paved road in the world. This point is marked with a large sign – we imagined the 17,848km to Alaska must either seem a very daunting prospect or a cause for big celebrations, depending if you are coming or going from here.

We had a few options to get to the park – on a bus a tour, or by taxi, but as often happens the best value (and most flexible) option was to rent a car. On arrival at the park, we paid our park entry cost -5500 ARS per adult and 1,500 for Rafe, which we did think was a little steep at over £50 at the current conversion to GBP. We headed to the Lapataia bay area of the park right at the end of Ruta 3 where there are six short hiking paths between 0.5 – 3 km, which each take in different scenery of the park.

First, we took the Castorera path, a quick and easy trip to visit a beaver dam, showing the impact these exotic rodents have made in the park. In 1946, 25 pairs of beavers were introduced from Canada with the hope of creating a lucrative fur trade in the region. The information posts didn’t mention if this was successful in any way, but with no natural predators the beavers have thrived and there are now over 200,000 of them in the Tierra del Fugeo archipelago between Chile and Argentina. Their habits have dramatically changed the environment and ecosystem of the islands. We were disappointed not to see any of the reclusive mammals, but were suitably impressed by the dams they have constructed and evidence of their legendary tree-felling skills on tree stumps we found along the path.

Next up was the 3km Senda da la Baliza hike. Here we started out walking along decking around Lapataia Bay and then following a path through woodland to a quiet little bay with mountains towering above. We finished off the afternoon with a walk across a peat bog and up to a viewpoint over the lake and the Paseo del la Isla hike where we were able to spot steamer ducks and other water birds. We also encountered some very bold caranchos wandering about.

There is a little steam train (tren del fin du monde, fitting with the marketing of the area) which starts a little outside the national park and covers the last 7km of an old train line which linked the prison in Ushuaia with the forests here, primarily used to transport timber to the prison. Now recreated in relative luxury, it travels along the Pico Valley. Although the train gets good reviews for the experience, it only works as a little pleasure ride and isn’t useful in actually accessing most trails and sights in the park. The fact we were a little short on time, plus the price meant we decided to give the experience a miss.