Upsala glacier is north of El Calafate, on a north west arm (Brazo Norte) of Lago Argentino. It was named after the Swedish town of Uppsala, whose university sponsored its study.  It is about 54 km long, about 3 km wide at the terminus (the end) and has an area of 840 square kilometres, which 3.5 times the size of the Perito Moreno glacier.  It widens rapidly above the terminus to more than 6 km wide.

It is famous for its blue icebergs and its large ice sheet.

The colours are really the amazing blue in the photos, I did not use photoshop to enhance them.As always the photos are copyright but you can purchase a license for commercial use, please contact me.

The map  below shows where the Upsala glacier is located. It starts west of Lago Viedmar and flows down to the Brazo Norte arm of Lago Argentino. The Spegazzini glacier starts on a lower side arm of Brazo Norte. This is easier to see if you click on the satellite image.

Both glaciers are north of the Perito Moreno glacier. All the glaciers are part of the southern Patagonia ice field.

The boat trip starts from Puerto Bandera, which is about 30 kilometre from El Calafate. You travel west along Lago Argentino and into the north west arm called Brazo Norte. Then you head north to the Upsala glacier. The early photos were taken along Lago Argentino, then the upper most reaches of Brazo Norte where the Upsala glacier flows into it.

In the left photo in the bottom row below, which has a close-up of the western side of the Upsala glacier terminus, the ragged ice flow is actually the much smaller Bertacchi glacier which joins the Upsala at the terminus. Over a decade ago, the Upsala glacier terminus was over a kilometre south in Brazo Norte and the Bertacchi joined before the Upsala terminus.

The last two photos give an idea of the size of the Upsala ice sheet.

As we motored north, we encountered more and more icebergs, that calved off the Upsala glacier. Also we unfortunately went from sunshine into an overcast cloudy sky, which somewhat dulled the colours seen in the photos. Occasionally I had luck with a break in the clouds to get some mild sunshine.

Come prepared! I was glad to have my warm winter skiing jacket, thermals, fleece gloves and hat as even in the middle of summer the temperatures are cold!

In the following photos you can see the spectacular blue colour of the icebergs, or blue bergs as I like to call them :-). 

I particularly liked some of the shapes caused by ice melt in the water.

Generally the ice melts faster in the water and depending on how it melts, it can cause the iceberg to flip or roll over. When you see white ice, this usually means that surface has only been exposed to air, when you see the blue colour, particularly with strip patterns, this was usually in the water earlier and then flipped or rolled over at some point in time, exposing the ice that was in the water before.