In the summer of 1972, my mentor and colleague, Prof. Gunnar Østrem, was leading a
UNESCO-sponsored mission to Argentina to instruct engineers and hydrologists on the
principles and methods of glacier mass balance measurements and the study of glacier
hydrology. During one of their many field excursions to the front ranges of the Andes
above Mendosa, they came upon a small village whose people made their livelihood from
the production of grapes. The villagers drew water from a stream that had its source in
the alpine, where one distinct valley glacier had been present.