Exploradores Glacier & Villa O'Higgins, Carretera Austral in Chile (Patagonia Expedition #04)

In the 4th episode of the Patagonia Expedition we are going to ice hike on the Exploradores Glacier in the Laguna San Rafael National Park before we continue our way down to the end of the Carretera Austral in Villa O’Higgins.
My Guide for Chile:
Kristins Article:
--- equipment used to produce this video ---
Cam1:Sony A7 II
Cam2: Sony NEX 5
Cam3: GoPro
Drone: Phantom 3 Pro
Drone Backpack: Manfrotto D1
Amazon Tripod
Joby Gorillapod
Audio Recorder: Zoom H2n
SDHC Memory Card
Waterproof Memory Card Case
Backpack Osprey Farpoint 40
The Carretera Austral is a 1200km long road in the south of Chile which connects the most remote areas of the country. The ruta 7 is a paradise for adventure seekers as it is a mostly unpaved road which brings you to the lesser known parts of Patagonia in the stunning Los Lagos and Aysen Region.
Our plan was to get from Puerto Montt till Villa O’Higgins by thumb to get in touch with locals and fellow adventurers along the way. After making our way down from Puerto Montt to Puerto Rio Tranquilo in the last episodes we decided to stay in one place for a few days to be able to do more activities. In the last previous episode we finished with the visit of the Marble Caves, in this episode we went on a full day „big ice“ excursion at the Glaciar Exploradores.
The Exploradores Glacier is situated on the northeastern slope of Monte San Valentín inside the Laguna San Rafael National Park and is a part of the Northern Patagonian Icefield. This ice field is the smaller of two remnant parts in which the Patagonian Ice Sheet in the Andes Mountains of lower South America can be divided.
Nowadays it is completely contained within the boundaries of Laguna San Rafael National Park. Once the Patagonian Ice Sheet was an extensive ice sheet that covered all of Chilean Patagonia and the westernmost parts of Argentine Patagonia during the Quaternary glaciations. Today, with its glaciers largely in retreat and only an area of 4,200 km2 (1,600 sq mi), the northern patagonian ice field is still the second largest continuous mass of ice outside of the polar regions.
This part of the trip was executed within 1week by using altogether 3 public buses and one ferry - following I list all the places we visited & Things to do at the Carretera Austral:
- Exploradores Glacier / Laguna San Rafael National Park
- Northern Patagonian Ice Field
- Cochrane & Rio Baker
- Villa O'Higgins
- Cerro Altavista
- Puerto Rio Tranquilo
- Marble Caves / Capillas de Marmol
- Lago General Carrera
I'm excited to share all our experiences in Patagonia over the course of the next 6 weeks with you. In the next episode we will do a boat excursion to the impressive O’Higgins glacier, cross into Argentina on foot and meet impressive characters along the way.
The Patagonian Expedition is a 95% self funded video documentary project following my trip in 2012/2013. Our aim is to show you the beauty of the rather unknown parts in Patagonia alongside with the famous spots.
Beside beautiful landscape you can expect loads of information and our personal experiences and struggles along the way.
--- my travel equipment ---
insurance
packing list
Online Language Course
The whole trip was executed over the course of 2 months using mostly local transport such as busses, cars and trucks. A big thank you goes to Lufthansa for providing the flights into and out of South America in their new Premium Economy Class!
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