The Exploradores in Chile’s Laguna San Rafael national park. — NATALIA REYES ESCOBAR/Wikimedia Commons
The decision by Chile’s National Forestry Corporation to permanently ban hikers from a popular glacier in Patagonia has incensed adventurers and local guides alike. What officials see as a question of safety – citing rapid, destabilising melting – has sparked a debate over the risks of ice-climbing in a rapidly changing climate.
The Explorers Glacier, or Exploradores, in Laguna San Rafael national park had been a well-trodden ice-hiking destination in the southern region of Aysen for at least two decades. But a two-week study by government hydrologists, found the glacier is reaching a dangerously unstable “inflection point”.
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