The Patagonian Ice Fields Research Program is a transformative experience where Chilean and international students and professors can share, explore and work for two weeks on the Patagonian Icefields. The program revolves around three complementary objectives: Education, research and community strengthening.

 

Although these objectives are cross-cutting, the first week emphasizes education. During this period, students learn to live and navigate in a natural and pristine glacier area, including safety measurements, leave-no-trace techniques and teamwork. Next, they learn to handle equipment used in glaciological and geomorphological investigations.

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Research takes center stage during the second week, when students use their learned skills to develop their research projects. Organized into groups, they carry out student-led state-of-the-art scientific projects under the guidance and supervision of professors specializing in glaciology and other earth sciences and a select group of mountain guides with extensive experience in Patagonia.

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The third objective of the program is to generate links between key actors for advancing science: local students, the international academic world and the local community. For this, the program incorporates local students of the Master in Antarctic Sciences with a mention in glaciology from Universidad de Magallanes and international students and professors, who establish deep and lasting ties during two intense weeks on the field in Patagonia. After the field activities, the students present their experiences to the local community. Once their research projects are finished, they have to show their results to the broader community of the area where the program takes place.

From 2021 to 2023, the PIRP expedition visited Grey Glacier (Torres del Paine National Park), and in 2024, it took place on Bernal Glacier, which flows from the heights of the Cordillera de Sarmiento into the waters of Montañas Fjord in the Kawésqar National Park, one of the natural jewels of Patagonia. Future programs will revisit these sites and, hopefully, add new fascinating glaciers to learn, research and share their beauty and insight with the local community.