From far above, the ice field appears a wide white ribbon wending through the mountains. From close, it becomes its own landscape, an undulating desert in white and gray, crossed by troughs, ridges and streams of running blue. Rain drills pockmarks, which the sun then smooths away. Up close, trillions of crystals reveal their facets. Like all glaciers, the icefield shifts and moves, carrying dirt and stones as it rolls down from its heights. It frays at the edges and large sections calve off, revealing an iridescence and creating sculptures of ice, sun and wind.

The Northern Ice Field in Chilean Patagonia is one of the largest glaciers outside the Artic. Part of an ice sheet covering the southern Andes Mountains, its toes reach to the Pacific Ocean in the west and numerous lakes and rivers in the east. It is fed by moisture that builds up as clouds stream over the wide Pacific and release their load on hitting the Andes. 

Due to a combination of environmental factors, the Northern Icefield is in retreat, leaving behind gullies, milky rivers and dusty flats. Efforts to combat climate change, promote environmental conservation and accelerate sustainable development could not be more urgent for this, the Aysen, region of Chile.

I made this series of photographs in the San Rafael National Park in Chile between the heads of the Soler and Colonia river valleys, including near the Neff and Colonia Glaciers in March and April 2006.

Outer Environments