Paramotoring Patagonia

One of the highlights of my travels in Chile was flying over the famous San Rafael glacier in Aysén, Patagonia. It’s one of the major outlet glaciers of the Northern Patagonian Ice Field in southern Chile and carves its way directly into the Pacific Ocean. I first set eyes on the natural wonder in 2024. A rainy spell had interrupted our paramotoring, so we made a 200km, 12-hour boat trip on a 42m catamaran from Puerto Chacabuco to Laguna San Rafael to see it. The creaking and cracking of the frozen river of compacted snow and the almost electric blue icebergs were enchanting. 

I soon found myself dreaming of flying my paramotor over the glacier. And dreaming soon morphed into serious planning. At first it seemed impractical, but one by one, I began to overcome many of the challenges of flying in the remote wilderness. However, there was one wildcard that no amount of planning could overcome...