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Glacier Rabot - No Longer - Rest In Peace

17-May-2021

Glacier Rabot - No Longer - Rest In Peace

On New Year's Eve in 1920, Professor Otto Nordenskjöld, leader of the 1920/21 Swedish Expedition to South America, together with Nils Pallin climbed Knallhatten (in English - The Bowler Hat) about 700 metres above sea level. This was one of the few clear days on this part of the expedition so they were treated to excellant views from the Istmo de Ofqui and Laguna San Rafael in the North to Cerro San Valentin, the largest mountain on the Icefield, Kelly Inlet in the South from where they had come and Isla Xavier in the West. They were the first ever to see this splendid landscape from this vantage point.
One of the glaciers that Nils Pallin, and later Allan Bäckman, photographed was a glacier that Nils Pallin named Glacier Rabot. On Map 3 in Nils Pallin's article in the Alpine Journal titled Mountains And Glaciers In West Patagonia, published in No. 45, 1933, he shows Glacier Rabot flowing from the South Glacier (which is in fact Glacier Benito).
This glacier was named after Charles Rabot (1856-1944), a French explorer, geographer and mountaineer, who chronicled Professor Nordenskjöld's expeditions to Tierra del Fuego in a book of the same name.
The photographs below show the sad fate of Glacier Rabot.

Glacier Rabot photographed by Nils Pallin in 1920*


Glacier Rabot flowing from Glacier Benito, photographed by the United States Air Force in 1944


Glacier Rabot in the foreground, photographed by Martin Sessions in 1973 from Co. Caldenius


The valley that Glacier Rabot used to occupy
photographed from a drone above the summit of Co. Caldenius in 2017


Glacier Rabot should have been between the bare Co Caldenius on the left and the bare hill on the right.
All one can see now is the rapidly thinning Glacier Benito between the two peaks (2017)

NOTE: * Acknowledgements to Nils Pallin's family