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Published: December 4th 2012
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Hiking into Cochamo Valley
Our first view of the valley on the hike in. Lucas and Joe hurriedly drove off the ferry and reached ground in Puerto Montt. An 8 hour ride along the coast with no food made us overly delighted to see Morgan waiting at the gates of the harbor with a big box of Patagonian Donuts. We happily exchanged travel stories for the next couple of hours before we shifted towards our next goal; climbing in the valley of Cochamó. It is a sanctuary of beautiful granite deep in the coastal rainforest, the walls reminiscent of Yosemite Valley. After having the van pass its mandatory maintenance check, we were all smiles as we headed east bagged down with groceries for the coming week. The drive was beautiful, each of us pointing at plots of land under the mountains we would want to call our own one day. By afternoon we had reached the small town of Cochamó which sits at the toe of that gorgeous valley sharing its name on the estuary Reloncavi. We picked up a few chocolates and headed up the road that takes us a handful of kilometers up valley. At the end of the road we met a gentleman, Claudio, who immediately arranged for us to have a
Waterslide
Joe hittin the natural waterslide near camp. horse help us pack gear up valley. We thanked him kindly and returned to town to try to find a place to get a bite to eat. We enjoyed an unusual treat of salad followed by some delicious pork and rice. We slept well that night after all our gear was organized and packed away tightly.
Before we knew it we were on the mud slick trail heading deep into the rainforest. Still carrying heavy packs (One horse can only carry 60 kilos, and we planned to eat well) we slogged along the gradually elevated trail dodging the quicksand like mud-holes which appeared throughout the hike. Due to the nature of the rainforest and the thick canopy we did not get a glimpse of the walls until we were right under them. Our destination was the Refugio Cochamó which sits perfectly centered amongst the granite Gods. This is the home of all the route topos for the area which are notorious for being drawn on cracker boxes and weather worn paper. It takes a bit of ingenuity and luck to find where the routes start, and even more to try and stay on route. We just laugh, “We like
the adventure, ¿cierto?”
We found a spot across the Rio La Junta where we could camp for free, due to the fact that we have to get wet feet to get anywhere, and set up shop. Hammocks were hung, tents set up, and the sun came out. All was well on the hippy front. We explored up river to the famed natural water slides and gave them a go. What a thrill! We were already in love with this place before we had even touched rock! After the fun was had we decided take a load up to our first climb so we’d have light packs the following morning. A beautiful hike was had and we managed to get a good look at our climb for the next day. “Looks kind of slabby,” we thought.
The next morning we arrived up in Valle Paloma greeted by the morning sun. Today we would climb “Erotica”, a supposed moderate climb with a crux 5.10b pitch at the top. We picked up our gear and scrambled our first few pitches solo before we decided to rope up. The route looked fun from the bottom and we were all excited for
Cable car across Rio Cochamo
The driest way to cross the rio Cochamo to access the Refugio the big day ahead. Lucas took the first lead and picked his way up the route. He set up a belay on a nice ledge big enough for us all to have a seat and brought us up. From there Joe was to take the lead, the 5.9 run-out slab pitch. After no more than 15 feet of climbing Joe didn’t like the look of things to come and handed the reigns over to Morgan, the maestro. With some impressive slab climbing Morgan was quickly out of sight above our belay, from there progress was slow and Lucas and I could hear the occasional curse words ringing from above. The pitched turned out to be extremely difficult to protect (5 pieces in 70m???), and it didn’t look much better beyond that. None of us fancied this sort of climbing anyways, was it worth it to push on? The decision was made to head back down. (In search of splitters, we go!) Our first experience with the water runnels and flares of Cochamó was an eye opener. That was for sure.
We ended up climbing at the little protected sport crag that afternoon to get a good burn in so
we could justify our overly large meal the night before. The next days involved some more study of route topos, relaxing, swimming, and total disregard for the rare beautiful weather.
The night of the 30
th we packed up our bags and got ready for our 2am departure for Cerro Trinidad, the largest and arguably most beautiful of the granite mountains. We were to try the Dich und Dorf route on the North Face. 15 pitches of what look to be beautiful cracks. There was some rain forecast but we had crossed our fingers tightly and hoped that would do. A few trickles came down as we lay in our hammocks… then a few more… “It can’t be anything threatening, it’ll pass” we thought. Then came the real rain, we quickly covered our gear and jumped into the tents to seek shelter. “It’ll pass.” At 2am the alarm rang noisily but somewhat subdued by the pitter patter on the tent. We won’t be climbing today. We rolled over and dreamt of dry weather, how foolish that we not do more climbing in those days of sunshine! The rain never passed, and we did some sport climbing at the protected wall
Approaching Valle paloma
Luke using a fix line on the approach to valle paloma with our newfound Canadian friend Shawn.
We checked in at the Refugio, news of more rain to come. After throwing around some thoughts we decided to head out early and wait out the rain in Puerto Varas where we currently await Karen Bennett’s arrival (Morgan’s Mama). We plan to give her a wonderful greeting! On the 5
th of December we will head back into Cochamó and plan to make use of every ounce of precious sunshine, should we be granted any. Send us some prayers for good weather!
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