Al Rio!

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River!

The Futaleufu is a world class, big-water, glacier fed, turquoise and beautiful river that flows from the eastern side of the Andes in Argentina, but then swings backward from its natural easterly course and cuts the Andes in two by heading back to Chile and making a short and steep plunge to the Pacific. While not as long or deep as the Grand Canyon, the water and rapids in the Fu are of similar size. While not having any famous mountains nearby, the canyon systems of the valley are deep, green, forested valleys filled with glaciers and jutting volcanic peaks. It is a magnificent pastoral glacial valley.

The Fu is also a precious remaining gem. Several of the biggest whitewater and wild rivers in Chile have been dammed over the past 50 years, and of the three biggest remaining wild rivers in Patagonia, all 3 have dams planned. See International Rivers or Futa Friends for more information. As if the damming weren't headache enough, there is a potential gold mine operation in one tributary, and last summer the Volcano Chaiten outside the nearby city of Chaiten erupted in a stunning and powerful display. This explosion destroyed and 'closed' Chaiten. It is a ghost town. Many of its residents have move upstream to the smaller town of Futaleufu. Needless to say, this valley is struggling to hold on to its once-secret beauty. The valley is still rural sheep pasture, partly covered in ash.

And the Fu is big! Several class IV and V rapids made it the most consistent big water river Kati or I had paddled. How I longed to be in the guide seat, but paddling in front was rush enough! And the Fu, finally, was decadent. Our splurge for the trip was a venture with Bio Bio Expeditions as our guides for the trip. Bio Bio maintains a private riverside camp for a quarter-mile along the Fu between two of its principal canyon-runs. We stayed in a wooded platform with a queen size bed. The guides and staff cooked all meals on the asado, late afternoons offered yoga, open bar and a hand crafted stone hot tub with a "snorkel" wood stove. And finally, we met good people - the guides, the Argentines and Chilenos who worked with them. Guides included at least one star of several well-known kayak movies. So although we were at one camp, it still had a river trip 'feel' to it.

We did two days of class IV and V rafting. Our first day started with several miles on horseback up the Rio Azul valley, where we met up with the crew who had duckies waiting for us for the big Class III drops and the tiny canyon of the turquoise river. That day was a beautiful and exciting ducky float, culminating with the Cheese-Grater - a class IV.

Our second day brought us to the precipice of Inferno Canyon, which boasts 3 class V rapids - including Dynamite - a class III recently turned to a class V by road construction high above. However, while pushing off after scouting the Entrada rapid from shore, our raft blew a giant hole. We had to push, paddle and line the boat upstream for about 100 meters and beach her, then hike out back to town! It was a crazy adventure. Our day was still salvaged with some good coordination we got back to camp and ran the lower section of the river. The lower section included Mundaca- a class IV that flipped a 14-foot cataraft in our group, and Casa de Piedra, a technical class V to close the day.

The next day we ran Inferno Canyon, and it was big. Waves that swallowed and threw our 18 foot craft- big dynamic moving rapids. Entrada, the Wall Shot, Dynamite, the Throne and the Class 6 Zeta rapid we could not run. The Fu had it all! Culminating with the long and large Terminator.

The best part, of course, was getting back to camp where the "hot tub was hot and the beers were cold." We could cliff jump 10 feet from the hot tub, we wined and dined and were pampered in a rustic fashion, which was just great by us, and took a welcome posh and exciting rest stop on our journey.

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Photos

three nuns peak
missing a nun as of last year

on the trail
giddy-up!

Mark gets ready to cliff jump
In the crystal clear Azul

The hot tub
The motto at camp was, "the hot tub's hot, the beers are cold."

the fu
as seen from camp

Put in - Rio Espolon
Notice the ash everywhere!

Our guide
Phil was a true professional.

Scouting Entrada
this rapid was one of the more mild rapids and looked and ran just like Skull Rapid in Westwater Canyon

Comments

[Jay Hermon]

Wow! Epic
Wow, I dream about the Fu weekly! I am stoked you ran it. When you ran Entrada rapid did you get the paddle blown out of your hands like you did in Skull rapid a few years ago?