I Go Where You Go: Cochamo Valley, Trails by Climbers for Climbers (Patagonia, pt 2)

Close friends of ours had spent a good bit of time in Chile over the years. They told grand tales of South America's own Yosemite Valley called Cochamo Valley. To the uninitiated, that analogy might only mean that Cochamo is a valley of granite walls with unbridled beauty but what it means on top of incredible beauty is that Cochamo is rock climbing paradise.

The reward for many hours of hiking

We're both dilettante rock climbers, we go to a rock climbing gym regularly when we're home and we climb outdoors from time to time when our friends are kind enough to let us mooch off their expertise and gear. Climbing is great fun, great exercise and for me (Bill) it's about the only workout that I consistently look forward to. With all that said, we are not remotely even qualified to launch a climbing expedition into Cochamo but the idea of going and seeing this awesome place is very appealing, at least to me!

Great views in Cochamo Valley

Cochamo Valley is in the lakes region of Patagonia outside of Puerto Montt. After a couple hour bus ride, then a taxi or hitchhike to the trail head, access to Cochamo Valley is a 5 hour hike or a slightly shorter, more jarring, horseback ride. I'm not a fan of horses. Big dumb (beautiful, friendly, sublime, yes, but still dumb) animals holding my life at risk don't appeal to me so we walked.

The primary mode of high speed transportation in the valley

Walking in means that you get to walk across really sketchy bridges like this one that is far sketchier than anything we saw in Nepal. You know Nepal, the country that doesn't have a traffic light? Well they build better back country bridges than Chile. This bridge has no railings, no netting, plenty of bounce, twist and sway... Anyway.

Sketchy bridge, this picture doesn't really capture it.

There is very little differentiation between the 4-legged and 2-legged trail... and in case you didn't know it, horses lay waste to trails. Many sections of the trail were submerged 10 feet from the surrounding terrain by a process of horse and water erosion.

Lots of rain and horse traffic made this ditch possible...

Throw in rain the day before we hiked in and you can imagine this made for a very muddy trail. The only good news in this is that there were tons of side trails that reduce the amount of mud you had to traipse through but this means very slow going. It also means I end up writing the blog post because my partner in crime wasn't 100% sure that she could paint all this fun in an endearing light.

Did I mention that the lakes region has around 300 days of rain a year?

Anyway, the quoted 4-5 hr hike in was more like 6 hrs thanks to constant weaving around mud bogs, but the reward was stunning, granite walls all around, wide meadows, and a stream we drank directly from.

Nice sand bar in the Cochamo river

Most visitors to the valley camp, but we're not equipped for camping, not mentally or physically but our saving grace is what they call a Refugio.

Our civilization away from civilization, the Cochamo Refugio

It's very similar to the huts we stayed at in Slovenia except you bring your own food and use their kitchen. The building is impressive as well considering everything that isn't stone or wood has to make its way up the horse trail: toilets, wood stoves, water heaters, concrete, windows, you name it. The construction is beautiful.

Not much but we called it home for three nights. We shared this dorm room with several other trekkers.

Seeing construction in austere environments is not what we came for though! We settle in for a good night's sleep and the next day we set out for a hike up to the Amphitheater, which I knew nothing about, other than the name suggests it is probably pretty cool. We're told by some other hikers in the Refugio that they tried to get there but got lost, similar to the trail coming into the valley, the trail would split, and they would eventually lose their way... This wasn't promising but they did offer that it at least wasn't nearly as muddy as the way in.

Everything is that-a-way, what could go wrong?

We get some local advice on where to go and critical to our success, we're told to follow the ribbon markers along the trail, and that there isn't any specific color, just follow them. This valley is all private land but Chilean law allows people to pass through on foot. With that said there isn't management of the trails, it is completely ad hoc.

Um, I think we just keep going up this slippery rock face

And here is where the title to this blog kicks in. The people with the original motivation to go up to the amphitheater and the other great rock faces around the valley are all climbers. Climbers are some of the toughest and most intelligent adventure seekers you'll come across. They waste no effort in their quests and they are not demurred by completely vertical terrain.

They took a bit of mercy on us all and put a rope in here, yes you need to use it to cross, it goes down just as much as it goes up.

Taking that into account and the trails up to the climbing areas end up being incredibly tough compared to anything I'd call a trail in the US. The trails are consistently steep and narrow and hardly developed, just what you'd expect if your goal was just to get to the rock face and camp for weeks on end before coming out as these climber types do. Why waste time building trails when you could climb?

Ad hoc ladder here. Why? You need a ladder here.

The good news is that the markings are frequent and very visible. The going is slow, we're told around 6 hrs but it ends up being more like 7.5 hrs by the time we're done.

One of many many log crossings

The reward is substantial. We've seen tons of places on this trip that are called "The Amphitheater" but I have to say this is the first one that I've actually thought, YES this deserves that title. The Cochamo Amphitheater is the end of a glacial valley and is sheer granite cliffs through 180 degrees of view.

Great views at the top!

We talk with some climbers who have been camped at the wall for a week and they're stoked because it's been raining most of the time they have been there but the rock walls are starting to dry out. They're kind enough to take some pictures of us and after a sugary lunch on the rocks while gazing at the ancient spectacle before us we head back down.

Epic picture opportunities abound!

The trip up was punctuated with lots of stopping, scratching our heads while thinking surely that can't be where the trail goes but the trip down is much more straight forward and goes a lot faster. There is a waterfall side trip we passed up earlier but I go check it out and just like everything else in Patagonia, it's pretty cool too.

Nice waterfall on the way back to the Refugio

With a few hours of daylight left we stumble back into the Refugio, cook dinner and sleep like logs.

Home sweet home! notice the climbing wall under the Refugio, just behind the tree

The next day's excursion wasn't quite as ambitious as a 7 hr hike, we lounge on the deck of the Refugio reading for a few hours and then go check out the nearby natural water slide.

Nice views from the Refugio deck

I didn't mention it earlier but getting to our Refugio requires crossing the Cochamo river in a tiny manually operated, single person cable car. First time across it is extraordinarily exciting and fun, by the fourth ride your hands start to get a bit raw but its another thing that adds to the flavor of our visit to the Valley.

The water slide is just a short hike but it requires crossing the smaller La Junta River. La Junta is also the name of the area where the Refugio and several campgrounds are.

Trying to cross the river with out removing my shoes... and failing too

Once across, the water slide makes for a great snack spot, neither of us could muster the gumption to try it... besides the many many warnings about people getting hurt, there was the real reason, the water was painfully cold!