Hiking in Valle Cochamó

“It is the Yosemite of Chile.” That was all that was needed to pique my interest in Valle Cochamó. Everything further I was told just emphasized that I needed to get there soon.

My first chance to visit came as a result of a conference in Puerto Varas, just two hours away from Cochamó. Since I was going to be down in the South of Chile (not the far South, but still South), it seemed like a great opportunity to get out. When I learned that a couple other postdocs would be venturing to Cochamó after the conference, I organized an outing.

Kelly arrived two days after the conference, and I picked her up from the airport in Puerto Montt. We spent a night in Puerto Varas before starting our adventure. We made a point to get to the bus stop a bit early, to ensure we would not miss it.

Where is the bus? Is this the right place to pick it up? What if we missed it?

There are other people with backpacks – are they going to Cochamó too?

The bus eventually arrived, at which point I realized how silly it was to arrive early for a bus in Chile. But, we were on our way.

After a couple hours riding through the Chilean countryside, we arrived in the sleepy town of Cochamó. A little uncertain where to actually disembark, we jumped off the bus in town, leaving the other backpack-wearing couple to continue the bus journey. We then wandered into the local information center to inquire about a taxi from town to the trailhead (to save us a lengthy walk along a dirt road). After some broken Spanish, we waited for the van to arrive and ferry us from town to the trailhead.

Day 1: Hiking into the Valley

Things went smoothly from here on, and we were registered at the trailhead and hiking within an hour. We encountered only a couple people on the 14 km hike in. Overall the trails were in decent condition, though there were places with substantial mud. Most stretches of trail were a web of interlinking braids, formed as hikers of years past avoided ankle-deep (or deeper) mud on the main trail. At first glance, this would seem to make following the trail difficult. But, if one kept on in the same general direction, all these braids eventually rejoined after the mud ceased, only to spread out again at the next water-soaked bog.

By mid-afternoon we had arrived at our destination, the Refugio Cochamó, in the Junta meadow. This well-stocked hut was the climbing center of the valley and featured a shelf of binders full of climbing topos, describing the various routes established on the many granite domes in the valley. The views from the meadow, the refugio, and the trail in were incredible. The domes (5 of them taller than 1000m) towered over the valley, and it was clear that plenty of climbing was available in the area.

After dropping our packs off at the refugio, Kelly and I went back out on the trail to do some exploring of the meadow. Along the way, we ran into the other postdocs who had made it to the valley a couple days earlier, as they were heading back to the refugio. Kelly and I hiked another couple km, including a quick visit to a nearby waterfall (there are many in the valley), before returning to the refugio for a pizza.

We enjoyed a pizza with Graeme and Yara (also postdocs in Concepción) and the other four people in their group (also mostly astronomers). After dinner we played a word game and called it a not-too-late night – Kelly and I were planning a long hike up to the Anfiteatro and the others had to hike out and catch the 1400 bus in Cochamó. But, the early-to-bed plan did not stop us from enjoying the star-filled skies. We re-purposed the spotting scope (used to watch climbers on the nearby cliffs) to look at the moons of Jupiter. The son of the refugio owner was quite excited to see the moons for the first time.

Day 2: Up to the Anfiteatro

I woke up next morning early enough to have a cup of coffee with the others and to say “goodbye” before the headed out of the valley. I let Kelly sleep in some; a full day of travel followed by a day of backpacking requires some rest. After she woke up, we had breakfast at the refugio before shouldering our packs and starting up towards the Anfiteatro. Finding the trailhead involved a bit of searching and, at one point, crawling under a barbed wire fence, but we located the trail split in a meadow and then began quickly gaining elevation.

The lower portion of the trail wound its way through the forest, ever marching uphill. It was in good condition most places, with occasional scrambles over downed trees and bamboo. We had a few stream crossings over logs and one rope-assisted crossing of a wide rocky slab. Looking up at these points, you could see the granite domes looming over the valley.

Around lunchtime we reached the Anfiteatro; the trees became shorter and shorter until they disappeared entirely, and the wide rocky amphitheater opened up in front of us. It was an impressive sight, granite walls towering over us – ample ground for rock climbing. We walked uphill to a large boulder and spent an hour sitting on it, eating lunch, resting, and watching lenticular clouds form, while a bumblebee buzzed around us, trying to figure out what kinds of flowers we were.

After the rest we decided to continue upwards, in a scree gully to see what the Anfiteatro looked like from the base of the granite walls. We put one foot ahead of the other for the next hour and a half, inching closer to the walls, but never quite reaching them. Deciding we did not want to miss dinner, we turned around and descended the scree field (after a bush-whacking detour through a slope of scrub).

On the way down we took a slight detour to see some of the waterfalls a ways below the Anfiteatro. Though our feet were getting tired and our bellies were thinking of the pepperoni and caramelized onion pizza waiting for us, it was well worth the added effort to see the cascading water.

Back at the refugio, it felt great to be able to take our boots off and lounge around while we waited for dinner. We enjoyed sitting on the porch and watching the shadows and clouds move as evening wore on. Eventually, we migrated inside, to keep warm, and spent some time reading through the binders of hand-drawn topos for new climbing routes in the valley. I think it was my first time holding a hand-drawn topo and it was fun to read the stories behind the climbs and see the artwork of the climbers who established the routes. Later, a few climbers arrived at the refugio and began playing music on the porch – funny that you can travel halfway around the world and still hear people singing about West Virginia (“Take Me Home, Country Roads”).

Eventually, with a belly full of pizza, we called it a night, aiming to get up the next morning and hike back out.

Day 3: Back to Puerto Varas

In the morning we shouldered our packs after another tasty breakfast (and after paying our bill) and began retracing our steps out of the valley. As suggested by yesterday’s lenticular clouds, the overcast skies promised rain, and we hiked quickly to try and get back into town before the clouds opened on us.

We reached the trailhead shortly after noon, and joined up with another hiker in waiting for a van to take us from the trailhead to town. Over a radio, the van driver said he did not feel like working and so would not be picking us up for another hour or two! The guy manning the trailhead hut managed to convince the van driver to come earlier, and 15 minutes later, we were in the van on our way back to the town of Cochamó. We had plenty of time in town to wait for the bus, so we took a quick walk to the waterfront, Estuario de Reloncaví. The misty rain and overcast skies gave the water a serious look.

Finally, after much waiting, the rumbling of the bus’s diesel engines heralded the arrival of our chariot. We put our backpacks in the cargo hold and climbed into our seats and settled in for the warm, humid ride back to Puerto Varas…

Epilogue

Valle Cochamó is an awesome place. The lack of roads into the valley has keep it fairly pristine. Though we were only there for a few days, it was a really cool experience. I have done little rock climbing in the past three or four years, and being in the valley made me wish I had kept up with climbing more; it would be awesome to head back there and spend some time on the granite walls. Good thing I have a few years left in Chile!

More pictures from Valle Cochamó are available.