Hiking at the End of Cajon de Maipo

A crowd of us spent part of the long holiday weekend hiking in the Andes. The weather was perfect for some time in the mountains, with warm temperatures and sunny skies. All told, twelve of us joined, with seven people hiking Saturday and the other five hiking Saturday and Sunday. The hiking was fun, though the weekend was not without its unexpected “adventures”…

Day 1: Changing Objectives and Hiking Towards Cerro Puntiagudo

We left Santiago between 0800 and 0900, in four separate vehicles from different parts of town, all planning to meet in the main square of San Jose de Maipo. The traffic up into the Cajon was fairly light and we made good time. We began assembling in the center of San Jose, standing in the cool mountain air and basking in the warm morning light while the rest of the cars arrived in town. After chatting a bit we caravanned out of town, heading towards the back of the valley.

Every time I drive to the end of the Cajon de Maipo I am struck by the immensity of the landscape. High peaks reach up to scrape the sky with their flanks plunging down a couple thousand meters the river below. Impressively large piles of scree and talus form cones that bridge the gap, offering a path between the rapids made of snowmelt and the icy summits.

Our plan was to hike to the Glaciar Del Morado, which offers a relatively straightforward outing and finishes at a hanging glacier plunging into a small lake. The only question was how far we could drive along the 4x4 road to get to the start of the hike.

Not far enough, as it turns out. A new (since my last visit) guard hut and gate blocked the access road. The guard told us that no one was allowed in without prior permission (we had called and emailed the contacts we had found on the website but received no responses). Ostensibly the reason is that they were worried about rockfall should an earthquake happen. However, the site also contains a rather contentious construction project, so general obstruction of visitors seems at least as plausible.

So, we turned the cars around and backtracked slightly to our backup plan: Glacier San Francisco in a CONAF park. We arrived at the park around noon, only to find the park was closed through next spring due to a sizable landslide. 0 for 2, so far.

Fortunately, we still had a couple possibilities and were not yet willing to give up on hiking. We climbed back into the cars and again pushed towards the back of the Cajon, this time farther back, to Banos Colinas. Colinas is a destination mostly for its hot spring and thermal pools, but it also offers some access to hiking trails. After a few more km of dirt road and some time spent paying the entrance fee, we were parked and ready to hike.

Tanio, Callum, and myself had been there before, during our attempt on Cerro Navegante, and had taken a trail leading up a side valley. This time, with our larger group, we opted to take a different trail that lead up the main valley, eventually turning to head towards the border with Argentina. We took our first steps on the trail around 13:00, hardly an alpine start, but pretty good considering we were on our third choice of hike!

Given the time, we only hiked for a short while before finding a spot by a stream to have lunch. It was a gorgeous day, with bright sun to keep us warm in the cool mountain air.

After lunch we continued up the valley, passing horses drinking from the river. We crossed a small wooden bridge and continued hiking on the West side of the river. The trail followed a mostly leisurely path, with occasional interruptions where snowmelt had carved a gully through the trail. These short sections required a bit of care with footwork and the occasional jump.

Eventually our turn-around time arrived, fortunately coinciding with the terminal moraine of a past epoch of glacial activity. The group scrambled up to the top of one of the moraine piles to enjoy the view and rest a bit. Tanio popped open a bottle of wine and we hung around for a bit, enjoying the afternoon and the views of the mountains.

We started back down the trail, retracing our steps to the car. The rest of the hike proceeded without event, as the sun sank lower in the sky. We returned to to find the parking area in the shadow of a nearby peak, with the summit in a halo of sunshine. The onset of shade made jackets necessary again, and layers were added for the final few hundred meters to the car.

At this point, it was time for the group to separate. We said goodbye and waved as seven of our group headed back to Santiago leaving the remaining five of discussing where we would camp: there at the cars, or somewhere farther into the mountains. Indecision reigned and we pitched the tents on the edge of the parking area and hoped we would be far enough from the party campers to get a good night’s sleep. Tanio, Santiago, and Grigoris hoofed it up to the thermal pools and took a dip while Neil and I prepared some food.

Soon the sun disappeared below the horizon and the sky grew dark, save some light from a crescent moon. We stood around watching the night sky, seeing satellites zipping overhead, and two shooting stars meet their fiery demise in the skies over the Andes. Though only a small crescent of the moon was illuminated we were able to see the full disk against the black northern sky. The angle of the crescent perfectly matched the angle of a mountain ridge and the crescent dipped out of sight, leaving the shadowed portion of the moon still visible. The lack of the bright crescent made the moon’s full disk even more prominent and we spent a few minutes watching the “dark side” slip behind the ridge.

The moon was impressive, but the southern sky offered the most spectacular views. The Large Magellanic Cloud hovered above a foreground peak and was plainly visible in the sky, immersed in a sea of foreground stars. Its interacting counterpart, the Small Magellanic Cloud, was hidden below that peak.

The dark night, almost completely free of light pollution, made the Milky Way pop out of the sky. We could see the band of the disk stretching overhead, from horizon to horizon. The gas and dust clouds in the disk stood out as dark patches in the middle of light band of our galaxy.

It was an incredible night sky, darker than many observatories I have visited. I would list it as Top 3, in terms of night skies I have seen in my life. Only the desire to be rested for the next day’s hike was enough to pull me inside the tent.

Day 2: Valley Towards Cerro Navegante

The night at 2500m was reasonably cool, reaching 1°C inside the text, according to the thermometer in my watch. That put me on the very cool end of what is reasonable in my summer sleeping bag, but necessity is the mother of invention and at 0300 I worked out that laying my parka on top of the sleeping bag added just enough insulation to be comfortable.

Our tents were set up in a North-South valley flanked by tall mountains; despite the 0800 sunrise, the tents remained in the shadows well past our intended departure time. A cool, dark morning makes it hard to get out of the tent; this was further confounded by our lack of a concrete objective for the day. Our original plans had been to climb a mountain near the Glaciar del Morado, but the previous day’s adjustment in plans had left us searching for the something to climb.

I think I was the last one out of a tent, emerging shortly before 0900. We made breakfast and packed up camp while working out what we would do. In the end we decided to revisit the route to Cerro Navegante (though only two of our group of five had been up that way before).

A leisurely morning had us on the trail just before 1100 – not enough time to have any hope of making a summit, but plenty of time for a nice walk through an Andean valley. The first part of the trail gains elevation relatively rapidly along a defunct dirt road before crossing a snowmelt-fed river and ascending the valley.

The walk is a nice one, spending essentially the entire route near a river. Crossings are somewhat optional, depending on where you would like to be. For the first portion of the walk, you are above the river, which affords a nice view of springs appearing from the the opposite hillside and joining the river below. Later, river “catches up” to the trail and it babbles beside you as you slowly gain elevation.

Shortly after the trail flattened, we stopped for lunch alongside the stream. The break ended up being longer than expected (in other words, I was asleep for longer than I thought), but after a little over an hour we continued on towards the back of the valley. Our endpoint was a more or less random spot on the trail, ordained when we decided we were close enough to our turnaround time that we would not be able to finish the next section of trail before needing to start descending. We dubbed that location a “1D cumbre” and sat down for a break and the traditional cumbre bottle of wine which Tanio always carries on outings.

After 15 or 20 minutes of relaxing in the mountains and enjoying the view we shouldered our packs and retraced our steps back down the valley. The group split up very early, with Tanio and Santiago taking a very fast pace so they would have time to visit the termas near the car, while Grigoris, Neil, and I took a more leisurely (i.e., not running) pace. We reached the car after the sun had fallen below the surrounding mountains, but with plenty of light left.

After reuniting at the cars, we started the drive back to Santiago. The winding drive back went smooth, as usual, with only minimal slowdowns due to the traffic of other vacationers and weekend warriors returning to the city. On the way out we were treated, as we were on the way in, to stunning views of the impressive landscape. This time, it was old sunlight filtering through the haze around the corner as we chased it westward.