Page 17 - 2017 AMA Summer

Moving further south, the landscape of northern Patagonia is best described as a mixture of Switzerland, western Scotland and the jungle. Snippets of information were available about the remote Cochamo valley, but quite what was to be found remained to be seen upon arrival. The description of Cochamo as ‘the Yosemite of South America’ gave us a clue, although the locals prefer to call Yosemite ‘the Cochamo of the north’! Having made the dirt-road drive to the trailhead and entrusted a local gaucho and his horses with our basecamp kit, the team set off up the 11 km jungle approach from the trailhead to the valley. Sight of our objectives finally came as the canopy thinned during the final few hundred metres of trail. At our valley basecamp the team was surrounded with 1000 m granite faces on all sides. This was an imposing and inspirational setting. Having received our kit, checked out the hand-drawn topos and tapped up other mountaineers for info, we began to push out from the campsite and explore the opportunities. There is no doubt that Cochamo is one of the finest climbing locations in the world, and that it’s popularity will explode over the next few
years. It is also a serious location for rock climbing; with long, committing, hard routes accessed by arduous approaches. There is no helicopter CASEVAC or mountain rescue service. The team spent lots of time on the trail and covered lots of ground. Options are aplenty for those climbing hard, but most require long approaches. A further four-hour battle on steep jungle terrain from basecamp to the area known as Antifeatro placed us in a huge granite basin. The setting gave one the feeling, as described by a team member, of a spider trying to escape a massive granite bathtub. A trek into another part of the valley exposed the huge, overhanging sport crag of Pared Seca, which satisfied the most voracious appetite for rock. The grading can be best described as tough!
On return to Santiago, the team made a thorough exploration of the city and soaked in the wine-making culture of the surrounding Andean foothills. A couple of long evenings surrounded by enthusi- astic travellers gave sufficient inspiration for future plans; opportunities, information and motivation were provided for a new generation of AAC mountaineering expeds.
ARMY MOUNTAINEER 15