Cochamó Trip 2020 - Part 2
Cerro La Junta with Cerro Capicua in the Background
Rain: Most climbers’ number one question when planning a trip to Valle Cochamó is how much will it rain? Cochamó resides in a rainforest, after all. Chatting with a local this year I was told, “Expect it to rain every day and after that. Any dry day that you can climb is a blessing”. Well, that’s one way to put it into perspective.
The Land Before Time
By the numbers, Valle Cochamó receives on average 96.6 inches of precipitation throughout the year. During the relatively short climbing season, spanning from late November to early April, the valley will receive on average more than four inches of rain per month. It has been known to rain for weeks on end ruining many a climbers dream of sunny bluebird summits. That doesn’t sound very good for planning a climbing trip, eh? After 3 seasons in the thick of it, my experience is that it will rain at some point during your trip but you will also have many dry days to climb, especially if you are motivated to hike on subpar weather days. I feel that I fall into the “blessed” category, averaging more climbing days than rainy days overall. I have never had to sit out a two week rain event; six to seven days, ok yeah, I’ve done one or two of those, but that’s just the name of the game down here….have you ever heard of El Chalten?
As the story goes, so as to not be beaten down by multiple seasons of abnormally high precip levels, Nathan Conroy took advantage of the down time by cutting a trail to the base of the largest feature in the valley, El Monstruo (The Monster). El Monstruo sits at the head of Valle de la Bestia (Valley of the Beast) and is accessed through Valle Trinidad. Nathan finally lucked out with good weather in 2012 and 2013 to complete one of the true gems of Cochamó: La Precensia de mi Padre (In the Presence of my Father) 5400’ 28 pitches 5.10+ Grade VI making it one of, if not the, longest rock routes in South America. Read Nathan’s American Alpine Journal entry here: http://publications.americanalpineclub.org/articles/13201212265/El-Monstruo-La-Presencia-de-mi-Padre and more here: https://photos.app.goo.gl/cjpGp1QeyTEXUKZT6
Hanging Out on Cinco Estrellas
This year’s season started out on a similar note; a big rain storm had been barreling through the valley unleashing multiple inches of rain leading up to the day I hiked in. I was fortunate enough to hike in without it actively raining but arrived at a soggy camp to find many a hiker and climber crouched around a fire ring with all their wet gear strewn above to dry out. Dominic and I raced up to Anfiteatro to take advantage of our short three day weather window. Here lies the next crux of climbing in Cochamó: when the rain stops, what routes will be dry enough to climb?
After our warm up day on Dona Debora Dedos, Dom and I set our sights on Cinco Estrellas (Five Stars) and Through the Looking Glass for the following day. Unfortunately, Cinco Estrellas didn’t quite live up to the quality its name would imply and we ended up bailing half way up after getting off-route on intimidating 5.11 terrain. The next day found us struggling up a waterfall on the first pitch of Through the Looking Glass. Needless to say we didn’t make it past the first belay. Pro Tip: Through the Looking Glass is not a good option after rain. From here, there was nothing else to do but retreat back to Camping La Junta with our tails tucked between our legs and hunker down for a few days of rain.
Firepillars
Camping La Junta is as close as it gets to heaven on Earth for me. You know that Sublime lyric: “Summer time and the livin’s easy”? Well that is the best way I can sum up how I feel here. Life is simple: no job, no responsibilities, no internet, no news, no distractions, and everything just moves slower. You really get to know your neighbors here and feel like a human being. I personally feel like I get to escape reality and live in a fairy tale whose sole purpose is to summit rad granite peaks. It is a strange concept when I sit here and write this but I think it’s not hard to understand the desire to disconnect from reality especially in current times where all the news is nothing but doom and gloom. Of course, this fairy tale life isn’t sustainable, but I cherish and look forward to those few months I am lucky enough to spend in the valley every few years.
After two days of sitting out the rain and eating as much food as possible, Dom and I were chomping at the bit to get back at it. We marched back up to Anfiteatro to exact our revenge. The pitch 3 laser finger crack of Dona Debora Dedos was haunting our dreams and we were determined to find out what it was all about. We set sails on the first pitch only to have deja vu back to the first pitch of Through the Looking Glass; another waterfall. At a moderate grade of 5.10b, Dom was able to sink perfect, locker finger jams and push past the wetness to the belay. My turn on pitch 2 had me hanging all over; we may have been the first party up the route this season and I had to dig out dirt from the crack with my nut tool just to place solid pieces of protection. After some struggling I was rewarded with a super fun angling finger crack that saw me through to the belay. Swinging back to Dom we got another big spoonful of humble pie: thirty meters of .2 crack in a blank, just under vertical face. Let’s just say some shenanigans were had and once again we found ourselves retreating back to the bivy to regroup.
Spliiter Brah!
Over a nice big pot of spaghetti and red sauce, we decide that we wanted to summit a peak and not worry about climbing a route at our limit. We settled on Antes De Lluvia (Before the Rain) 5.8 1500’ which summits the feature Espejo. This time the odds were stacked in our favor and after a long day winding through the path of least resistance up Espejo we found ourselves standing on the summit greeted by the largest chunk of crystal I have ever found. I’d reached my happy place again; conquering a giant inanimate feature which yielded some of the most stunning vistas I have ever had the pleasure of enjoying. That view never gets old. Satisfied with our summit, we descend back to Camping La Junta to spend the last couple days of Dom’s trip climbing close to basecamp, but first a little relaxing was in order.
My precioussssss
A popular attraction for hikers and climbers alike is the Toboganes (natural water slides). Here, just a short 5 minute hike from camp, Rio La Junta crashes heroically over perfectly smooth low angle granite slabs creating a natural waterslide and fun for all! For a climber, a rest day spent at the Toboganes is perfectly paired with a little active rest over at Roca Island. Roca Island is a giant boulder resting in the middle of Rio Cochamó which yields some entertaining deep water soloing.
Climbers on Gardens of the Galaxy
No rest day would be complete without a proper refueling; in our case that meant lots of pasta, red sauce, and salami sticks. In my regular life I tend to avoid grains but here in Cochamó your food choices are limited by what stays edible for weeks at a time so that ends up being quite a lot of dry goods such as rice, pasta, lentils, and soups. The seasoned Cochamó climber learns to get creative with their food options to keep things fresh while remaining delicious. For the climber who wants to spend multiple weeks in Cochamó, I believe some of the most important details are getting good sleep and eating good food; without these key factors, it can be easy to burn out quickly.
Dom and I spent two more days climbing together and just like that, 12 days were gone and we were already headed back to town; Dom off on another grand adventure and myself to resupply more food and meet my next climbing partner, Josh. Before we said our goodbyes, a proper send off was in order, complete with too much pizza to stomach and the most obnoxious dessert I have ever eaten: the Catedral (Cathedral). I will let the video do the explaining…yes I ate the whole thing myself.
Thank you for following along! I haven’t tried my hand at writing in a few years but once upon a time a few of you may have been following along at http://travelininbertha.blogspot.com/ Leave a comment here and let me know if there is anything specifically you would like to know about Valle Cochamó, climbing, traveling in South America, guiding, or vanlife. I have a lot more stories to tell about this trip but would be happy to answer any inquiries or write a post about something specific. See you all next week!