Valle Cochamó Beta

Photo by @gamantri Cris Posadas

After climbing several seasons in Valle Cochamó I'd like to offer advice and a few thoughts about logistical beta and climbing in Valle Cochamó. First off check out friends of Cochamó (organization de Cochamó) (https://friendsofcochamo.org/) to learn about current issues affecting the area that could greatly change the future of the Valle.

I will probably repeat quite a bit of information already put out there but please begin by reading through the https://cochamo.com/en/climbing/ FAQ to get you started. I wrote this write up Pre-Covid so some of these points may need to be taken with a grain of salt.

-IMO, you should try to spend at least a month in the Valley to really get in the groove and get enough climbing days in case of rain. If it's your first time climbing in South America, the perfect trip would be a two week warm up in the Frey followed by a month in Cochamó. Any less than that is probably going to leave you wishing you made your trip longer. The most expensive part is the international flight and once you are in Patagonia, it's not really that much more expensive to stay longer. Being a fit hiker able to hump a heavy pack is going to go much further than being at peak climbing fitness. There are many other nearby climbing areas to check out for the avid traveler. For the ultimate vacation add on 2 weeks in El Chaltén/Torres del Paine for a full two months of epic climbing adventure.

Quick run-down of logistics and things you will need to do prior to your trip:

-Book flight to Santiago Chile (SCL)

-Book flight from Santiago to Puerto Montt (PMC) 

-Book your camping at cochamo.com

-Book travel and rescue insurance

-Hire a horse. You can do this through Southern Trips (more on that below)

-Do your food shopping in Puerto Montt or Puerto Varas

-Get a ride to Cochamo trailhead: either take the local bus which can be a pain in peak season or hire a private transfer (more on that below)

-Meet your arriero and check in at the trailhead

-Hike to La Junta and meet your arriero. Tipping is appreciated.

In depth breakdown:

You can stay in Puerto Montt or Puerto Varas when you first arrive. I prefer Puerto Varas as it is a more scenic, touristy town while Puerto Montt is a more industrial town. You will hire a transfer from the airport to your hostel for roughly 8.000 CLP. The pros and cons: Puerto Montt has more options for shopping and slightly cheaper but it is bigger and a bit more “crunchy” of a place. You may need to visit multiple grocery stores in Puerto Varas to find everything you are looking for if you are on the pickier side. Googlemap supermercado to find the grocery stores. Lider is the walmart of Chile. Getting on the bus in Puerto Varas can be challenging during the high season as all the seats will already be filled when leaving Puerto Montt. They will cram you in though. Uber works well in Puerto Varas (and I assume Puerto Montt as well). I tend to stay in hostels but airbnb is a thing too. Locals use Whatsapp to communicate. Text Andes Tour to hire a transfer from your hostel back to the airport +56 9 9647 2210

Getting to the trailhead from PMC/Puerto Varas: as of Jan/Feb 2022 the bus drives all the way up to the trailhead (where you will also meet your horsepacker) for 6.500 CLP. It leaves Puerto Montt around 7:45-8am and Puerto Varas around 8:30-9am. You are looking for the big coach bus not the little local buses (although the local buses do go to Cochamó town). During peak season it's not uncommon for there to be no seats left when the bus arrives in Puerto Varas (they will pack you in like sardines and you will stand for the roughly 2-3 hour ride). If you are a party of 2 or more and have 2 or more duffels each and a ton of food, I would suggest hiring a transfer to take you straight to the trailhead which eliminates a ton of headaches and shuffling. You can schedule a transfer through Southern Trips which will set you back somewhere around 50.000 CLP but totally worth it especially when split between 4 people. The bus leaves the trailhead back to Puerto Montt between 2 and 3 pm.

-This season there were 3 separate buses each day. This seems to change every year I’ve been down there and you just have to ask at the hostel when you arrive for the current bus schedule

Cell Use/Service: As of January 2022, my TMobile cell plan automatically gave me free texts and data in country. SIM cards are cheap: 2.000 CLP for 2 GB of data. Totally worth it (if your provider doesn't give you free service) and you can get them almost anywhere. Download WhatsApp if you plan on traveling a bit/want to contact locals. Once you are in the Valley, the closest reliable wifi is the climber coffee shop in Cochamó town. In the Valley, radios work well to communicate with other parties but an inReach could be handy too and was popular this season. (in reach to in reach messaging is free and the only reliable way to communicate with others in the valley). I do not believe Rocky Talkies are the same frequency as the local’s radios but I am still trying to figure that out.

Gear: ice axe and crampons should be considered required equipment for El monstruo. Alternatively, an ice axe is a super handy cleaning tool if putting up a new route. My personal recommendation for ropes are skinny triple rated 60s especially if you are coming solo. You can rarely rappel on a single 70 and climbing on 2 fat 60s is hell as most pitches will be 45+ meters and many pitches stretch a full 60m. A tag set up can be handy if you plan on doing a lot of hauling. Stove: consider bringing 2 stoves: one that burns white gas for the bulk of your cooking and a small pocket rocket for fast and light missions with minimal canisters. Canister gas creates a ton of waste and costs about twice as much as white gas. White gas (bencina Blanca) can be found at most ferreterias or the Easy and Jumbo in puerto montt. In my experience, a litre of bencina lasts 5-6 days cooking for two and costs 2.000 CLP. Lastly, you can use your empty bencina bottles to stuff trash into making it easier and more compact to carry out. Tarps are nice to have especially during long stretches of rain but there is a problem of too many tarps being left behind. If you plan on bringing a tarp, have a plan for bringing it down. Bring a few wag bags for those big missions and times you are not close to a baño. Standard LNT principles still apply here. Bring a 6" adjustable wrench, stainless hanger, and nuts; more on this below. Lastly, please bring a handful of stainless 5/16 quick links and stainless rappel rings to help improve the rappel stations.

The Refugio is no longer the climber hang out it once was. If you see Dani, the owner, he is definitely psyched to spray you down with beta but the topos are no longer in the Refugio or in the fogon in la junta camping; all the topos are in the bivies for those particular areas. They tend to get beat up pretty quickly so I recommend downloading everything from the google folder from cochamo.com to your phone before arriving and double check that it works without internet. If some kind soul would bring laminated topos to leave at the bivies, they would last quite a bit longer.

Recycling: there is now recycling at the trailhead. They recycle glass, aluminum, plastic bottles, tetra packs, and gas canisters. Make sure you remove stickers/labels from bottles/cans and wash cans/tetra packs or they won't take your recycling. This is important! 

-While Valle Cochamó is seeing more and more climbers every year, it is definitely very much an adventure Alpine environment. As it crests 20 years of development, original plated steel bolts and tat anchors are becoming sketchy at best and potentially dangerous. Even on classic well established routes, hangers end up falling off (2020 season alone I can count at least 5 "classics" that were missing hangers, 2 of which were Crux bolts). Bring a few 5/16 stainless steel (not plated steel!) hangers with 3/8 and 10mm nuts with washers to help fix these issues as you encounter them. A 6" adjustable wrench will do the job but will also be handy to keep on your harness as probably 10% of the bolts I encounter are loose and need tightening. Don't crank stainless as tight as you can; just snug them up. 

-Approach older, non standard, routes with respect and an adventurous mentality. Routes such as "la trompa", "Sundance", and "tigers del Norte" (among many others) rarely see an attempt and parties who have recently attempted them report missing or rusted hangers, runouts on poor rock, and lots of adventure. Be smart out there; definitive care is a long ways away.

Anchors: most rappel lines are 2 stainless bolts connected with mank (old tat and hollow aluminum rings or rusty hardware store quicklinks) to rappel from even on well trafficked rappels. It's not enough to say bring some extra cord as one route could be 10 or more rappels and there goes your cord after 2 or 3 stations. If you are going to spend any amount of time here you would be doing yourself and the community a huge favor by bringing a fistful of legit (5/16 or 8mm) stainless quicklinks and stainless steel rappel rings to help cut out old tat and make a solid all stainless steel rappel anchor. If one in 10 climbers did this, we could reduce sketchy anchors pretty quickly. Also, to further help this issue, consider bringing a handful of SS fixe rappel hanger/rings and donating them to the Refugio to be installed on classic/popular routes along with any leftover stainless hardware you don't use during your trip.

To those wishing to develop: there are a ton more routes here than there is information about online. Do your research or you may end up spending a lot of time looking/asking around instead of developing. The areas that I believe to have a lot of potential are: Arco Iris, Capicua, la Junta, elephante, and monster. I'm not saying that Trinidad and anfi are tapped out (there has been multiple routes put up in Trinidad and anfi the last 2 seasons) but those 2 valleys are generally the first stop of every climber visiting Cochamó. If you are going to bolt, only use stainless steel and consider using loctite on anchors as well as bolts that may be in water lines. An ice axe and wire brush go a long way helping to clean the route up. Please take the extra effort to install all steel rappel anchors instead of using cordage. This will greatly improve future party’s experiences and reduce sketchy tat/trash. The recommended bolt here is stainless steel wedge bolts 10mm or 3/8 with a length of 2 1/2 inch for lead bolts and 3 inch for anchors/Crux bolts/overhangs. Consider leaving a topo with the Refugio to be posted on Cochamo.com for future parties. The standard rappel ethic is to use double 60s though some newer routes are creeping in using double 70s. Check in with the locals in La Junta to ask about current best practices/local ethics.

Bivies: Cochamó is becoming more and more popular and the bivies are overflowing. Sleeping in the bivies as a climber is a privilege that the trekkers generally don't get. We are asked not to use tents and try to keep our bivies out of sight of trekkers so that everyone does not try camping in the valles. Please don't build new fire rings: keep fires in the main designated fire rings and try to be discreet. Clean up after yourself. There was a lot of fat happy mice in the bivies this season and they carry diseases! Please speak up and inform other climbers and trekkers about LNT.

Poop: this should go without saying but poo in the pit toilets in the valles. We get our drinking water from the valles and people in the camping have gotten sick from climbers and trekkers pooing wherever they feel like. There is a 2nd baño in anfi that not many people know about: it is behind the second bivy boulder closer to the end of Valle. Use it! If you find yourself in an emergency, go as far from water as you possibly can; better yet use a wag bag like you know you should. If you see someone not pooping in the right place, please politely call them out and correct them. Our health relies on this!!

If you get a long stretch of poor weather, don't be afraid to stretch your legs; you're in Chile after all! There are hot springs (termas) nearby in Rio puelo and Rálun. Car rental prices are relatively cheap and split between 3 or 4 people is peanuts(at least pre covid), go explore and see the penguins in Chiloe or spend a night on the beach near Valdivia. Airbnb is a thing down here and hostels and hospedajes are cheap, plentiful, and usually include breakfast. Don't let a 7 day stretch of rain get you in a slump, this is your vacation after all!

Please reach out for any more info or corrections of above information.