All winter I had been looking forward to the end of December but not because of Christmas but because Jacob and I were to be heading out to Chile on the 28th. Some of the Australians, Jarred Pickers and Dan that we had met in Uganda had invited us to come along and get some airtime in kayaks, of course we were up for this. We decided 2 months would be a good time to be out there exploring.Our first flight was to Madrid, and then on to Santiago. We got a very nice overnight bus to Pucon which is the center of kayaking in Chile and was to be our base. We were staying at the Pucon Kayak Hostel were we would meet our friends. It was New years eve when we got there so we went to watch the fireworks over the lake at Pucon and then went looking for a party but it turns out nothing happens until about 2 or 3 in morning, even on New Years!
The next day we got out on the water and went to run the Trancura, a river that runs right past the hostel. We ran the Lower in the morning that was a nice bouncy grade 3, a perfect warm up. Then in the afternoon went to run the Upper that is a nice grade 4. It was a great read and run section strait to our beds! We decided not to run the grade 5 portage rapid just then though.
We got lucky and got invited on a trip to the Rio Fuy. We ran the Upper Fuy that was one of my favorite creek sections in Chile. We go to a 30 foot waterfall called Salto de Leona. This was my biggest waterfall I had done up till then. It was followed by a sweet section of slides and drops. Some of the boys wanted to do the Middle Fuy, this sounded a bit too committing for us just yet. It consisted of a must run 50 foot fall followed by a grade 5 gorge. We decided we would walk in to just below the gorge as we had some directions. So we started walking and walked and walked.....and walked. We ended up at the 50 foot fall we knew this was way too far upstream. By this time it was getting too late to put on a river, so we gave up and walked back. We had just hiked for 3 hours with boats in the sweltering heat. When we got back to camp we found out we were supposed to go downstream when we got to the canyon rim, not upstream, bloody directions!
The water level was low around Pucon and we had exhausted the runs nearby. Dan arrived and we decided we needed to rent a pick up and go on some road trips! Once we had our shiny Chevrolet we headed North to the Rio Claro. We knew this probably wouldn't have any water in it but we wanted to at least see this iconic river and see the region. We were right about the level, no water. We went swimming and cliff jumping and the day after decided to go for a paddle. We put on to what we though were the 7 tea cups that would have just about been runnable. We got about a kilometer into the run when we hit a steep boxed in section that was too low to run and we didn't know what was round the corner. After some discussion we decided it best to try and climb out one section that didn't look completely vertical. Jacob and Pickers were the best climbers so the climbed up the first 15 meters free climbing until they could find an anchor point. They then belayed the others up the 30 meter cliff. We got the boats and paddles up and finally me. This took us about 3 and half hours to climb out. This was definitely not the teacups section. Ahh well it's the epics you remember.
We decided to start heading back South but on the way down hit up a river called the Laja. The first day we got there we couldn't find the put in so stayed in some blokes Chalet. The next day we found it and boy were we glad! This river was dam released and was damn fast. The guidebook said continuous with no eddies. It was right, this is what you call combat paddling, it was one of my favorite runs in Chile, we did the 3 km in 12 minuets on our second run. Back south and back to Pucon to show Dan some of the runs. We also did a new river for us called the Maichin that was a bit low but great fun grade 4 boating!
It was time to head further South to find some treasures. The first run we got to was the Rio Gol Gol a grade 5 waterfall run. This river is such a gem with 7 sweet falls. A volcano erupted here a few years ago so the river is a grey colour with lots of floating rocks. We ran this river about 5 times in total throughout our trip because we couldn't get enough.
After the excitement of the the Gol Gol it was time to head to Patagonia to paddle the Futaleufu. We paddled a pretty river on the way down called the Petrohue that was a wide grade 4 river with lots of different channels.It was time to take the 3 ferries and lots of driving to get to the Futa we had almost made it when we got a flat tire but we soon sorted that and found some accommodation
for the night. The next morning we nervously put onto the bridge to bridge section. We were immediately treated with huge waves and holes to crash through and this continues in pool drop style for 8km! It was so good we went strait back up to do it again. The next run we did we found a guy who was staying in the area for a couple of months and said he would show us the terminator section and 2 of the biggest rapids on the river just below bridge to bridge. It was called Mas Y Menos and the waves were the size of houses!Unfortunately we didn't have long to spend at the Futa as the Aussies needed to catch a flight to Peru. So we headed back up north to Pucon running the Gol Gol on the way up again.
Jacob and I were dead keen to go and look at Middle Palguin (A clean 70 foot waterfall). It had been raining so the levels were up and it looked perfect. The only problem being I was the only one wanting to run it. The Aussie boys wanted to get drunk in the hot springs for their last day in Chile which is fair enough in my opinion so I joined them and thought I would be able to get there the next day, I couldn't so it had to be the day after. By this time the level had dropped back to it's usual low level. There was 3 of us wanting to run it and we thought it might be our last chance so we took it. Jacob went first getting a good entry into the water unfortunately failing his hand roll with an imploded deck and with a bit of a bloody nose but he was still stoked!
It was my turn. For this waterfall you can either run a sketchy rapid into the pool above it or do a 15 foot seal launch into the pool. We all chose the seal launch. I had a good entry in with the seal launch and tried to forget all my fears as I knew there was no going back now. I tried to paddle over the lip but there was a weird boil at the top that pushed me back so I had to turn around and try again. I went further left this time and it worked I took my last stroke and breath and the falling started, I chucked my paddle away as you don't wan to land a fall that high with a paddle in your hands because you are much more likely to get injured with one. I then tucked up and felt the hit as I plunged in the pool at the bottom. My deck imploded so I was swamped, I still tried the hand roll but that failed, luckily one of our UK friends helped me up with a T rescue. I had done it, I chucked my hands up in the air with triumph. I then emptied my boat and paddled over to the other side. This is when something weird happened, I started to forget things. I couldn't remember how we got there or where we were staying, I couldn't even remember running the fall. It turns out I must have hit my head pretty hard against the cock pit of my boat and had minor concussion. I could remember everything after 15 minuets.Finally it was Pete's turn to take the hit and boy did he take it. He had a roll in the top pool after the seal launch but prepared for the drop, it looked like he had a good line but he didn't chuck his paddle. He came up swimming strait away but something was obviously wrong as he looked very shocked and dazed. He lifted up his arm and that's when we saw his wrist limply hanging from it. He had broken his wrist on impact. We soon got him over to the other side, out of the canyon and off to hospital but that was the end of his trip which was a great shame.
All the Aussies had left but Jacob and I still had a month left. We met another guy called Pete Wood also from England and decided to go on another road trip down south. This road trip was very different to the last as we wild camped and cooked all our own food this was perfect and Jacob and I were running out of money.
On the way south we hit up the Fuy again but this time doing some other amazing sections such as the Whitney Houston section as we were paddling with a French safety kayaker called Charlie that knew all the lines. This time we decided to go through Argentina to get to the Futaleufu as Pete wanted to paddle the Manzo. While wild camping one night by the Manzo we woke up to a lot of our kit stolen out of the back of our truck, this was a right bummer! We had to go to the Futa to find new kit so no Manzo for us. This on the Futaleufu though we met some Germans and they showed us down the Inferno canyon section that was just incredible with steep sided gorge walls and huge whitewater! We did Todo Futa that day which is 45km of whitewater in 5 hours. Pete only had 3 weeks in Chile we had to get back to Pucon to catch his flight.
We still had a couple of weeks but with no money so Jacob and I decided to buy a load of food an d wild camp next to the Upper Palguin as this was the only run you could lap on foot. It was nice but got very boring after the first 3 days so we only stayed a week there then went back to the hostel to spend the rest of our money but not before doing a moon lit night lap at 4am on the upper palguin!
One more run on the upper Trancura this time doing the grade 5 portage rapid Meriman, that was intense! So finishing on a high it was time to head back to the UK for tea and medals.
What an awesome trip it was, thank you to all who was involved and I'm sure I will be back soon!
