Valle Cochamó 2-2009
Location: Chile, East of Puerto Montt
Sunset on Cerro Trinidad 900 meter granite wall
A similar image caught my attention 4 years ago in the Chilean Outdoor Adventure Capital town of Pucón. I was in the trendy El Bosque (=The Forest) Restaurant and had gone over to study this meter wide picture and trying to figure out if it was of Yosemite or somewhere else. A local come up and said it was not Yosemite, but Valle Cochamó; That a group of Brazilian climbers had machete their way through the bamboo rainforest to the base of the cliffs; had mules carry in their gear; lived under plastic tarps for 3 months; And that they had completed a route up the big face and some other routes. I was captivated. My mind ran over the logistics to go there at that time, but with no Spanish speaking abilities and the word rainforest which I equated to the trying conditions of being wet and cold I talked myself out and put it on the to-do-list. While in Valle Cochamó I learned that many of the visitors over the last several years had first learned of the place from that restaurant picture.
Links
cochamo.com - full of good info
Video of Swiss Team Climbing Cerro Capicúa (HD option)
They established the first all free-climbing route on the east face. I watched them through a telescope, one of which times was when one of them was doing the jump move. When they were in Camp Junta Swiss folk music could be heard from their boom box.
