After El Chalten we headed to Valle Cochamó, Chile. The only information we had for Cochamó was that it was “The Yosemite of Chile” and we had heard of the heniouss approaches through the jungle. When we arrived in the Valley we were blown away, huge granite walls surround the valley floor and there is rock as far as you can see.

We arrived after a storm so the walls were still wet and things were drying out. After talking with a few other climbers we learned it had been raining for most of the season in Cochamó something not too uncommon for the area. But once again thanks to internet access from Daniel and Sylvina, the owners of the Refugio in Cochamó, we learned the weather was going to be dry for a few days. Lucky for us we only had 8 days here and we were ready to climb. We had been looking at a line on a wall named Milton-Adams so we borrowed some machetes from Daniel and started the 5 hour jungle wrestling, root pulling, and vine swinging approach to the base of the wall.

We tried two different approaches on the rock only to find Cochamó rock completey unique and can’t be compared to anything else. It is gritty, vegetated, run-out, flared and takes little to no gear. We found our way up a line to the right of a large gully. Our goal was to climb the two twin cracks on the head wall before the summit. After climbing 7 pitches of moderate to runout and sketchy terrain we arrived under the two cracks. Looking up at them they seemed possible but after going 2/3 up each we found awkward, flared, and gritty cracks that required bolts for protection, which was something we did not want to do. So we left it at that and will return next year to finish the run- out, flared crack! We named the route Welcome to the Jungle, (5.12? A1), 600m.

After we arrived back at base camp we still had a day to climb so we went to Pared Seca, a sport climbing area not far from base camp. We saw an excellent sport line so we borrowed a drill from Daniel and put up a 5.13 sport route. Placing 9 bolts on lead.

Valle Cochamó is an amazing place with excellent rock climbing and many unopened routes. We were surprised by the beauty of the area and the endless walls of granite. We will be back again next year.

Click here to see a photo gallery from this trip.