Chile part. 1. Pucon to Claro and back again.......

 

Many years ago i was thinking of places and countries id like to visit for paddling reasons and i came up with 3 C's and 3 N's which i figure to be about the best in the world for whitewater kayaking. Now there are plenty of other great destinations of course (Mexico, Uganda, Italy, the PNW just for a start) but for me these 6 are hard to beat. I also cant say which of any of these places is the single best, theyre all such different places, with such massively different styles of paddling. Anyway, they are California, Canada (East or West, tho for me BC wins) and Chile - the 3 C's, and Norway, Nepal and New Zealand - 3 N's. I remember trying to plan out how i was going to go round these places and just feeling like it was this massive impossible task. Well, several years and a whole heap of detours later (this "life" thing keeps getting in the way eh) Ive been lucky enough to take trips to or live and work in all of them. Chile was the last on the list. 

To say i had been wanting to visit the Andes for some time would be an understatement. I remember watching a BBC nature doc, Flight of the Condor when i was maybe 5 or 6 years old and i was captivated. That was way before i started paddling and like many of you reading this Ive since seen tons of videos and pics, read heaps of blogs (many not dis-similar to this one) about Chile and its whitewater and I had a wish list of things i wanted to do before going. Looking back now on what was a largely successful trip, im feeling very satisfied that we managed to paddle most all the things i set out to and that we had a bloody great time along the way as well. I got to fulfil a few long held ambitions, not least of which for me was finishing that years old list. It took me a long time but I did something that when i conceived of it felt completely unattainable. To quote one of my favourite rappers, Aesop Rock

"A dream is what you wanna do, but still haven't pursued
I knew what I wanted and did it till it was done
So I've been the dream that I wanted to be since day one."

I guess over the last few years of travelling round this beautiful planet of ours and paddling as many of its rivers as i can has been my dream so since i started down this path thats my day one. Well finally ticking the Chile box felt like realising it properly. I wouldnt say that its finished, and theres lots of other dreams to be had. Im far from done paddling and theres way too many places ive still not seen but it definitely feels like a water shed for me. Im sitting here having enjoyed a very merry xmas and feeling very contented thankyou.

A snowy springtime Volcan Villarica, Pucon

Which is why y'all are reading this right? You want to hear all my innermost thoughts and some deep philosophical stuff about kayaking and life time achievement awards? Or youre just going to check the photos? Well, which ever, im going to tell you a little bit about what we did and how we did it.....

So i made up my mind this summer that Chile was going to happen. I was ready to head out solo and wing it but after a bit of faffing my good buddy Joe Leader decided he would come to. I was especially stoked as this was his 3rd time over there so he was very helpful to have for finding put ins etc, even if his most common answer to any question was "I cant remember". Joe had also managed to make contact with a couple of other boaters via UK rivers with a similar time frame and paddling agenda to us. We had a crew! I had sorted out a boat rental from the Pucon Kayak Hostel ( http://puconkayakhostel.com/  ) before going and got a great deal on a ZET raptor for the 2 months i was in Chile. Thanks again David!

Ready to roll! photo: Guy Neal

I landed in Santiago right at the start of November after a marathon journey at the wonderful time of 5am. After a solid kip I caught up with Joe and we organised ourselves before jumping on the next night bus to Pucon. So much more comfy than Nepali busses, and way less sketchy than Greyhound.... The first person we met in Pucon was a nice lady who happened to run a sweet hostel right in town, sorted! We grabbed breakfast and headed out to meet the rest of our crew, Mr Guy Neal also from the UK and a young charger from Bavaria, Quirin Haslberger aka Queechy. They had already been checking out cars in Pucon and after a bunch of messing about we grabbed ourselves a truck from Sierra Nevada. They gave us a good price as we were taking the thing for 2 months or so. 

Joe leaning it out, lower Palguin

Pirmin boofing to not swim, Boof to swim - middle Palguin

The next day we headed out for a warm up on the upper Trancura. This is Pucons premier rafting run and a fine section with some fun rapids - a great way to get to know each other on the river and for the lads to get used to new boats. We had a good time but we were all talking about the Palguin. Youve all heard about it, youve seen plenty of footage and i distinctly remember a good friend once explaining to me why it was his favourite river anywhere for at least an hour (we may have been drinking). Needless to say it was on my MUST DO list for the trip so i was super stoked to get on it. It didnt disappoint. We started running laps on the upper falls which is surely one of the finest short steep sections anywhere, with one of the most beautiful and spectacular put ins imaginable. Over our time in Pucon i lost count of how many times we ran the top, so sick. Unfortunately since we never scouted anything and i was enjoying bombing it so much i didnt take any pics of the upper.

Pirmin dropping in, el medio. Its big but he went bigger a few weeks later....... see here http://www.pamen-adventures.blogspot.co.uk/

Queechy lines up the last one. Auto-boof, lower Palguin

Taken together the 3 sections of the Palguin, the todo, must rate as one of the finest steep creeks anywhere. Its got a little bit of everything really and its all clean and good to go. I only ran the whole thing once, for Queechy's birthday but it was awesome. 

Queechy on the Cali slide, Rio Nevado

The Palguin is a great river but it is just one of the Pucon classics. Next up for us was the Nevados. This ended up being one of my top 3 runs in Chile, so many cool drops! The upper canyon is a little manky, especially at low water but the middle more than makes up for it. Starting at the slide you then have a few short km's of some of the finest steep creek action on the planet with some sick technical drops, amazing boofs and a must run. I just hope i get a chance to run the lower canyon and demshitz drop one day. Next time perhaps.

This is what happens when you dont get the kicker quite right..... photo: Joe Leader

Joe doing it a bit better

There are many other great rivers around Pucon, but mostly you need rain for alot of them such as the Turbio or Desague. We managed to get a run down the Puesco but largely we were restricted to the Palguin and Nevado immediately around Pucon. Not bad options to have tho eh?

Me going 1st on the must run, Nevado. credit: Pirmin Dlugosch

Joe about to break his nose on the must run

Pirmin over the rainbow, way up high..... Wall drop

We spent a great week or so around Pucon, enjoying the rivers and settling into Chile. I had an itch tho, for the river that had been occupying my mind for years & one of the main reasons I had made the trip. The Claro. Now there are many Rio Claros in Chile, as well as Blanco's, Manso's, Colorado's and so on but really theres only one. I first became aware of it way back in 2007 when i saw a picture of Gerd running the twirly bird, or el caracal. My immediate thought was "Where is that??!!!" , its an incredibly unique drop - maybe 15 metres total, off-vert slide twisting 180' to 7 or 8m free fall. I had been dreaming of running it ever since. Knowing that the Claro is an early season run we set off post haste northward as its just a couple of hours south of Santiago in a beautiful national park the landscape of which reminded me of California. Except the tarantulas, remember those Queechy?

You can see this from the road on the way up to the Claro, absolutely huge - maybe 40 or 50 metres? But it totally goes. You'd need a shit load of rain and the rest of the river would be out of the question but it goes.......

We arrived late at night and got straight into some dirtbag action. I was super stoked on waking to discover we were in one of the most beautiful camp sites you could wish for, right on the river and even a little shop selling some of the best wine we found. 

Chilling in my hammock and loving life after our first day on the teacups. photo: Queechy

There are 3 main sections to the Claro, the Siete Tazas (7 teacups), Viente Dos (the 22) and El Garganta Diablo (the throat of the devil). The teacups are at the bottom and easily accessible via a nice wooden walkway (you have to hike off into the woods about halfway along but its easy to find) the only down side being you have to pay for access. We decided to start off there and ran a couple of laps our first day.

So fresh and so clean! Joe on the 1st tea cup.

And me. Such a fun drop. photo: Joe Leader

Guy on the last one. Numbers 6 & 7 are the highest 2, stacked together and super fun.

Now siete tazas is awesome, but the viente dos is even better! Our 2nd day we made the hike up from the camp site. Its about 4km's but took us around 2 hours the 1st time as the trail is indistinct and it was damn hot! I was grateful for some the beta we had from the guys from Pucon Kayak Hostel who had started walking just before us, and also the distinctive tread pattern on 5.10 water tennies as i was following their tracks. Luckily enough we bumped into them walking back down the trail just after we had gone past the put in. They had walked 20 minutes past it despite having been on the run the previous day, good work lads hahahahaha. We scrambled down into the gorge and onto one of the sweetest sections ive ever been lucky enough to run. Straight from eddy into a beautiful 3 metre boof, quickly followed by a 9m falls then the sickest auto boof. Theres many more including a super cool twisting 30 footer with a sweet corner boof into the eddy above it. We ended up running this section 3 times while we were there and i only wish i could go back for more right now. 

Queechy auto boofing. I stomped the shit out of this every time, its a hit but so worth it.

All of which was kind of building up to what for me was the main event - Garganta Diablo. Just down stream from the camp site this is the most committing section. The others are very gorged in and exit would be a bloody night mare but largely the rapids arent as intimidating and there are exits points. Not so Garganta. It is one of the most unreal places ive ever been into. Deep black basalt walls rising up over 100m above you with over hangs so severe at times you cant see the sky. Incredible crystal waterfalls cascading down into the river. And some sick rapids, including the dirty vagina slots (the 1st one is way dirtier, the 2nd way steeper than i was expecting) and of course the famous Caracal. My only regret really from the Claro is that i didnt take more pics, i was just so stoked to be on the river and its very difficult to get out of your boat alot of the time. Regardless, heres a couple :)

Joe on the commitment boof. Run this and the only way out is down stream.

Me on Twirly Bird. SO Stoked to run this and have a sweet line. photo: Joe Leader

Guy dropping in. photo: Joe Leader

We spent a great 5 days at the Claro. Its an incredibly beautiful place and one of my favourite rivers anywhere. 2 laps on the teacups, 3 of the 22 and of course the Garganta. So many classic drops and great moves, so much fun! Feeling blessed we packed up and headed back to Pucon for Queechys birthday and a few more Palguin sessions. We had a plan for a Patagonia road trip, for more details and pics tune in next time! Thanks for reading :)


Big thanks to Colorado Kayak Supply for taking me on and helping me out. You guys are awesome! Check em out at http://www.coloradokayak.com/