Rio Cochamo

The Cochamo river valley is the most beautiful place i have ever been. It requires an 8 mile hike in with savage horse flies, deep trenches, and beautiful vistas. We hired horses to carry our boats, which was both good and bad: good because we didnt have to carry our boats, bad because the boats fall off sometimes, the horses dont like to carry big awkward pieces of plastic, and it isnt quite as fast. The hike in is well worth it. We got to the top and immediately went to a beautiful granite slide perfect to slide down on your ass. We all spent a couple hours being fully entertained by this perfect water slide. Graham and Miguel took a ballsy line from the top, and ended up almost killing themselves by boosting off of big flakes that sent them flying into the air, only to land back on solid granite. Luckily they walked away with mere bruises. The campsite is an amazingly beautiful place. There are huge granite domes with cascading waterfalls surrounding you, snow covered valleys, green vegetation, and beautiful stars at night. The only thing bad about this place are the savage horse flies that make you want to destroy any species of insect after about five minutes of being around them. The Cochamo is also a favored climbing destination, with huge routes going up massive granite faces. We camped, and woke to a long hard day on the river. After waking up to a beautiful, cloud filled Cochamo valley, the clouds lifted, and with them our spirits as we charged down into the depths of the Cochamo river. The beginning rapids proved fun, with some boulder garden class 4. Then the gradient dropped off of the face of the earth. We were scouting boulder garden horizon lines with no pool in sight, by far the steepest section of whitewater I had ever seen. Most rapids were dangerous with syphons in some channels, and the lines were Stout. Jared, Evan, and Fusilli killed it by not portaging much, and stomping hard, consequential lines. Jared and Evan compared the rapid style to that of the bottom 9 of the middle kings. Although part of the group did a fare amount of portaging, there were some quality rapids in there for sure, and everyone had a fun day in one of the most beautiful places in the world. We arrived at the takeout exhausted after a long day, and were met with cold beer, and small town chilean horse racing.



Driving into the small town of Cochamo.


Looking up the Cochamo Valley.

The crew of Stout gypsies ready to tackle the savage hike.

Loading horses with boats and such.

A Cochamo local who helped us get horses, and furnished a sweet campsite.


The reason this is the most beautiful place I have ever been.

The beautiful granite domes towering out of the abyss after the savage hike.


Again.


I love this photo, taken by me the morning we put on.

More beauty.


The Slide From above.

The fun granite slide that entertained us for too long.

Que linda como los chicas chilenas.

Cool dave killin it.

Jared hittin the boof.

Graham and Miguel.... fully suprised no one got seriously injured on this one.


Yes Please

Jared on the first super stout section of the river.


An example of the gradient on this beast.

EG killin a boof lower on the run.


Demshitz Graham be killin it all day.

Fusilli runnin a dope slot drop.

Lunch time in heaven.

Jared on "EPIC drop"

Me boofin a ledge.

EG makin brine all day long.

Jared runnin stout.



Fusilli on the first stout.

Fusilli again boofing into the stouts.

Chile is sooo pretty.

Chilean small town horse racing.



A dip in a beautiful river again.

Palguin Bender

The palguin has been our Pucon staple run while Nevados and Desahue have dropped out. We have been lapping the upper and lower as our laid-back run. The upper is 4 perfect rapids, with a tricky rapid at the end that is usually potraged, Evan, Jared and I have been firing it up lately while others resort to seal launching into the second part of the drop, or jumping into the pool. This drop is super out of controll, the usual line is to plug deep, then the powerful boil usually flip you off the second part, falling a 20 feet more. The only people I have seen stick it(without flipping) are Ian and Rodrigo. Jared had a crazy out of control plug to freewheel, Evan had a plug to semi-front loop off the second part, I had a plug to flip, blown skirt, and a hard time rolling up. This rapid is craz-a. The middle is a super stout 70 footer, check it here. so we usually portage that, or go only for the middle when we feel like stouting. The lower is more mellow than the upper and middle, with a couple fun rapids. The hardest consisting of three boofs in a tight little canyon, and the coolest auto boof ever, a slide into a ten footer perfect for rail grabs, Aerial BROWNS, and paddle twirls.

Toro's Gypsy wagon dubbed MAMASITA loaded to the brim.

Graham Seiler on the first boof of the first rapid on the upper.

Randy Youngbuck shortly after on the second boof of the rapid killin it.


The third sweet 20 footer.


Me on the slot drop.



Evan about to go for a crazy ride.


And evan with a semi-loop off the last part, killing it fo sho.


Me with the seal launch, a super fun line.


From Below.


Graham jumping into the hyrup.

Another sweet day on the palguin.


Me running the portage, about to go to the bottom of the river.


Ian on the lower run, the first two boofs.


Just below the two sweet boofs above.


Evan on the lower perfect auto boof.


And very nice.


Aerial BROWN


Aerial Brown From above



Kayaking the Upper Palguin Helmet Camera from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.

Jared's Sweet vid of the upper palguin check it.



Rio Puesco Helmet Cam from Evan Garcia on Vimeo.
Our other laid back run, the puesco, Sick vid from evan, egcreekin.blogspot.com