Saturday, January 15, 2011

Patagonia... So Much Beautiful!

After an amazing trip north to the rio claro, we returned back to pucon for a few days of the classics. We then motivated to head south. We gathered a solid crew, Fusilli, Myself, Nicole, Anton, and Thinhrum. Although Pucon surely has incredible kayaking and is a fun town to be in, there is a lot to be said for traveling all over the country of Chile. There is something incredible about exploring this place. The longer I stay here, the more I want to explore and find cool rivers and beautiful places. This is exactly what we did on this trip. We first hit the rio llancahue. On just the other side of rio palguin, the llancahue is a super fun run with incredible scenery.

Thinhrum stoked to be on the road.

A very cool lizard chillin out at the Llancahue.

A screen shot from my GoPro of the bridge rapid on the llancahue.

After a nice lap an the llancahue, we checked out one of the most stout rapids in chile. The Dirty Gerd.

Oh yea... the dirty!

Chile is an incredible place. The further south I go in this place, the more beautiful it gets.
We then headed a bit further south near Lago Ranco to an awesome river, Rio Florin.


Lago Ranco is an amazing place indeed.



This was our campsite at the Florin. Gotta love this place!!

Nightime at the Florin.

The hot springs at the Florin. Chillin out drinkin 5 liters of delicious chilean wine. We woke with mild hangovers for a beautiful thanksgiving day on the Rio Florin.

A screen shot from my GoPro dropping the Big One on the florin.


Nicole Mansfield firing it up! Running the big one!

Thanksgiving day with demshitz!

We then continued our journey south to the rio corrine... A super beautiful fun class 4+ river.


Our campsite at the Corrine! True gypsy style!!


Beautiful mountain view from our campsite.


You know life is good when this is what ur looking at.



On the Corrine there is a natural land bridge where the river literally dug a hole through the earth. Very cool gorge here.

After a day on the corrine, we decided to check out a small tributary to it. We put on and found a few very cool drops and a 30 footer that unfortunately didnt go.


Here is one of the more fun drops we found.

After good times at the corrine, we packed up again and headed far south to Puerto Montt where we caught a ferry over to Hornopiren. Hornopiren is home to a super fun river called the rio Negro.


Chillin out on the Ferry to Hornopiren.


Driving the long dusty road to hornopiren... Carretera Austral.

After arriving in Hornopiren we spent a few fun filled days running the rio Negro and camping out in an amazing place. The Negro is a super fun run in a very cool basalt riverbed with tons of awesome boofs and clean waterfalls. It was cold and rained almost the whole time we were there, the weather in southern chile is very unpredictable.


The take out... right at our campsite. Anton being a stuntman in the background.


Fusilli and I ready to lay some treats.


Fusilli layin that brown down!


Anton flying off an awesome perfect 20 footer.


Thinhrum with the lookback brown.


One of our favorite rapids... A sweet winding entrance to a treats 6 footer.


How do you get wet wood to light? yes.. add gasoline.


Standard procedure. Brown it.


Crazy Swedes and their shoe surfing!

We then Returned to Pucon to greet the arrival of more demshitz!


Here is a long exposure shot of volcan villarica... Check out the glow from the lava.

check back for a pucon update!

 

3 comments:

RiotAJ said...

Nice photos Fred! Wish I could have made it down there with you all. Alas, I have grand plans for 2011.

Have fun and keep us posted. Cheers boss,

-Adam

RiotAJ said...

Nice photos Fred! Wish I could have been down there with you all. Sounds like the trip is/was awesome. I plan on returning in 2011.

Keep us posted and have fun boss,

-Adam
WhitewaterFreestyle

Brianna said...

Hi Roaring Fork Kayakers! My husband and I are the owners of the property on the Mountain Loop Highway near the 'put in' for the Robe Canyon Trail. We are excited that you do an annual race on the Robe Canyon and would love to know if/when the race will be this year!