Cochamó Valley

Yosemite-style granite valley two hours southeast

The Cochamó valley, two hours southeast of Puerto Varas at the head of the Reloncaví fjord, is one of the wildest places easily reached from town. Vertical granite walls rise straight from a temperate rainforest of southern beech and alerce trees, with waterfalls dropping down them, and the comparison with Yosemite is fair if a thousand kilometres further from anywhere.

A four-hour hike on a muddy old logging road brings you to La Junta, the wide valley floor where most trekkers camp. The walks from there — to the Arco Iris waterfall, up to the Toboganes natural water-slides, and along the river to the granite walls — are spectacular. Best done as an overnight from Puerto Varas. The valley floods with mud in winter and is virtually impassable; go between November and April.

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A story
Cochamó's granite walls — the Trinidad, the Capicúa, the Cerro Trinidad — were largely unexplored by climbers until the late 1990s, when a group of Chilean and Argentine climbers began establishing free routes on them. The valley now hosts some of the best big-wall climbing in South America, with routes up to a thousand metres long.

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