Chile part 3: Rio Futaleufu and Rio Baker

Just before Christmas Paul, Daniel, Michael and me went south to the Rio Futaleufu. When it startet snowing 150 kilometer before our final destintion we doubted our desicion to celebrate christmas and new year´s eve far away from the party crowd in Pucon. However, with a huge fire in one of the Quincho huts at the Cara del Indio camp it got cosy and warm.

And two days later, when a change in the weather pattern brought 30 degrees and sun all day long we were absolutely happy with our place to stay. Who else is starting his Christmas eve with a Christmas brunch in the sun, followed by a long day of kayaking down the Futaleufu – a river every whitewater kayaker is dreaming of – and having an original Chilean Assado as holiday roast for dinner.

So we spent a whole week at the Futa. Having finest summer weather we paddled alternating Futa top to bottom and the bridge to El Macal section every day.

The only break in this routine was our trip to Chaiten. Paul and Daniel needed a ride to their bus back to Santiago so we assumed it might be a good idea to paddle the Michimahuida on the way. After two hours on the gravel road we reached the put in and a fantastic day of paddeling began.

At perfect waterlevel and weather on our seven hours trip, getting sunburned was unavoidable. The incredible mood was suddenly inturrupted – the worst case, a broken boat, happend somewhere in the middle of nowhere. Except from the put in and take out the river meanders through the wilderness very remote from any civilisation. So there was no way out of the river and the boat got fixed with a lighter and duct tape professionally. Luckily the high quality work lasted till we reached the take out bridge in the evening – tired but happy. The next day we made it to Chaiten in time to drop off our two friends at the bus station.

Beeing just two of us left we went back to the Futa to get some last big water practice and to find a crew for a trip to the Rio Baker. Both was done quickly and we started driving south in good humour with Gabriel from Canada, Jean from France, Aniol from Spain and the Basque Gael with his Norwegian girlfriend Netta. Our frist stop was planned to be the Rio Ventisquiero. After a short look, we decided to continue driving because the river looked way to low. Unfortunally the car of the French-Spanish-Crew didn´t start anymore and so our group split already on the first day.

In the afternoon of the next day Gabriel, Michael and me finally made it to the Rio Baker after a beautiful scenic drive along the Lago General Carrera and the Lago Bertrand. We found a super nice camp ground just two kilometers upstreem of the Salto the Neff and started scouting the first few rapids to prepare ourselves for the next days big water mission.

One of us even adjusted his beard to the river – simply lovely!

The next morning our small crew finally started full of action to do our first kayaking trip together down the Rio Baker. Because of the low water level the only option to run the frist rapid was to run the far left creek line. So the boys started making fun of the pretended force of the Rio Baker. But only a few hundred meters later when I turned around after the S-Rapid I saw both of them beeing very busy rolling and trying to get out of the eddylines and whirlpools close to the canyon walls. With a big grin in my face I waited for them in the eddy below the rapid and from there on they believed me that all the waves, holes and whirlpools are a lot bigger than they look like from the top.

We enjoyed the beauty of the Baker about four days before we had to go back to Futa, Pucon, Santiago and home.

When we left,  Hector – the owner of our campground – told us, that Hydro Aysen is going to start building the dam on the Rio Baker in 2014. So we have to come back as soon as possible – see you next season Rio Baker!