Adventure Magazine

It was an abrupt introduction to a

unique place that appeals to those who

love the high and the wild. Cochamó

is not your everyday holiday climbing

destination, where you clip some bolts

on a nearby cliff and then stroll to

the local for sunset beers. Here, the

only weather updates come via radio.

There’s no helicopter coming to rescue

you if something goes wrong. And

aside from occasional bread cooked at

one of the campsites, the only food is

what's carried in.

Such an isolated place might seem like

a deterrent, but there are undeniable

benefits to unplugging. No faces glued

to phones. A simplified life, a rewilding,

connecting only with what’s in

front of you and letting everything else

fall away.

Access starts at the end of a dirt road,

where horses ferry up to 60kg of

gear up a 12km trail to the campsites

near the confluence of two rivers.

These sites, where climbers set

up basecamp, are surrounded by

Above: Rachel Knott enjoys the view from The

Penthouse bivvy in Cochamó's Anfiteatro, one of

a number of valley's that are full of granite walls.

"Such an isolated

place might seem

like a deterrent,

but there are

undeniable benefits

to unplugging."

impressive cirques of granite. There’s

El Anfiteatro to the south, Trinidad

to the south east, La Junta and La

Paloma to the north, Arco Iris to the

west—each sector with several peaks,

rock-faces up to 1400m high, and

a number of established routes, as

well as innumerable ones yet to be

developed.

An abundance of classics awaits in

Anfiteatro, where climbers sleep under

an enormous boulder just above

the treeline. The rock-walls seem to

lean in and look down on you from

every direction. There’s Luchando

con Mariposas (translation: ‘Fighting

with Butterflies’), which includes

several slab pitches to test your gecko

footwork; La Aleta de Triburón (‘The

Shark’s Fin’), which has a stunning

aréte with gulp-fuls of exposure; Al

Centro y Adentro (‘To the centre, and

inside’), which follows a crack system

that eats your fingers, hands, fists and,

at times, your whole body. The crux

pitch of the latter, of course, tests your

gecko abilities on featureless rock.

16//WHERE ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS/#237 ADVENTUREMAGAZINE.CO.NZ//17