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* 01.27.2024 / 5 days / Hiking / SoBo / RR + Option 8 to Bahía Murta / Milton Cea + 4 more
Considering that we would venture to make this route a journey from Villa Cerro Castillo to Bahía Murta, we have decided to pay Pedro Zuleta, who is dedicated to transportation in the surrounding areas (+56 9 9357 8668), to take us to the entrance of the route at the registration booth. There, we encountered a pair of muleteers who did not pay much attention to our passing, however, we spoke with them to ask for their permission and inquire about the condition of the path.
We started with the regular route, a bit late, and for that reason, we camped the first night at Mallín Grande, which is a very good option, as watching the sunrise in this beautiful place is worthwhile.
Starting early the next day, we reached the "Los puestos" sector and from there, leaving our camp set up, we headed towards the towers. We were only able to reach the first lagoon at the base of the massif, as we went a bit late and our conversation with some other hikers we met extended. I would recommend leaving early to take advantage of the views from the portezuelo lookout.
The next day we began the crossing through the "Río Resbalón" Valley, as the locals call it, following an animal trail that sometimes tends to get lost among new vegetation or fallen trees, accompanied by other hikers who decided to join the journey.
It is a part of the route that can be slightly complex if you do not have a good reading of the surroundings, finding the animal traffic trail, and considering that you navigate through a forest that can easily disorient. This changes when you already walk with the "Resbalin/Resbalón" river to your right, as it is quite useful to follow its course. Always on the left side of the river.
On the way, there are some fallen trees and abandoned muleteer posts that can be used as camping space if necessary, although I would not recommend camping in this old forest.
Upon reaching the point of the road collapse, the crossing of the scree can be done at the level of its arrival, but to continue the route, you must climb a few meters up the mountain until you find the entrance to the continuation of the route. This point took some time from us, and we decided to camp near the river, towards the rock beach in the middle of a young forest with a mossy floor, very comfortable and restorative. We also decided to place some pircas at this point, as there was no mark to help resume the path towards Murta, since the difference in height was noticeable and it can be easy to believe that the path continues by the river side, but no, from here the path separates from the river and goes up the mountain.
Finally, after this last abandoned stretch, where the vegetation is abundant in some parts, we ended up arriving at the Puesto de Los Agüeros and decided to spend a night there, as we were very tired from constantly finding the route. It's worth mentioning that we couldn't find a GPS track before the trip.
The next day, after a night of intense rain, we took the official route traced from "Bahía Murta" at opossite direction and arrived in the town at dusk.
If you want the track and the Waypoints of the journey, feel free to write to me at '''milton.1902@gmail.com''' =)
* 2023-Mar-30 to 2023-Mar-31 / 1.5 days / Hiking / SOBO / RR + Option 1 / Martin & Helena
We started from Villa Cerro Castillo around 11 AM and took ferry from the port the next day at noon. The former RR trail follows path of Sendero de Chile, and starting with no expectations we were quite impressed with what it offers, especially all the amazing views of Cerro Castillo. It's definitely a good short alternative to the Torres del Avellano detour that we were forced to skip. Trail is easy to follow and you can find many camp spots along the way. There are many small shops in Puerto Ibáñez. Knowing the ferry schedule we went directly to the port where were just a few others in this time of the year.
Contact: @martin_hanzelka @helenneka
* 20.02. - 24.02.23 / Anna & Christopher / SOBO, Villa Cerro Castillo - Puerto Ibáñez
In the afternoon we started hitchhiking the Carretera Austral to where Option 3B starts. There were lots of people trying to hitchhike directly from Villa Cerro Castillo, so we figuered to have a better chance if we walk further up the Carretera Austral. We soon got lucky. That day we walked the dirtroad until km 4.4 and camped there next to a small stream.
The next day was mostly easy walking on dirtroads until the crossing at km 45.5 (which is relatively easy to miss!). We camped at km 49 at the edge of the forest.
The next day the weather turned bad once we reached the section with all the boulders on the ascent to the pass. We did some unnecessary climbing by not sticking to the main route. When descending we lost the main route again and briefly tried to descend without it, which we soon realised is a bad idea, so we climbed back up to where we lost it.
We spent the night at the camp at km 63.4.
The next morning we woke up with a clear blue sky and finally saw the Torres del Avellano. Really amazing rock formations.
The following bushbashing part seemed ok to us, we had worse ones on the GPT so far ;). First we walked on to the right of the river following a good animal path. Once it ended we changed to the left side and stayed there.
About 2/3 of the route is a realtively good path and the rest was some easy BB and climbing over fallen trees.
Luckily the ford at km 69.8 was easy to cross.
We took variant E from where on the trail was in a great condition and we could walk pretty fast. The river crossing at km 81.1 was more demanding and went almost up to Annas hips (1,63m). We camped soon after that at approx. km 81.5.
We continued on variant H the easy trail on the dirtroad until the lake, where it gets more demanding (we underestimated the continous ups and downs). The views are amazing though. It gets pretty windy next to the lake. We camped at a tiny spot at km 109.3 next to a small stream.
On the final day we walked to the bus station (6 pm) and took the ferry to Chile Chico the same day (8 pm). This section was great :)
* 26/02/2023 - 02/03/2023 / RR SOBO with emergency exit on a boat on Lago General Carrera / Louis, Rémi & Noé :
Day 1 - From Lago Verde - 15.5km - +700m/-300m
We first hitchiked from Villa Cerro Castillo to Lago Verde on the Carretera Austral. We hiked then the gravel road until the camp next to the free check in point, in the forest.
Day 2 - Laguna La Plazza - 16.5km - +800m/-500m
We kept going on the minor road before the well maintained horse trail. We took option to the Laguna La Plazza and we camped there but the weather was quite bad with a lot of wind. Would recommend to camp in the pasture down there in these conditions.
Day 3 - Lagunas before the pass - 17km - +1000m/-900m
The trail was still very easy to follow this day. A bit of cross country at the end but nothing difficult as there are kerns. There is a spot to pitch tents next to the second lake, between it and the waypoint "camp" (that we didn't find btw). Very nice there and without the clouds, the view should be incredible.
Day 4 - CC until diversion @km69.8 - 14km - +500m/-1100m
The troubles began for us this day. Noé injured his knee just after the pass. With Rémi, we alternated carrying his bag in addition to ours. That's why we hadn't moved a lot. The bush bashing is demanding and under the rain, fording is a real challenge. I would recommend you to be south of the Rio after the diversion/ford. We camped on the north side, a few hundred meters after the div.
Day 5 - Lago General Carrera - 30km - +700m/-1000m
As we were a bit late, we decided to walk directly to the lake. We forded the Rio in order to be south of it and we found the horse trail, it was easier then ! We crossed the Rio a last time @km81.2, still manageable with the rain but a bit hard (water until the hips, we are 1m80 tall) with a strong current. Then, the minor road. We didn't leave it until the lake. A bit of ups and downs but the road is nice so it is fast.
Here, at the lake. There is mobile coverage and so we contacted numeros given on the PDF on WhatsApp to find a boat to bring us back to civilisation. With the third bag to carry, it was too hard for us to keep hiking. I let you the contact of Jairo, that can bring you back to Puerto Tranquilo... for 400.000 CLP... we didn't had the choice as the settler living just in front of the lake wasn’t there.
Jairo : +56 9 6633 9507
He transported us the next day.
* 2023-Feb-20-24 / NOBO / RR shortend on the road sections / Zohar / Road to Levicán - Carterra Austeral / 5 days
I tried to shorten the section because of the upcoming bad weather, which hit on the last day, but I was lucky to catch a ride out with a family that came to collect wood from their land.
I arrived on Monday to pureto Ibañez spoke with the van to levicán that left at 17.40 to Levicán got off on the way where the rout leave the main road and walked till the shore of Lago General Carrera.
Day 2 I followed the horse trail along the lake, which was very visible and easy to follow. Then, I followed a miner till I found a stable campsite.
Day 3 was the hardest. I was determined to sleep at the base of the torres, so I had a lot of trail to cover, and the route was hard to follow, but the direction was clear.
Day 4 started with a beautiful sun rise on the clear torres de avellano. The bolder field wasn't as hard as I itentenly thought, but be careful. After the pass, I met 4 young hikers going to the torres and back.
Day 5 was wet, but at least on a minor road and about 9 km before the road, I was picked up and taken to Villa Cerro Castillo.
I don't advise doing the section in 5 days thay where long, big days, and it is better to enjoy the surroundings. if the weather was better, I would have taken 7 days.
This section is beautiful and highly recommended
* 2023-Feb-21-27 / NOBO / RR + Option 3B / Ondrej and Bara / Puerto Ibanez - Vila Cerro Castillo / 6.5 days
Gorgerous section. Unfortunately, we were struck by bad weather mid-way which took out the joy and brought a few very difficult moments for us.
We went NOBO and on the 3rd day camped in the valley close to Maria & Julio (76.7 km). It started raining early morning and while the rain stopped around midday, it was enough to turn streams into rivers and cross country paths into swamps. We were unable to ford the river at km 69.8 at two different places. To continue, we decided to make a risky choice and bush-bash upstream on the other side of the river, hoping to ford it in an upper section and rejoin the trail. This eventually worked out. We forded the river at -46.43642, -72.45456 and rejoined the trail. This 1.2km diversion took us about 2 hours. Bush-bashing through forest was okay but in the middle of the diversion we struggled through 300m of thorny bushes which took forever to get across.
From around 1000m of altitude, we had fresh snow on the slopes. This made the boulder field more challenging than we wanted (fortunately still manageable). We crossed the exposed pass at km62.0 and continued on the other side, firstly through snow and then again through muddy cross country parts until we joined the trailhead at km 57.0. Afterwards the trail was easy all the way until the end.
We also met Anna and Christopher going the opposite direction - really great to meet fellow hikers!
*11-18 February 2023 / Maks&Gabi / SOBO / RR, 33H-E, 33H-H ( hichhiking from km136 to Puerto Ibanez)
We started from Villa Cerro Castillo. If you can, try not to skip the first part of road walking. It's beautiful with the view over Lagunas and Cerro Castillo. The terrain is also different than in later parts of the section.
There are some problems - lot of fences and gates on the first 5 km. Then many aggressive dogs and limited access to water (steep descents and fences around the lakes). The camping spots, marked on track files, can be hard to access (private properties with new fences). We camped by the bridge around 25km (the bridge is not marked).
We than waited half a day for the rain to stop. The rest of the road is also well maintained with occasional river crossing (all easy).
The next trail part (until km 57) is mostly visible. Some problem can occur by the CC part, especially during heavy rain - it was all floded. We weren't exactly expecting it, but it was snowing and the temperature during the night was about -4. Next day we waited until 11 am to dry our stuff, as the sun finally came out.
As Veronica wrote, when going up to the pass try to follow the cairns (33H-D). The part between the lakes and the pass is quite easy.
Going down from the pass we followed the GPS and we found it quite manageable (actually for us it seemed to be much easier going SOBO than NOBO at that point, even though it was slippery and with a lot of small streams going down the rock). We reached the camp at km 63.4 at 4 pm. First 400 m of BB is easy as the forest is not overgrown. It's getting worse in the valley. If possible try to be close to the river. We were fording it multiple times. Finally we stayed at the left side of the river, bushbashing for the next 3 km (that's where the trail starts). We slept next to the ford at km 69.8.
We forded the river in the morning. It's possible, but the current was strong (for us it was the worst ford on this section with water above our knees - I'm 175 cm). After the next ford we followed 33H-E as we couldn't find the entrance to the RR. It's a very well maintained path with a big puesto nearby.
After fords at km 81 we followed 33H-H as we didn't want to cross the river anymore. For those of you, who are planning to go there during the next few days, be carefull - somewhere around km 91 there is a fresh dead cow near to the water.
The lake part's quite exhausting. We were blessed with sunny and windless weather so we found it astonishing and not so dangerous. We started our last day at camp km 113.8 . Ascent on the road (117.5) is ok and there was water on km 119.9 (small stream). The rest of the road walking is easy (with occasional fences) but there's no water on km 135.2 (water on 129.3 is hard to access).
We hitchhiked from km 136 to Puerto Ibanez. During the weekend there is only one ferry a day (Saturday morning and Sunday evening).
* Feb 12 Direct Route SOBO 1 day Frank
I walked straight from Villa Cerro Castillo to Puerto Ibanez in one long day. A few KM out on a dirt road there is a museum on your left & a short trail on the right which goes to some rock paintings. You pass by a lake with good views of Cerro Castillo. Salto Rio Ibanez waterfall is impressive.
*Helen and Craig + (Caro and Ali)
5th-10th February NoBo<- only direction to do it! So pretty!
allmost got stung by the ferry from Chile chico. Make sure when you go to the office as the online booking doesn't seen to be working, that you specify your a foot passenger. And if they refuse ask to be put on the waiting list for the next ferry (which means you'll get on just fine) pretty sure you could probably just turn up and ask very nicely and they would let you across. Looked in to the boats from Carlos and Pascual to join 33 missing the coast section from levican but Carlos is not in the area at the moment and Pascuals boat is currently non functional, sad times but the coastal section I would have been sad to miss!
-Decided to do Torres del avellano northbound. Highly recommend doing it this way and thankyou to the others who pointed out this point before us. Veiws were great and much easier to get over the bolder scramble going up.
-We walked in a group of 4 so payed for a transfere to levican and a pick up from lago lapparent. 60,000 each time.
-Phone signal from Puerto del avellano to levican
-The river valleys of avellano and venti were incredibly beautiful to the south.
-Route was better marked and easier to navigate than exsepted. Very Easy going apart from km 68.7-62. if you've done GPT 40 or 37, then you'll find 33 delightfully a breeze. (We did have good weather, in bad weather even just a little rain I imagine a very diffence and worse exsperience)
-In the BB/CC river valley of Rio avellano walk on the north shore of the river rather than going to the south. The forest is mostly easily passable or can hop out to the river valley to walk more freely. The south side of the river is calf/ knee high swampy bush bashing which leads to very cold feet and frustration.
-keep eyes peeled for humels! We spotted a male humel on the bushbash/cross country section and had the most amazing sighting!
