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→Season 2023/24
==Season 2023/24==
*2024-03-25 to 2024-03-29 / 5 days / SOBO / RR + new route + Copahue summit opt 2. + opt 1 down Copahue + Nathalie/Tomas new route + gpt11 nobo back to Guallalí / Marilyne
Day 1 - Started in Trapa Trapa around 15:30 and walked to right before camp 7.1. Hid in the forest to camp instead of using the nice grassy area as a lot of people on horses were using the trail.
Day 2 - Felt worried about the multiple puesto dogs and the aggressive person along the RR and option 1 so decided to try a new route to eventually rejoin GPT option 2, the trail to the summit of Copahue (pronounced Copaway). Went cross country going South from my 7.1 camp for a while until I started climbing East. Eventually joined a trail that seemed to get good use. There is probably no need to go cross country if you find the start of that trail… Left the trail at -37.78784, -71.25114 and went CC again on the plateau. Met a couple harvesting piñones and chatted with them. As I was leaving, their dog nipped my ankle… so much for avoiding dogs. Stopped by Laguna Negra (-37.81527, -71.21972) for lunch and water. Camped by a small lake at -37.83042, -71.20250. Beautiful views around that area. There were patches of old (last year’s) and new (last week’s) snow. In the evening, I went to investigate a direct route to Copahue up the peak at -37.83807, -71.20001, but felt that it was a little too exposed for me and my big backpack.
Day 3 - Took a slightly lower route on the West side of previously mentioned peak to Copahue from my campsite which worked great. Water at -37.83722, -71.20762 and also further depending on the snow quantity. Rejoined the marked OSM trail up to Copahue at around 2,750 meters of elevation, where I left most of my gear and went to the summit. The hike down from the volcano was very slow going, I followed the OSM route mostly but at times I was in between the GPT line and the OSM line. Went to check out the hot springs, which looked gross to me. Camped at -37.89625, -71.16599, on the road leading to Argentina.
Day 4 - I wanted to try the new option that Nathalie and Tomas have posted below for this section, so I followed the road to Argentina up to the valley that parallels the border and made my way to the ridge. Views from the ridge are spectacular and I enjoyed that part very much, following the border at first and ending up here: -37.95833, -71.11928. Difficulties came when I tried to come down the ridge following the route posted on FB. I backed out of the proposed “best route” as it was too exposed and scrambling-like for my liking. I ended up going down the steep talus slope for a while, traversing as Natalie described and ended up doing a fair amount of unpleasant bush-bashing to reach the trail at the bottom of the valley. There are probably better routes than the one I took though, I didn’t have the opportunity to study the satellite imagery very well before going :-). Looking back I should have walked in the creek bed earlier rather than fight with all the bamboo. Ended up with a fair amount of scratches and ripped pants. Camped shortly after I found the trail in the valley.
Day 5 - Used GPT11 NOBO to reach Guallalí. Stopped at the hot springs (6.6km/991) on the way to clean up a little. It was a holiday in Chile, Good Friday, and I met two groups of people from the city that were driving around this remote road for fun. Reached Guallalí and went to the carabineros station to ask about camp possibilities. They mentioned a metal bridge about 3 kilometers away but not in the direction that I wanted to go (Ralco). I hung out close to the bus stop thinking about what I would do and eventually two of them came out to talk to me again. They said that they have to be careful with strangers as they are the police and never know people’s intentions but that they’d like to invite me to have some of the lunch they had made. They also let me camp next to the station to catch the 5.30am bus the next morning after checking my passport. I think that the fact that I was a solo woman helped. As I learned from our discussion, new police officers get assigned to this station every month and stay there for the full month, so this might not be offered again in the future.
*2024-Mar-8 to 2024-Mar-11 / 2.5 days / SOBO / RR B / Matthias de Austria