4616
ediciones
Cambios
→Season 2024/25
==Season 2024/25==
* '''GPT37H Option 1D and GPT37P Option 16 / Villa O’Higgins to Lago O‘Higgins (Packrafting access to Brazo Bajo Esperanza) / Round Trip / 2024-Dec-05 to 08 / 4 days / Meylin Ubilla and Jan Dudeck'''
I drafted this exploration route to investigate a possible packrafting access to Brazo Bajo Esperanza of Lago O’Higgins. This north-western portage route shortens the access to Laguna Larga to a 12 km paddle and places the majority of this water route in a somewhat more wind protected area. From there it‘s another 9 km on water to Glaciar Oriental.
My initial draft route minimized portage distance by maximizing packrafting but contained quite some bush bashing. In a later detailed satellite image analysis I discovered some signs of a rarely used trail and I added another option that minimized bush bashing. We now investigated this suspected old trail without packraft to verify if this hiking route is indeed traversable.
From Villa O’Higgins we hiked the well-established trail to Laguna Negra. From there we ascended along the suspected trail towards Lago Toro. Fresh machete cuts (1 year or less) along the ascent indicated that this route is still occasionally used. Once we reached a more open plateau the signs of the old trail became more sporadic and hard to follow but the open terrain facilitated advancing. At the evening we found an excellent camp spot within a small forest.
The next day we continued our ascent towards Lago Toro. We occasionally could see signs of a disused trail but in the rather open terrain we lost this old route which got us in difficult rock terrain. Once we reached Lago Toro we rediscovered the disused trail. To get to the other end of Lago Toro we walked half a kilometer through water to avoid the dense vegetation that reached all the way to lake shore. This is not uncommon for horse trails. During the descent to Lago O’Higgins we again found occasionally signs of a disused trail especially where the geography leaves little options (the few gaps between rocky cliffs). The machete cuts were at least 10 years old. To cross one patch of dense forest we needed our machete. We camped next to Lago O’Higgins.
On the way back we could improve the route and discovered more signs of the disused trail.
This demanding route is useful for packrafters that wish to access the north-western arm of Lago O’Higgins or for hikers that look for a 3 to 4 day adventure around Villa O’Higgins.
This route is more demanding than the packrafting portage route via Laguna Negra to El Taitao about 10 km further south especially when carrying a heavy packraft and plenty of food.
This exploration confirmed some lessons learned from previous years:
1. A tedious analysis of satellite images often pays off and can avoid unnecessary hardship when searching a route. I had multiple options planned and displayed on the GPS.
2. Offline satellite images and detailed topographic maps on the smartphone are essential when “ground-truthing” such an exploration route. We used Gaia GPS (good topographic maps) and BackcountryNavigator (better satellite images).
3. The best research result is archived when the same person or group investigates the route in both directions.
4. The machete was essentially when we hit a dense patch of forest. Due to otherwise rocky terrain this was the only possible bottleneck to descend further and in exactly this patch of forest we rediscovered signs of the disused trail (old machete cuts).
5. Such explorations require reasonable good weather to be enjoyable.
==Season 2023/24==
