Cambios

When Futaleufú is not covered in clouds there are some amazing looking mountains surrounding the area, issue is it is hard to find a way up. With the help of a small Wikiloc entry I managed to make a loop to a false summit above town here; -43.14132, -71.86344 @~1900m. Really beautiful views and once in the alpine the terrain offered a few more options that look fun for those that are fine with mountainous terrain (alpine lakes, plateau that connects back to Argentina and possibly the East ridge of the summit). It took me almost 10hrs but once in the alpine I was going very slow because I was investigating. It starts off on a popular known hiking trail (Cerro la bandera), turns into a horse trail, then a cow trail that is , then an overgrown cow trail and then the rest is CC. The walk up to Cerro la bandera is super fast, you pass through a campsite at the bottom that may make you pay 1mil- I went early (~7am) and didn't see anyone. Alternatively you can start at a hostal “Turismo Rural Los Alpes”, that is where the Wikiloc started but I didn't want to walk on the road and or through their property so that is why I took the chance of finding a trail near Bandera. At the top of Bandera there is a sign pointing to “agua”, take it to a small pond in which you can find , that is where I found a horse trail that connects you to the Wikiloc trail above "Turismo Rural Los Alpes". The horse trail goes NW below a forested plateau (~1.25km). Try to stay on the main one and aim for , there are a few forks in the road but it is easy to guess where to go. The end of the horse trail is roughly here; 43.17212, -71.88034. That is the end of the horse trail I found, then Then you can jump the fence and get on the cow trail that the Wikiloc followed uphill. From here on it would be best to have a gps to follow or to track yourself because there are many cow trails. The main trail which I think used to be used for hiking is good until ~750m, then it becomes overgrown. It goes up a bushy ridge next to a large canyon and then turns left and up into a terribly dark and scary Douglas fir plantation. After the plantation it gets much more overgrown but the trail goes on for a little bit until the hill climb -43.16352, -71.87214. Once I got to the hill I went CC straight up, staying to the right of the rocky outcrops. Once at about 1150m I turned left and followed the broad ridge, this is where the Wikiloc track from the Turismo Rural ended. Eventually the ridge opens up to views to the right and left, this is where alternative options exist ( -43.15294, -71.86552). I chose to try for the summit but could have gone to the alpine lakes or the plateau instead. The ridge I was originally on (SW) looked broken so I dropped down into the basin (only water available) to take the steeper South ridge (original ridge would have worked). It was a fun scramble at times. There is a point on this ridge which had a moraine to the right, you can take it if you want to try to get to the plateau, East ridge of summit /Argentina and or the alpine lakes. The top of the South ridge turned into solid class 03 but the west ridge was only class02 at most. I could not make the true summit, there is a very eerie knife ridge that is falling apart and then what looks like a wall further ahead, someone else can try… For the return I took the main SW ridge down, it was a lot fasterand I found a lot of stones that looked related to copper. I could have went back down and up to the East ridge (south face has a glacier) but weather was moving in and the wind was pushing me over at times, so I was happy to return to town. I forgot my Garmin so I did not track the whole thing which was a mistake, as the return felt slow bcs I struggled to stay on route. Technically I could have finished the loop by trying to exit out of the Turismo Rural but once again preferred the horse track in a forest rather than sun exposed grass pastures and a road.