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→Season 2024/25
==Season 2024/25==
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2025-02-11 to 2025-02-13 / 3 days / Packrafting/ SOBO/ RP / Tomáš'''</span>
From Futaleufu, we tried to take the 10am bus to Chaiten with the plan to get of at Puerto Ramírez, but it was full. Apparently the 6am bus was full too. You need to reserve at least a day in advance, the ticket office opens at 10:00 and there is usually a big queue already. They said this does not apply for the bus to Palena - for that you just show up at the terminal. We did not want to wait, so we hitched: it took us 4 cars and 5 hours. We arrived in Palena 18:00, so we slept in a hospidaje here: -43.61753, -71.79944. 40 thousand for two with an early breakfast.
Buses from Chaiten to Palena go daily at 12 and 16:30. From Palena to Chaiten they go at 6 and 11. To Valle California (27H Option 1) Monday and Thursday at 8 and 16, going back an hour later. Buses that go along the Palena river to El Tranquilo (-43.73151, -72.16549) leave Monday at 8:30, Wednesday and Friday at 11 (going back at 11 and 14 respectively). This bus could be used to shorten the Palena or used for the first 5 km of 27H.
Walking from Palena, you do not need to cross the bridge, there is a staircase to a beach on the left just before the bridge. What others said about the river largely holds. The river was probably half a meter under its maximum. At the beggining ground contact was a concern, but could mostly be avoided. In the second section, there are indeed trees, but largely easy to avoid and there is not that many of them compared to 17P. The first section goes through a beautiful gorge. In the second, there are magnificent pointy mountains on the left. We wondered if they have ever been climbed, given their relative remoteness, namelessness and moderate prominence and altitude (~2000m).
Entel internet good in Palena and La Junta, also about 20 km downstream from Palena, there must be a tower as our e-mails got randomly downloaded. In La Junta, we spent too much time shopping, so ended up camping 50 m downstream from the takeout, where there is a table, but it probably belongs to someone.
As for the rapids:
- In 4.2, there is a tree trunk in the middle, complicating it, but one can go left of it. More complicated in shallow water as your line gets narrower.
- We walked 7.9 as the main current runs you into willows.
- 23.4 was easy on the left, it is a rock garden (two, actually, with a break in the middle). Class II at this river level, it could be harder with more water.
- 47.0, where mad nomad capsized, is an uncomplicated class II rapid with high (~1m) waves if you manage to hit the V between the trunks. However, it then pushes you against a head wall with some speed, so remember to exit it in time. We did not and hit the wall at a slow speed (via backpaddling), regained strength in an eddy along the wall, and then attacked the side current to get out. It was tricky to get out, we could not paddle on the left due to the wall and had to lean hard against the wall in order to not be capsized by the current on the right.
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2025-Jan-15 to 2025-Jan-17 / 3 days / Packrafting / SOBO / RP / Davide Materia'''</span>