GPT05 (Rio Colorado)

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* Start Date to Finish Date (use Format YYYY-MMM-DD) / Duration in Days / Hiking or Packrafting / Travel Direction (SOBO for Southbound or NOBO Northbound) / Chosen Route and/or Option Name (RR for Regular Route) / Names or Alias

Summary with remarks to route that are considered useful for other hikers and packrafters. Include alerts, suggestions and personal perception of attractiveness and difficulties.

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Section Log, Alerts and Suggestions

Season 2022/23

• 2023-Jan-08 to 2023-Jan-14 / 7 days / Hiking / Roundtrip via Planchon and back to Los Quenes / Tomáš & Natalie

We hitched easily all the way to Lagunas del Teno from Los Quenes with three cars. Buses from Curico to Los Quenes run as stated below, it was 2200 per person. The pizzeria in Los Quenes is not very good - premanufactured dough. Met two Germans doing hiking trips on GPT without knowing the acronym "GPT" - they were just using the OSM data. It was Saturday afternoon. Planchon seems to be a popular climbing spot, there was about 25 people around the lagoon who have mostly climbed Planchon that day (including a club of 15). Some people drive up just to have a look or barbecue. So Friday and likely Sunday would probably work well, but there were people there also on weekdays. There are probably around 5 cars a day going to Argentine, we were told. The refuge seemed to be open but the people at the lagoon knew nothing about it. We slept in an old building probably used by the workers when constructing the dam. Despite an evening storm, it was very warm.

Next day we walked towards Planchon - there is an easy trail skirting the lagoon, no need to go back to Refugio. The trail can probably be flooded when the lagoon is at its maximum level. All the way to the top, there is an easy to follow trail to the top where there is a logbook. There were lots of streams flowing to the lake and one not far from the trail at over 3000. Without backpack it took us about 3 hours to go up from there and back. The mountain has a tendency to cloud up early (2-5 pm). This section was easy so GPT difficulty probably at 4.

A storm again came, we hid in a volcanic cave and then camped on the sand.

The next day we went around Planchon to reach the caldera with crater lakes. We followed the old trail in OSM which is imprecise. Only up until a volcanological measuring station, it was easy. From there it is pure cross-country. We side-hilled this traverse at about 3200 metres but it was a bad choice, too high. While traversing, it got steep with a number of hard to cross gulleys (with water and snow). We would advise to keep lower, especially given that going up the glacier stream needs to be on your left and we only found a suitable crossing at 2800 m. We would recommend to traverse the slopes of Planchon at about this altitude, it looked much less steep, so lower is more safe and faster despite the altitude loss.

Once finished traversing and the ascent towards the crater began we struggled finding the correct way because the osm trail was awful and we had very low visibility due to clouds. We lost a lot of time so this section of about 3 km took us all day. We ended up taking a moraine ridge on the opposite side of the osm trail (other side of the glacier stream there) and made camp in the moraine at ~3200m before going up the final climb to the craters because of weather. Weather was worse the next day so we stayed in the tent, explored options of getting to the proper ridge of the caldera and finished the route the following day. In short the ridge you should aim for is; -35.22600, -70.58600. and the top of the caldera you should aim for is -35.22779, -70.58231. The rest of the ridge top of the caldera towards the crater lakes is slightly a knife ridge and the scramble down is loose.

With good visibility and direction, one could probably reach the caldera within a half day if camping at the crossroads of the trail to the top and the round-trail.

The caldera is beautiful, the lakes are lovely, you can pick your way through. We crossed the rim to Argentine and we went again to the south of the OSM trail as the pass was less steep. A side trip to the higher of Peteroa summits is easy, but you cannot get to the top from this side or traverse, there is a vertical rock (about 20 m high) on the top that cannot be climbed without gear nor can it be skirted around. Our original plan was to try and cross to Azufre but that is not possible through Peteroea, it is far too rocky. It might be possible going from the Chilian side directly to Azufre but frankly it probably is not a hike up and would need gear, the ridge from north looked rocky, the ridge from west looked much better but was steep, is hard to get to and we only saw it from afar. So best way to Azufre still looks like from Argentina.

It clouded up at around 3 pm again. We descended via a trial from the rim to the Argentine border checkpoint. They sent us back to Chile when we said we came from the craters. I wonder if they would let us through if we said we came through the border crossing. They said they did not care how we would exit Argentine if we first cross to it via a an official crossing from Chile (we were mulling continuing the backroute on GPT05, which can be accessed about 10 km south of the checkpoint - there is no official crossing there). Chileans seemed unconcerned about the border, some even drive to the no-man's land between the crossings (police is ok with that apparently) and climb Planchon from there. Difficulty of the round-crossing via the route we took according to GPT scale is 7. With the proper trail, it would probably be 6.

We used the road (no cars, super windy) and then a track on OSM (Mirador lagunas Teno)just before the border to go back to the lagoona where we camped.

Next day (The first nice day in 4 days), we started towards Los Quenes. The ascent to the pass from the lagoon is quite hard and involves either going up a very loose scree slope with lots of boulders or easy but vertical scramble of about 10 m. In all cases, the way seems to be so that you keep the creek to you left going uphill. Possibly keeping higher on the right slope would make it easier but we ended up clombing the rocks next to the small waterfall. The hills are green and firm, but it is ten vertical meters (difficulty 6 or seven probably). The valley has a small green patch though and is quite beautiful. Going the upper route as if climbing Planchon and then traversing would have been much easier (not as nice though). Once up the pass, a trail appears at 2900 and can be followed to about 1600 (the last three hundred vertical metres are a bit overgrown with meadow/hard to follow). The descent closed a few streams. At roughly 1800, there is a man made canal that follows the trail. At 1600, the GPT Track seems to be CC, we followed the trail which turns sharply to right to a puesto and then joins the first X waypoint on the RR going SOBO.

Next day, the walk down to Los Quenes was uneventful. Met a family on horses who wanted to go to the Lagoonas del Teno (we told them it is probably possible but are not sure)and hitched the last 4 km (deeper in the valley, there was no traffic our direction). Then we took. Bus at 1400 to Curico.

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Retired Section Article GPT05 - Río Colorado

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