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→Season 2025/26
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<!-- IF YOU COPY FROM THIS EDITING VIEW, YOU NEED TO USE THIS TEMPLATE (* TRANSFORMS INTO BULLET, ''' MAKE IT BOLD):*''' Start Date to Finish Date (use Format YYYY-MMM-DD) / Duration in Days / Hiking or <span style="background-color:aqua;">Packrafting </span> / Travel Direction (SOBO for Southbound or NOBO Northbound) / Chosen Route and/or Option Name (RR for Regular Route) / Names or Alias'''--><nowiki>* '''</nowiki>'''Start Date to Finish Date (use Format YYYY-MMM-DD) / Duration in Days / Hiking or <span style="background-color:aqua;">Packrafting</span> / Travel Direction (SOBO for Southbound or NOBO Northbound) / Chosen Route and/or Option Name (RR for Regular Route) / Names or Alias'''<nowiki>'''</nowiki>
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=Overview=
=Section Log, Alerts and Suggestions=
==Season 2025/26==
* <span style="background-color:aqua;"> ''' GPT37P Option 4 (Packrafting Brazo Poniente), Option 8 (Hiking along valley Rio Cascada and Rio Colorado) and Option 8D (Hiking to Viewpoint Glaciar Oriental) / 2026-01-03 to 07 / 5 days / Meylin Ubilla & Jan Dudeck ''' </span>
About 2 years ago I drafted an exploration route to a viewpoint over Glaciar Oriental based on satellite images. These images did not show any trail but sufficiently open terrain that hiking to this viewpoint seamed worthwhile trying.
Day 1: We packrafted in 2 hours from Rio Manso on Lago O’Higgins to the port La Ramona and walked in 3 hours to the home of Lencho, a settler that lives next to the confluence of Rio Cascada and Rio Colorado.
Luckily, Lencho arrived in the evening after a week of driving cattle and maintaining trails. Years ago, Lencho had investigated the first part of our planned route and confirmed that the forest is traversable.
We stayed in his home and had a filling dinner with him.
We left all our packrafting gear and some food in the home of Lencho to reduce weight.
Day 2: Lencho accompanied us on horseback and showed us the best access to our planned route. Numerous cattle tracks in the forest facilitated walking. Anyway, the mix of weakly visible animal tracks, cross country terrain and a bit of bush bashing require careful navigation with frequent checks of satellite images to avoid denser patches of forest and steep rocky terrain. While gaining altitude, signs of rooming cattle become scarce and disappear above 900 m elevation.
When reaching the first pass (1130 m) the view opens up towards towards Laguna Cascada and Laguna Azul. After the pass, careful navigation is required to sneak through the few gaps in the rocky terrain with partially steep cliffs.
The occasional animal tracks appear to be created by Huemules. Here we saw a young Huemul that appeared somewhat puzzled when seeing us. It steered at us for minutes until deciding to walk away.
We camped on a reasonably dry patch of grass next to a lake where several walls provide decent wind protection.
Day 3: We seeked our way towards Laguna Azul through a labyrinth of lakes, rock walls, patches of dense forests and swamps.
When we reached the drain of Laguna Azul we attempted to ford but this seemed unsafe. The hot sunny weather melted the remaining snow rapidly, increasing the flow rate substantially.
We descended along the river and a further lake to find the perfect ford, where the river becomes nearly 100 m wide. The shallow water posed no challenge at all and left a generous margin for a further increase of the flow rate.
The following kilometer requires traversing a rocky hill next to lake. Numerous gaps in between the rocks and walls allow hikers a safe passage and carefully cross checking satellite images helps to avoid dense patches of forest.
After this last obstacle it’s a generally easy walk up to the viewpoint. The only threat are the remaining snowfields with powerful meltwater streams creating dangerous hidden cavities underneath. We avoided these risks by walking a bit south of the valley and crossing side streams where snow was already molten.
When reaching the pass and an amazing view over the entire glacier oriental opened up. We could see all the way down towards Laguna Oriental and Lago O’Higgins (Brazo Bajo Esperanza) where we explored another access route to this glacier about 1 year ago.
Day 3 and 4: We returned on a similar route camping one more night at the same camp side.
Day 5: To return to Isla Central (our base camp) we could choose between 3 options:
Option 1: Take the walking route to Pocas Pilchas and packraft the 4 km to Isla Central.
Option 2: Walk on the shortest route to Lago O’Higgins and packraft 10 km to Isla Central.
Option 3: Walk on the shortest route to Lago O’Higgins and take the supply boat that was scheduled to travel on this day. We opted for this Option 3.
Conclusion: GPT37P Option 8D adds another highly attractive glacier access to the packraft and hiking routes of Lago O’Higgins. In good weather it’s a worthwhile detour with amazing views and good chances to spot Huemules.
* <span style="background-color:aqua;"> ''' GPT37P Option 4 and 7 / Lago O‘Higgins, Brazo Poniente, 3 Lakes and 6 Glaciers upstream of Rio Manso /2025-12-31 and 2026-01-01 / Meylin Ubilla & Jan Dudeck ''' </span>
We just attempted a long planned exploration in the vicinity of Lago O’Higgins (valley of Rio Manso at the western terminus of Brazo Poniente). This valley with 3 smaller lakes and 6 glaciers appears quite attractive on satellite images. Settlers (Ana and Jorge) live at the entrance of this valley and offered us one or two years ago to guide us to these lakes.
We used a reasonably calm morning to cross from Isla Central to Rio Turbio (packrafting 6 km in a 1:15 h) but then wind from the west stopped us to paddle further into Brazo Poniente. Therefore we exited the lake and hiked with very heavy backpacks along a partially overgrown trail in 1.5 days to the home of Ana and Jorge. We had to use our packraft to ferry over Rio Manso.
When we reached the settlers, Jorge then explained:
- The valley of Rio Manso is infested by partially aggressive wild cattle („baguales“) making it unsafe to hike in this valley without being accompanied by trained dogs that detect and chase of these animals before they can attack invaders of their territory. Especially territorial bulls may attack humans that walk into this valley. Therefore these settlers don’t permit hikers to explore this valley and these lakes without being accompanied by them.
- Between November and February the meltwater from the glaciers raise the river levels making river crossings on horseback difficult and unsafe (Rio Manso could be crossed safely by packraft, other glacier streams not). Especially on sunny days this becomes an issue. Therefore Jorge could not accompany us to show us the hidden trails.
We therefore aborted this exploration and plan to use the next calm day to packraft back on Lago O‘Higgins to attempt the exploration of Option 8D.
Conclusion: Exploring the inner Rio Manso valley is only advisable in September, October, early November, March or April after careful pre-planning with the settlers. WhatsApp contact information can be provided on request.
Side note: Even without access to these 3 lakes and 6 glaciers the Brazo Poniente of Lago O’Higgins is very attractive route. The impressive glaciers Santa Lucia and Huemul are easily reachable on foot from the western terminus of Brazo Poniente. But a packraft is required to travel these routes in summer due to the high river levels.
==Season 2024/25==
*<span style==Season 2023"background-color:aqua;"> '''GPT 37P (Exploration Lago Chico to Brazo Poniente) /24==2025-01-03 to 2025-01-10 / 7.5 days / Hiking & Packrafting / NOBO / Packrafting: Lago Chico PR and Option I, Hiking: Option 14, Option 4, Option 6, Packrafting: Santa Lucia, Hiking: Option 7C, Packrafting: Option 7B, Hiking: New Option: Cerro Tono, Packrafting: crossing to Isla Central / Manon, Robin, Lucie, Thomas'''</span>
Day 2:
Continued Option 4 from La Lesna to Rio Manso (km 55.8 to km 46). A couple of river crossings (ankle/below knee). The Rio Manso needs to be crossed just before Ana & Jorge's place. Crossed it quite easily (several crossings, knee to below hip height).
At Rio Manso, Ana & Jorge had prepared some sopaipillas for our next hiking days after Jan had told them we would pass by. Super nice and welcoming people.
When leaving Ana & Jorge's place we followed the beach until it was not doable anymore (because of the lake) and from there found a small path up. It enabled us to contour the big stone/small cliff by above. Mix of bush bashing and small path to go down to Rio Santa Lucia. Too much current to cross Santa Lucia by foot (Jorge had told us) so we followed the rio following Option 6 up to the glaciar lake of Santa Lucia where we camped in the moraine. The moraine at the end is not difficult at all but quite long (lots of ups and downs). Camp at Santa Lucia is absolutely stunning.
*<span style==Season 2021"background-color:aqua;"> '''GPT37P Option 8 and 17: Lago O’Higgins circuit from Isla Central to Laguna Larga, Bahia Bajo Esperanza, Lago and Glaciar Oriental and return via Brazo Desagua to Isla Central /22==2024-Dec-21 to 2024-Dec-28 / 8 days with 3 full waiting days / Misha Bogdanov, Masha Ovchinnikova, Meylin Ubilla, Jan Dudeck'''</span>
Day 8: Return to Isla Central
On a calm morning we returned from Rio Turbio to Isla Central. This 4 km paddle on a calm morning was a delight.
Lessons learned or confirmed:
1. „Windy“ provides reasonable reliable information to wind conditions but someone must understand how the surrounding mountains redirect, enforce or weaken the wind. Anyway, predictions beyond 4 or 5 days are less reliable. Therefore, packrafters should verify expected wind conditions by InReach with a person with internet access and not rely on wind predictions recorded when leaving on a longer tour. In contrast, wind predictions provided by the InReach Weather feature or often quite inaccurate.
2. Packrafting on Lago O’Higgins and other larger lakes in southern Patagonia require patience and willingness to wait several days for suitable wind conditions (especially during the more windy summer months). Packrafting routes should be selected and customized based the predicted winds. Also, food rations need not include reserves for such waiting days.
3. Settling attempts in remote areas reached a maximum in the 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s. Since these decades, many of the more remote settling attempts have been abandoned. Depending on climate, traces of these abandoned settlements are still visible or mostly wiped out.
*<span style="background-color:aqua;"> '''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'''</span>
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==
==Season 2022/23==
* <span style="background-color:aqua;">'''2022-Dec-18 to 2023-Jan-16 / 30 Days / Packrafting / GPT37P Initial Investigation / Villa O'Higgins, Lago Negro, El Taitao, La Morocha, Isla Central, Brazo Poniente, Rio Condor, Lago Chico / Meylin Ubilla, Masha Ovchinnikova, Misha Bogdanov, Jan Dudeck, Tobias Schorch'''</span>
In the 10 years of investigating and publishing the GPT this has been the most diverse, intense and longest exploration trip.
Lago O’Higgins is not completely unknown in the travelers world but most hikers and cyclists perceive this lake rather as an obstacle then as a region to explore. Lago O’Higgins is located between the southern terminus of the Carretera Austral and the hiking mecca El Chalten. Hikers and cyclists that wish to connect along the Carretera Austral from Cerro Castillo or Parque Patagonia to El Chalten often take the ferries that cross this lake from Villa O‘Higgins to Candelario Mancilla but furious wind can result in waiting times of more then one week.
While visiting Villa O’Higgins in recent years we learned more about the handful of settlers living remotely on the shores of this lake. The first settlers arrived around 100 years ago by boat coming from the Argentine side of this bi-national lake. And satellite images provided some information about the trails in the vicinity of this octopus-like lake with numerous arm. After years of contemplating we reserved a good part of this season to venture on this lake and to visit the settlers.
Lago O’Higgins is infamous for the often furious wind that can last for days. Especially in summer wind rarely stops making any packrafting attempt an exercise of patience. Of the 30 days at the lake we spend 10 days waiting but these days were “value time” because we stayed at the homesteads of the settlers and tasted their way of life.
Highlights of the trip have been:
- Searching and documenting the barely travelled trail from Villa O’Higgins via Lago Negro to El Taitao
- Crossing by packraft Lago O’Higgins at Brazo Desagüe and Bahia Pocas Pilchas
- Spending 10 days with Andrea and Susana Mancilla on Isla Central that became our “base camp” for exploring Brazo Poniente
- Packrafting and hiking Brazo Poniente all the way to the glaciers that creep down from the Southern Patagonian Icefield
- Spending 7 days with Ema Mera and Leo Muñoz at their homestead Rio Condor that became our “base camp” to visit Brazo Sudoccidental and the Southern Patagonian Icefield
- Investigate a new cross-country hiking route to a viewpoint of Glacier O’Higgins that was probably never walked before
- Traversing the Pensinsula La Carmela from Glaciar Gaea to Lago Chico and crossing this lake by packraft next to Glaciar Chico
- Ascending on the Southern Patagonian Icefield along Glaciar Chico to Paso Marconi with the mountain guide Leo Muñoz
- Arranging food shipments with the supply boat that 3 times per month visits the settlers of Lago O’Higgins
The balanced combination of hiking, packrafting and living with the settlers made this 30-day trip an intense but not tiresome experience.
A detailed route description and recommendations will be provided with the next update of the Hikers Manual.
=Resupply and Accommodation=
==Resupply and Accommodation along the Route==
=Transport to and from Route=
=Permits, Entry Fees and Right-of-Way Issues=
=Links to other Resources=
=Images=