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→Season 2025/26
==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==