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Honeymoon & Epic Whitewater on the Futaleufu River
Bienvenidos A: “Futaleufu” (Welcome to the Futaleufu)
by
Brock Royer |
Patagonia
is one of the few places on Earth where nature’s
most brutal and generous side lie blended into
perfection. It’s a spectacular part of the
world shared by Chile and Argentina. In the heart
of Patagonia lies an amazing river. In Argentina
it is known as the ‘Rio Grande’ but
as it crosses over into Chile it becomes known
as the Rio Futaleufu and contains some of the
largest run able white water in the world!!! In
fact when translated Futaleufu means ‘Big
Water’. This trip to Chile and the Fu is
for my honeymoon but it just so happens it turns
out to also be my most epic paddling trip!
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Getting
to this part of the world is no easy task! We
had 4 flights and a 3.5 hours drive, which totaled
about 26 hours door to door. It was worth every
minute too! My wife and I went all out getting
the honeymoon cabin called ‘The Condor’s
Nest’ which sits right at the foot of the
beautiful ‘Tres Monjas’ (which means
three nuns) mountain. It was about a 15-minute
walk up from the river and is beautifully hand
crafted out of the local wood and bamboo. It has
it’s own garden, greenhouse, outhouse, shower
in a tree and a bronze stove to heat water out
the natural spring. We also had a professional
gourmet chef, Pedro, who would walk up every evening
to fix us the most amazing food! Fresh salmon,
pork chops, white fish, lamb and all the fresh
veggies we could eat from our own organic garden.
It was the sweetest little paradise tucked into
what I can only imagine Jackson Hole, WY or Vail,
CO to feel like back in the 1920s…….before
it was discovered by the mainstream. |
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I
paddled quite a few rivers in the nearby area.The
Rio Espolon and Rio Azul were good beautiful warm-ups
that even my new wife Katey could join me on!
Even the little stream along the walk up to our
cabin was swollen enough by the recent snow melt
from our amazing weather to be run……possibly
for the first time. That was kind of the theme
to this trip…..well, other than the whole
honeymoon thing……water from snowmelt.
Everything was flowing strong, very strong. They
had over 200% snow pack from this winter and this
sudden 85 degree weather has the river rising
daily. We got hooked up with a guy named Fergus
Coffey who works for Chris Spelius at Exchile.
Fergus has been on the Fu 100’s of times
and knows the river well. There has been A LOT
of build up for me to get to this point, on this
river in my life. This year has been definitely
the most interesting yet. I fought/beat cancer,
had two hernia surgeries, broke down vans in the
middle of nowhere, counseled at First Descents
cancer camp, hosted a rodeo, took up paddling
for Bliss-Stick kayaks along with other companies,
published articles, made a magazine cover, won
a few contests, had a boat load of fun with each
trip being an epic adventure with my best paddling
buds, got/beat typhoid fever, got married and
now BAM……here I am snapping my skirt
onto a boat I am unfamiliar with pushing out onto
a river this size with a guy I only met 2 days
ago.
Paddlers
are amazing like that though. We all speak the
same language and even in this remote part of
the world we seem to become instant friends b/c
the same force has drawn us to the river. We put
on above the bridge to bridge section but below
Throne Room. A quick warm-up through the ‘school
house’ rapid and cutting our teeth on ‘Asleep
at the wheel’ we both know the next rapid
that lies downstream. To make ourselves feel better
about the size of the water we make comments about
the river feeling, flowing and acting like a river
at flood stage! Fergus also casually mentions
to me that even though he has been on the river
a bunch it is his first time this year.
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HSo
there we are above the infamous ‘Terminator’
rapid section of the Futa. The next few km of
river hold extremely large and continuous white
water. Class V rapids with no breaks in between…..well
at least not at these water levels! Asleep at
the wheel took 2 minutes and 35 seconds to run
without eddying out once. I am trying to mentally
prepare myself for what lies downstream. He gives
me the first few moves on verbal. We make our
first move which is supposed to be a small wave
train next to the rock wall on the left. Instead
we get tossed around like rag dolls from the funky
reactionary waves coming off the wall and I am
bracing on my paddle which my now is only working
about as well as a toothpick in this BIG water!!!
We eddy out to take a look at the first crux in
the rapid. It takes me a few minutes to get from
boat to the rock top that gives me a glance of
what we have gotten ourselves into. Fergus gets
on the rocks next to me and with his British accent
casually mentions; “Well that looks bloody
big doesn’t it?!?!”. We pick a new
line he hasn’t ever tried before and shove
off into the water. One thing that is really blowing
me away about this river is how continuous and
unrelenting it is. I mean when we would eddy out
he would give me about 6-8 moves through 4 rapids
almost none of which I could tell the difference
from the start to the end of. They all just seemed
like one continuous rapid!
We
make through Terminator, Son of Terminator, Kyber
Pass, and have a blast in Himalayas when Fergus
got stuck at the top of a breaking 13 foot wave.
As he was side surfing down to the trough I had
caught up to him and had ZERO time to move. I
tucked hard on my deck and some how we got lucky
enough to where his hull seemed to just skip off
my back as punched through the wave underneath
him.
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At
days end he unrolls his bedroll which again consists
of the ever-present goatskins. The next morning
before daylight he is out rounding up horses that
have been free range grazing all night. The morning
fire was warm and welcoming. The rain continued
but we were well dressed and the scenery, challenges
and adventure were waiting!
The
next several days consist of more varied terrain
that you could possibly ever dream of. We had
glacier-topped mountains, waterfalls to climb
and cross on horse back, open fields with a small
farm here and there. As we were riding through
a beautiful open pasture that had been cleared
by the "slash & burn" method we
observed a horse & rider coming our way. This
scene was South America's version of The Sound
of Music. A young native Chilean girl came galloping
over the hillside with her toddler brother sitting
in front of her riding atop the layers of sheep
skins! No words were exchanged but the sparkle
in the children's eyes told you they were happy
just to see us! Our guide exchanged some greetings
and we sent off the waves and smiles of these
two lovely children. |
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Finally
we met up with a rafting crew at the first bridge
only to find out that nobody is on the water.
In fact, all commercial rafting has been shut
down due to the high water. There is a gauge upstream
just above the Terminator section I believe at
Earth River’s camp grounds. I guess normal
cutoff for rafting the terminator section is at
40 (I am not sure if this is a measurement of…..I
am guessing inches) and they have never cutoff
rafting at the bridge to bridge section. We come
to find out the river is at 150 and this is amongst
the highest levels it has been paddled at! Damn!!!!!
No wonder it felt like a river at flood!
We
continued downstream to run the bridge to bridge
section. We also picked up another paddler named
Bernardo. I come to find out he know both Tenzen
and Stacey from Wausau, WI and the Bear Paw area
pretty well. He is from Mexico City and paddled
the last two years in Costa Rica with them. Sure
is a small world! It is about 5m of solid IV with
about 3 class V rapids and a swim would have meant
probably swimming the entirety. Since the river
is at flood stage we can also expect few eddies
and one hell of a wild ride! The run took us only
34 minutes! Yup…..15 rapids in approximately
5 miles. That means we were moved at an average
speed of around 9 mph! That is quite a push in
a kayak and man was I whooped! |
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The
run was highlighted by the rapids of Pillow, Moondaca,
Maso Menos, and Casa de Pierda. Mundaca was so
unbelievably out of control that I remember hitting
the crest of a wave at the exact same point as
Fergus only for him to be sent 15 feet straight
right while pushing me about 10 feet left. It
was amazing that in the tic of one second the
river could separate us by 30 plus feet! We pulled
off the river and exhausted the three of us just
sat down and stared at the river with big smiles
on our faces. We are all replaying different lines
and moves in our minds along with finally being
able to realize the number of man eating holes,
reactionary waves and full on fun we just had.
Unfortunately we were moving so quickly I didn’t
have much time to get footage! The run will forever
be burned into my head to be played over and over
again though! The emerald waters of the Futaleufu
are definitely amazing and enchanting.
This
area is sure to make any visitor fall in love
with its beauty, culture and soul. If you are
thinking about making the trip, take the step
and get down there to experience the magic before
it changes! I plan on trying to make an annual
trip down there myself. For now here are just
a few limited pictures and movies to enjoy.
~Peace
and Love~
Brock
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www.trucurrent.com
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Expediciones Chile specializes in adventure travel vacations in Patagonia Chile. Rafting in Chile on the Futaleufu River. Torres del Paine, Cerro FitzRoy trekking in Patagonia. Off season skiing in Chile and Argentina. Equestrian vacations and mountain biking holidays in the Futaleufu Valley. Whitewater kayaking in Chile. Whitewater rafting outdoor guide school. Fly fishing in Patagonia Chile and Argentina. Learn to roll a kayak at the Expediciones Chile kayak school. Eco tours and yoga vacations. Information on the climate of Patagonia, traveling in Patagonia and regional maps.
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