Thousand meter granite walls border the valley along the Cochamó River. Valle Cochamó's rock provides route potential beyond the imagination. Because of its relatively short history, these granite walls have only recently become recognized as a world-class bigwall, multipitch destination. If you're into long routes, establishing new routes or just hanging in a gorgeous landscape, Valle Cochamó is one of South America's best.
Many climbers familiar with Yosemite Valley have found Valle Cochamó to have many common features, as well as differences. Comparing the two may be sinful, but as you enter between the glacially-formed granite walls it's difficult not to. Long bold lines make their way to the top. Cochamó, however, lacks some of Yosemite's obvious aspects. Traffic, motors and generator noise don't exist since there are no roads. Camping and the refugio often fill up in January and February so make a reservation at www.cochamo.com/reservations/. If you will be sleeping in the upper valley's, please see the Upper Granite Valley's post.
200 big-wall routes. Some of the popular classics are:
Rack: Ideally, having a double rack from the smallest cams to a #4, set of stoppers, some micro stoppers, a some small size offsets, one #5 and two 60 m ropes, will get you up a majority of routes.
More than 100 cragging routes from 5.6 and up. This includes sport routes, mixed (bolts and gear) and all gear cracks. Many groups opt for the less demaninding day by climbing single pitch routes, which are popping up around the valley. These routes range from 5.6 to 5.13, with a majority in the 5.10 and 5.11 range. One paticular wall, Pared Seca, remains dry and climbable when it rains. If you come just to crag, bring a small rack. Just a few cams and nuts will enable you to select from many more routes.
New routes are everywhere. Even many walls have not yet been touched. So many lines to open, life's too short. The area has minimal development compared to its potential but when including its shorter routes too, more than 400 routes already exist. The rock quality is excellent. Nevertheless, unclimbed cracks tend to be dirty and vegetated in places.
Bouldering: Minimal bouldering exists. Opening new problems requires extensive cleaning.
For topos and descriptions of routes, go to www.cochamo.com/topos/. Physical copies of the topos are NOT kept in the camping nor the refugio. Some copies of topos are kept in tubes near the bivy areas such as Trinidad and Anfiteatro.
See the Planning Your Climbing Trip page for more detailed info.
