The sound and the fury

 

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ADVENTURE

Futaleuf River Rafting, Patagonia, Chile
March, 2016
By Maryellen Kennedy Duckett

 

Thundering out of the Andes and across Patagonia is one the world’s last great white-water wilderness rivers: Chile’s Futaleufú, or Fu. The Fu’s clear turquoise-to-teal waters rumble more than 120 miles through Chile. Each bend in the river seems to reveal a new awe-inspiring vista—steep canyon walls, giant granite boulders, Andean glaciers, snowcapped mountains, and primeval forests. The 47 rapids on the Fu range from easy Class II to extremely challenging Class V. Early spring marks the close of rafting season (December to mid-April), making now one of the last opportunities to experience the Futaleufú in 2016. “March is actually an excellent time to do the Futaleufú [pronounced Foo-tah-lay-oo-FOO], with stable weather and excellent water levels,” says Earth River Expeditions founder and owner Eric Hertz, who pioneered conservation awareness and commercial rafting trips on the river in the early 1990s. “Our most popular month is December with the holidays, but actually the weather's typically better in March than in December.”

WHERE: The Futaleufú River is located in northern Patagonia, originating in Argentina’s Amutui Quimey Lake and flowing west through Chile to the Pacific. The gateway to Futaleufú rafting is Puerto Montt, commercial and transportation hub of Chilean Patagonia. The closest international airport is in Santiago. From there, the flight takes an hour and 45 minutes to get to Puerto Montt.

HOW: Call Earth River to book a private (minimum six people, March - April) multisport river trip. Itineraries are customized to accommodate different fitness levels, rafting experience, and ages (six and older). All the rapids and activities such as mountain biking, rappelling, and horseback riding are optional. The ten-day lodge-to-lodge expedition begins in Puerto Varas (about ten miles north of Puerto Montt) and continues down the river. Day four (the first day on the water) begins with raft-safety training. Two safety catarafts (twin-hulled rafts) escort groups during all river portions of the trip.

STAY: Rates include lodging, which begins at the Hotel Cumbres Puerto Varas, where every guest room has a view of Lago Llanquihue and the snowcapped, Mount Fuji-like volcano Osorno. Remaining nights are spent at intimate wilderness properties, including the lakeshore cabins at Yelcho en la Patagonia; Tineo Patagonia ecolodge; and Uman Lodge, a remote cliff-top retreat perched 500 feet above the upper Futaleufú Valley.

EAT: Earth River expeditions include daily lunches at a local restaurant or remote picnic site, such as on the banks of a stunning waterfall swimming hole. Also included are daily chef-prepared breakfasts and dinners served at the lodges. One of the most popular dishes prepared on trips is Chilean asado, spit-barbecued lamb roasted slowly over an open fire.

FUN FACT: Near its source in Argentina, the Futaleufú River is dammed to produce hydroelectric power. Once the water clears the dam, it is free-flowing through Chile to the Pacific. To prevent similar construction and other unsustainable development on the Chilean portion of the Fu, Earth River Expeditions created a trust to purchase large chunks of land along the river. 

 

 

 

The Robb Report Collection

June 2013

 

 Patagonia's greatest whitewater adventure

By Shaun Tolson

The Futaleufu River’s Terminador Rapid can be heard surging from a quarter of a mile away. The class 5 stretch of whitewater cascades over and around imposing granite boulders for eight-tenths of a mile, and it lives up to its name. The river which runs more than 120 miles through Chile, drops 3,000 feet from beginning to end, and through its most challenging section of rapids the Futaleufu drops 45 feet per mile --33 feet more per mile than the Colorado River when it passes through the Grand Canyon. In Patagonia, which emerged as a world-class whitewater destination a little less than three decades ago, the Futaleufu is the crown Jewel.

A group of kayakers first negotiated the Futaleufu’s rapids in 1986, and the following year a commercial rafting company from the United States attempted to duplicate the effort. Prior to that attempt, The Terminador and other rapids along the river were unnamed, but that was about to change. Outfitted with large, traditional heavy rafts full of gear and rafters without paddles, the American company successfully traversed a handful of class 5 rapids before reaching the stretch of whitewater that--based on the impending result-- would come to be named Terminador. The rapid offers no margin of error, and the raft, weighed down by gear and without the help of passenger's paddling, drifted from the necessary line down the left side of the river. Instead, it was pulled down the center of the rapid, where it was trapped (and subsequently destroyed) in a large, violent hole--the section of a rapid below a submerged boulder where the resulting waterfall creates a backward--falling wave of equal strength. All of the rafters survived, but news of the event quickly circulated throughout the international rafting community and for years the Futaleufu was deemed unraftable. It wasn’t until 1991 that Eric Hertz and his company, Earth River Expeditions, decided to explore the possibilities.

 

Aimed with 20 years of rafting experience and aided by his own fleet of specially designed rafts and catarafts (a cross between a catamaran and a traditional whitewater raft that offers greater stability through rapids and better rescuing ability), Hertz and a small team of guides and intrepid clients spent a couple of years in the early 90’s making exploratory runs of the river. In the beginning Hertz would only allow experienced rafters with class 5 experience to join him on those early commercial explorations, although today 90% of Earth River’s clients are beginners.

My fellow rafters on this Earth River trip certainly want to learn, and we listen attentively as the guides survey the churning water from shore at the company’s first private campsite. It will be six days before we see this rapid again, but then we’ll be viewing it head-on from the inside of a raft and with three days of training under our belts. At the moment, the rapid takes on a Jekyll-an-Hyde-like persona. From solid ground, it’s easy to underestimate the Terminado, to view it with complacency. However, the rapid’s mighty sound affirms the water’s unrelenting force. “We’ll be really good and trained when we get here,” Currie says, “We’ve got to be.”

“GO HARD! GO hard!” the guide shouts from his perch at the back of our raft, though is booming voice is muffled by the roar of the rapids around us. “Give it all you’ve got!”

I dig my feet into the foot cups on the floor of the boat and lean out over the side of the raft, thrusting my paddle into the water. It’s the middle of our first day of rafting and we’ve entered the most powerful section of Mundaca, a class 5 rapid along the Futaleufu’s lower canyon. A series of white-capped swells crashes over me at the front of our boat, each one delivering a brisk shock to my senses, but I do my best to lean into the hydro-powered onslaught and paddle on.

The classification of whitewater is not an exact science and rapids can change classes with the rise and fall of the river’s water level. Never the less, as a general rule, a class 5 rapid is considered the most extreme whitewater that can be rafted commercially. In addition to being difficult, it can be treacherous. With Mundaca, there is the danger of being swept up in the current that slings everything towards a giant hole near the bottom of the rapid--a hole so large that the backward-crashing wave downriver is as high as the initial drop before it. A hole of this magnitude will flip a raft instantly. 

Yesterday, our guides comments about taking an unexpected plunge into the Futaleufu were lighthearted: today, while attempting to tame the river’s fury, thre guide bellows out commands in a serious, urgent tone. I’m all to aware of the dangers that we’ll face if we cannot overpower the current. A few seconds of aggressive paddling gets us through the perilous section, and my fellow rafters and I take a quick moment to congratulate each other on another team victory. “

Tomorrow we’ll tackle a stretch of the river that includes a handful of class 5 rapids, the most significant of which is Infierno, a class 5 passage that has our trip’s trio of safety cataraft operators giddy with excitement. “I’m always stoked for a rafting day, but I can’t conceal my excitement for Infierno Canyon.” says To McDonnell, a California native who, among his Patagonia comrades, is affectionately known as Chico Max.

“What makes Infierno so exciting?” I ask him.

“That’s for you to discover!”

Regardless of the rapids faced, what everyone discovers after a full day of rafting is the river’s uniqueness. The river is fed by the melting glaciers in the Andes Mountains some 8,000 feet above sea level, but because those glacial waters filter through a series of high elevation lakes, they’re about 25 degrees warmer when they reach the canyon where the rapids begin to form. Those high elevation lakes also allow the glacial silt to separate from the water, which makes the Futaleufu clearer then most glacier-fed rivers. and gives it a Caribbean-like turquoise hue. According to Hertz, even the canyon’s geology contributes to a unique rafting experience. “When you go down most rivers, they often look similar. But every bend you go around on the Futaleufu looks different.” he says, “It has technical rapids, big tumbling rapids, wave trains and rapids that careen off walls in steep canyons. Most rivers don’t have that variety.”

THE FUTALEUFU MAY be unique, but like most high-volume rivers, it’s in danger of losing its identity. From the beginning of Earth River’s involvement in Patagonia, rumors circulated about damming the Futaleufu for hydro-electric power, which is why Hertz bought land at strategic points along the river.

This allowed him to build distinct campsites, each with its own ambience, and it allowed him to hopefully block the damming of the river at those specific areas. Hertz was careful to take a minimalist approach-- he cut down as few trees as possible and he made sure every river bank structure and dwelling was concealed from view along the water. “You can kill a river in a lot of ways. One way is with a thousand knife wounds.” he says, explaining that over developing the river’s shore line would be almost as damage as damming it.

The threat of a Futaleufu dam still lingers. Hertz admits that the river is probably an ideal place for hydro-electricity, but he also acknowledges that Chile is blessed with even more abundant, long-term sources of natural energy, specifically solar, wind and geothermal. The Natural Resources Defense Council concurs, stating that “all of these alternative solutions are more sustainable, less destructive and more stable than large hydro-electric and coal power sources that currently dominate Chile’s energy industry.”

Hertz has fought against a possible Futaleufu dam for two decades and only recently has he been aided in his efforts. A newly formed Chilean non-profit foundation, the Futaleufu River Keeper, aims to protect the river and its community from pollution, destructive development and activities that would harm human health or the river environment. Hertz hopes that the organization will help to educate more of Chile and the rest of the world on the value of the river and the consequences that would result if it were dammed.

Earth River’s group of guides and safety cataraft operators naturally are in agreement on river politics. On the second-t-last night of our trip, Jon Van Dyke, a 25 year old guide from the San Francisco Bay area, breaks out his guitar and plays a variety of tunes, from a rendition of Pink Floyd’s “Wish you Were Here” to bluegrass melodies and original compositions. During one interlude, Chico Max-- who previously relegated himself to background vocals-- takes a moment to freestyle about the river. “We must protect it and not neglect it.” he sings “because they might dam it, and it would never be the same.”

All four of Earth River are different-- they range from a sprawling property with a communal area recessed into a cave, lost beaches and natural springs to a tree house community where guests can drift off to sleep to a cacophony of frogs croaking in the nearby lake. Wooden and stone hot tubs are mainstays at every camp as are flush toilets and hot showers but guest expecting luxury accommodations with white-linen service will be disappointed. The luxury of an Earth River Futaleufu trip is that novice paddlers can find piece of mind knowing that their guides can lead them down a river famous for its world class whitewater. As Jamie Mendez, one of the guides on the trip explains, its more than just making it down a rapid. “It would take 15 or 20 seconds for a boat of experienced rafters to make it through Infierno Rapid,” he says, “and it would take 15 or 20 seconds for a boat full of novice rafters.”

“So what’s the difference?” I ask. “The novices would be in the water”

Being in the river is exactly what my fellow rafters and I want to avoid as we stare down the beginning stretch of the Terminador Rapid on our final day of the trip-- one that many experienced rafters believe is the most active day of whitewater anywhere on the planet. The water level is lower than normal, which makes Terminador slower to run, but far more technical (and no less dangerous). As our guide, explains it’s all about positioning the boat properly to drift down into the right places on the river. “It surgical” he tells our group during the morning orientation.

Back in the boat, we push off from the bank and are quickly put to the test. However just as Currie predicted, we’ve become a efficient team of paddlers. We react quickly and with conviction to each of our guide's commands, and before long we’re paddling past the safety catarafts. The run is smooth and clean and leaves us all feeling temporarily invincible. “There’s a method to the madness,” Hertz says. “We like our clients to feel as though they have accomplished something when they finish a trip.”

For more information on the Futaleufu Riverkeeper click here.

Futaleufú Riverkeeper

“Earth River made an expeditionary first descent of the Futaleufu in 1991 and figured out how to safely navigate it."
"Earth River is the premier river runner in the world. Their staff includes the finest guides to be found."
“Earth River is more than a great whitewater outfitter. Their contributions have made a real difference in our efforts to preserve some of the world's most beautiful rivers in Chile and Canada."
"I want to personally thank Earth River for helping us stop the hydro-electric projects on our land preventing the destruction of one of North America's last great wildernesses.
“I’ve rafted with Eric Hertz down some tough rivers—the Futaleufu in Chile, the Colca in Peru. He's one of the best in the business—obsessed with safety."