Greater Patagonian Trail: GPT 6 Circuito Condor

GPT section 6 coincides mostly was a rather well known Chilean trek, the Circuito Condor. There are even dedicated hiking maps for this route, a rarity in Chile. When I left the bus in Vilches Alto, the starting point of the Circuito Condor in a National Reserve, two dozen backpackers were already waiting to take that bus back into civilisation. Everything was fenced in to prevent the masses of backpackers from wild camping - I did it anyways ...

But I obeyed the regulation that each hiker has to register with the park rangers and pay an entrance and camping fee. I soon realized that most backpackers were just hiking in for around 20 kilometers to the first view point and camping at the designated camp ground there. This view point was indeed very spectacular but what delighted me a lot more than the alpine panorama was the fact that there was a well maintained hiking trail descending down into the valley - another rarity in Chile ...

First viewpoint and good trail!

First glimpse of Volcan Descabezado

 As I was still in the National Reserve that night I had to camp in a designated camp site, an old and long abandoned farmstead. I considered wild camping but the many old plum trees lured me into the official site where I met Hugo, a Chilean weekend warrior who had injured himself when hiking in and was now waiting for the rest of his group to help him hike out again. After hiking for weeks without company it was a pleasure to have someone to chat with for a while.
Next morning I met his friends who were coming back from having climbed Volcan Descabezado, the "beheaded" volcano. Although it is a relatively eassy climb I had decided not to summit it because I had already climbed too many mountains on this trip ...

 

 

I passed the "base camp" where several tents were pitched while their owners were climbing the volcano. But I walked on to do a side trip to Laguna Caracol. The moon like landscape was so fascinating that I took an incredible number of photos. Despite the breathtaking scenery there was no other hiker and I camped all by myself next to an ice cold stream.

Next day took me forever through this moon like landscape and walking in volcano ash was pretty demanding. There is no trail marking, but luckily I could follow the footsteps of other hikers. A Chilean couple asked me for help because they wanted to take a different route and did not trust their smartphone navigation ....

I was totally amazed to find so much water in this otherwise totally barren landscape. Next to the small streams colorful flowers were just in bloom and the scenery looked like someone had started coloring it with one stroke of the paint brush.

My map showed hot springs along the trail but I had no intentions of reaching them that night because I thought that the place would be two crowded. But then I met two Chilean backpackers who told me that I would probably be on my own. There was no one camped there when they had left and they had not seen anyone going there. I decided to try my luck. Of course the trail seemed to drag on forever. There was even a swift river crossing to do until I finally reached the famous hot springs. If it had not been for the steam I would have missed them. And indeed, there was no one else there which meant that I could soak naked in the hot water. What a delight after a long dusty day!

There were three pools that had been dug out with an old rusty shovel which was still laying around. Unfortunately, as soon as I stepped into the pool all the muck from the ground started floating up. It was still nice to relax in the hot, but muddy water. When taking this picture with a timer my smartphone nearly fell into the water ...

I slept very well that night despite the sulphur smell from the hot springs. Former visitors had even built rock walls as wind protection around the camp sites. And a big horse shoe collection told me that this was a popular spot for riders, too!

Still, I was not entirely happy when I left next morning. The map told me that I had to traverse several incredibly steep slopes - something that I had learnt to fear and to loathe on this trail.

The slopes turned out to be really steep and a fall looked potentially mortal, but luckily I was walking on volcano ashed which provides a wonderful tread. When I had passed an exceptionally scary section a group of seven day hikers with small backpacks were coming towards. They surprised me with a weird question: "Have you smelled anything strange?" I told them about the sulphur smell of the hot springs but they just shook their heads and left - leaving me rather clueless.

Veronica was waiting next to the lake

After climbing up to another spectacular pass and descending down to an alpine lake I found out what was behind that all. A lonely female was sitting next to the lake waiting for my arrival. She introduced herself as Veronica and told me that she had injured herself on the way up and asked me if I could accompany her down again. Of course I was willing to help but I wondered what she was doing here. Veronica was part of the volontary search-and-rescue team that I had come across earlier. They were looking for a 30 year old hiker called Sebastian Joffre who had gone missing here 16 day ago. Because there was only little hope that he would be found alive the SAR team had asked me for a "strange smell"...

This sad story told me that my fears of slipping and falling were not altogether unfounded ...
In order to locate him Chilean military was coordinating a big search including soldiers, volunteers, helicopters and dogs. Their base camp was in the valley and Veronica was in contact with them via radio. But the military headquarter had not allowed her to try descending on her own. She was now waiting for her group to come back and help her, but she was afraid that they would arrive very late in the evening with very little daylight left for the descent. And then she would have to rush - something she could not do with her injured knee.

Paramedic, me and Veronica

What happened now was more like a story out of a James Bond movie than a normal hiking day. After she had received permission via radio to descend with me we slowly started hiking. In fact, despite her injured knee Veronica was still walking faster than me. Various times concerned military were asking for hour progress via radio and announced despite Veronica's protests that they would send as a paramedic. And for sure when we had nearly reached the valley bottom two soldiers came towards us. Veronica had already told me that this rescue action was probably more due to the fact that one soldier had cast an eye on her than to medical necessity ...

In order to "rescue" her, they had driven up the valley cross country in a military vehicle - and asked me whether I wanted to get a ride to their base camp. This was something I did not want to miss - and it was the bumpiest ride of my entire life! While Veronica was riding shotgun I was trying to stay alive in the back of the track while being thrown up and down.
I wondered why we had not waited for the rest of the rescue team but I was just told that they could walk back to base. Special treatment out here was apparently for women only! When we arrived in the base camp we were celebrated like heroes - but I still preferred to camp on my own a couple of kilometres away.

Nothing dramatic happened while I hiked out to civilisation the next morning ...