A trip to the Cochamó Valley in Chilean Patagonia last month left one of the world’s top climbers thoroughly impressed.

 

Tommy Caldwell is an American climber who has set all kinds of records worldwide. In Patagonia, for example, in 2014, together with the legendary climber Alex Honnold he completed the first ever “Fitz Traverse” in Argentina. In just 5 days time, the duo bagged the peaks of 7 summits along the Fitz Roy mountain range – a feat that spans more than 5 kilometers (4 miles) and over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) in elevation.

 

Caldwell is especially renowned in the sport for his incredible achievements at one of the world’s greatest climbing areas, Yosemite National Park in California. Among his many accomplishments there include the first free ascent of the Dawn Wall on El Capitan in January 2015.

 

Yet, after getting to know Cochamo for the first time during an 11-day trip there in January with fellow climbers Timmy O’Neill and Sean Villanueva O’Driscoll, among others, Caldwell said that in many ways Cochamo is better than Yosemite.

 

“Chileans have something really special. It totally exceeded my expectations in terms of the climbing, but also the place, the alerces, the condors, and the fact that the valley is a pristine, almost untouched place, unintervened by human beings, it has so much added value,” says Caldwell. 

 

 

 

 

Cochamo and Yosemite have drawn many comparisons as they both feature towering granite domes and walls. At Cochamo, popular climbing valleys such as Trinidad and Anfiteatro are moreover surrounded by forests of ancient alerce trees, rivers, lagoons and glaciers.

 

Speaking at an event in Puerto Varas organized by the outdoor company Patagonia in January, Caldwell explained further. “I have spent the past 30 years of my life traveling around the world climbing in the world’s best big wall destinations. I went to a lot of places, but I always felt that Yosemite was always the best until I came to Patagonia for the first time in 2001 and I had this incredible experience on Fitz Roy,” he told the packed crowd. He added that he even named his first son “Fitz” after the mountain.

 

“While I have loved Yosemite, I have always felt its distracting because of the roads, and the cars, and the people, and the National Park Service. I never thought I would be able to experience a place like that without all the infrastructure. We hiked into Cochamo, we spent 10 days climbing there, and I have to say in many ways I now think it is better than Yosemite. I climbed with these people here and I just remember like every pitch we’d do, Sean (Villanueva) would always be like 'Fucking awesome, man. Fucking sick, it’s so sick....' almost every pitch."

 

Tommy urges people to get involved with the groups working to conserve Cochamo over the long-term, highlighting the Conserva Pucheguín conservation project: “Creating organizations like Conserva Pucheguín and raising money to protect the site by purchasing land is the most inspiring part for me, and I think it will not only help protect this site, which I’m sure it will, but it will also be an inspiration for conservation efforts in the future.”

 

“I have been all over the world and what you have here in Chile is truly unique. It’s worth protecting. Hopefully, we can all rally together and conserve Cochamo.”