Though nearby towns have been evacuated, whitewater Mecca Futaleufu remains open for business.
by David Perry
After more than 9,000 years of silence, Patagonia's Chaitén Volcano rumbled back to life on May 2 — not far from the location of Private Air’s May/June Destinations story, “The Son Also Rises.” The Chilean government evacuated the nearby towns of Chaitén and Futaleufú, where writer Neil Rabinowitz and his family traveled en route to an epic whitewater-rafting trip down the Futaleufú River.
Eric Hertz, whose Earth River Expeditions (earthriver.com) organized the adventure, tells Private Air that six inches of wind-borne ash initially settled over main put-in spot near Futaleufú, but for the past week, prevailing winds have kept the area clear. “The Futaleufú River Valley, below Infierno Canyon, where we run trips and most of our workers live, received almost no ash,” Hertz says. “It was washed away with the first rain.”
Though initial eruption damage has been minimal, concerns remain: Evacuations were triggered when lava began spewing from the crater because if a 100-mph pyroclastic flow — an avalanche of lava, rock and super-hot volcanic gas — were to develop, it would do to these towns what another one once did to Pompeii. Other threats include flooding of the Rio Blanco, which flows through Chaitén or a lahar — a massive, churning mudflow triggered by lava melting winter ice and snow. (In 1985, a 16-foot lahar in Colombia killed 23,000 when it buried the town of Amero.)
But the Futaleufú River — which has a watershed separate from the Rio Blanco — is unthreatened by potential lahars or volcanic flooding. The next Futaleufú rafting season is scheduled for December 2008–March 2009, and Earth River expects to operate on schedule. If Chaitén remains abandoned, Hertz will have adventurers fly into nearby Coyhaique for expeditions on the Fu. “Because there has been so little impact on the river,” Hertz says, “if things stay as they are today, we will be running trips as usual next season.”
Hertz’s nonchalance may stem from the fact that occasional eruptions are just part of life in the Ring of Fire. The 25,000-mile-long system of volcanoes rims the Pacific Ocean, and flare-ups can occur when tectonic plates dive underneath one another and melt. Chile has world’s second-most active string of volcanoes, after Indonesia. Chilean government vulcanologist Luis Lara predicts Chaitén's eruption could last for months — but Hertz is undeterred. “If the winds stay on their normal course,” he says, “the river will remain untouched.”
If anything, Hertz guesses, the headlines might even increase your odds of hooking a spot on an upcoming trip. They tend to fill up early.