Futaleufu River Update: Futaleufu

Showing posts with label Futaleufu. Show all posts

Monday, May 26, 2008

Espolon Valley & Futaleufu Town - 17 May, 2008

Effects of the Chaiten incident on the Espolon River Valley and the Futaleufu Town - 17 May, 2008 - 15 Days after the event.

Terminator Rapid Area - Futaleufu River - 17 May, 2008

Effects of the Chaiten incident on the Futaleufu River in the Terminator Rapid Area - 17 May, 2008 - 15 Days after the event. The river is in it's normal
brown, flood stage from weeks of winter rain which is unrelated to the incident.

Rio Azul - Lago Loncanao Area of the Futaleufu Valley - 17 May, 2008

The effects of the Chaiten incident on the Rio Azul and Lago Loncanao areas - 17 May, 2008 - 15 days after the event.

Photo from the Futaleufu Bridge - 13 May, 2008

Photo of the Futaleufu River from the Futaleufu Stone Bridge at the take-out of the Bridge-to-Bridge section. Photo taken by Chilean Senator, Antonio Horvath who happened to be touring the valley on 13 May, 2008 - 11 days after the incident.

Map - Village of Futaleufu in Relation to the Chaiten Volcano

This Google Earth map shows the distance between Chaiten (the area affected) and the village of Futaleufu (not affected). The village lies 75 kilometers from the source in a south easterly direction and is prone to ashfall only when the very rare wind blows in this direction. The village of Chaiten lies 10 kilometers to the south of the cone.

Futaleufu River

On May 2, 2008 a volcanoe erupted near Chaiten, Chile, 90 kilometers from the Futaleufu River Valley. While the situation in Chaiten is dire, which has been inundated with mud/ash floods, 95% of the commercial rafting /kayaking section of the Futaleufu River Valley, escaped with only a few centimeters (1 inch) of ash which was washed away after the first rain. The town of Futaleufu which lies north of the river did initially receive 6 inches of ash and people who left are now returning. The photographs on this blog were taken two weeks after the initial eruption and depict the Futaleufu River, the town of Futaleufu and the Espolon River, a Futaleufu tributary which also received six inches of ash. Unfortunately the media and a number of web posts have exaggerated and sensationalized the situation on the Futaleufu by lumping the river and the town with the town of Chaiten where things are very bad. This blog was created to get the facts out to people concerned about the river and the people living along it. All the outfitters on the river are running trips there next season as usual and camps owned by Expeditiones Chile, Caro Del Indio, Earth River, Bio Bio Expeditions and Pura Vida are all ash Free.

Futaleufu River Update