Bikepacking in Carretera Austral

Chile's Ruta 7 is a road that barely qualifies as one: twelve hundred kilometres of mostly gravel threading the fjords, hanging glaciers and temperate rainforest of northern Patagonia, with ferries stitching the gaps where the land runs out entirely. Ridden south from Puerto Montt, it is less a route than a slow immersion in a region that had no through-road at all until the 1980s.

The riding is hard in a specifically Patagonian way. The surface is loose, the rain is frequent, and the wind can stop you dead on the flat — but the compensations are constant: the marble caves on Lago General Carrera, roadside hot springs, glaciers calving into lakes you camp beside, and the near-total freedom to pitch a tent wherever the day ends.

Go in the southern summer, December to March, when the daylight stretches long. Carry everything, plan around the ferry timetables, and accept that the weather, not you, sets the pace.

Three weeks of loaded riding on loose gravel with tarmac stretches, broken by ferry crossings where the road simply stops at the water. Patagonian weather sets the terms: frequent rain, and a wind that can halt you on flat ground and turn a gentle day into a grind.

You will be self-sufficient for long spells, camping wherever the day ends — wild camping is widely tolerated here — beside glacial lakes and in temperate rainforest. Rewards come constantly rather than at a single summit: the marble caves of Lago General Carrera, roadside hot springs, hanging glaciers.

Advanced fitness and comfort with multi-day self-support are assumed.

Ride south from Puerto Montt in the southern summer, December to March, when daylight is long and the ferries run their fullest schedules.

The crossings are the one fixed constraint on an otherwise open route, so plan your days around their timetables and book the longer ones ahead where you can. Carry full camping and repair kit, plus enough food to cover the sixty-kilometre-plus gaps between resupply.

No permit or guide is required — this is a self-organised trip — but budget contingency days, because a blown forecast or a missed ferry can reshape a week. Gravel tyres and low gearing are essential.