Villarrica Volcano

Sometime while traveling things just work out terribly, and no matter how hard you try things are just not going to cooperate.  For the Pucon (Villarrica) volcano, some travels had tried for 2, 3, even 4 days in a row, waking up at 6am and heading to the base of the mountain before having the trip that day cancelled due to weather.  The day before the group had gotten half way up before the trip was called on account of high winds.  Near Patagonia, the weather changes so quickly and frequently that you really need the weather to be on your side….

And sometimes while traveling things just work out, no matter what you do.  You plan and try and scheme your way through, and even when you make the ‘wrong’ move, it works out for you.  Luckily for me, Pucon was the later.

I had tried to sign up for the volcano summit the previous day, but with so many days in a row being canceled, there was a large groups ahead of me persistent to try again.  I got pushed back to the next day, opening up a great day of canyoning instead.

Today the weather was just perfect, not a cloud in the sky, no wind, warm weather, it was perfect.  I had met a Canadian couple in San Martin de los Andes that said the climb is very cold and to bring lots of warm clothes.  Now if there’s one thing I know, if a Canadian tells you it’s cold, you listen. 

My wardrobe is designed for most South American climates, that is to say, hot, humid, beach, and jungle… not snow.  So I basically just layered up and put on all the clothes I brought.  Well what did I learn, Canadian’s can’t quite handle the cold, you really need to trust the Californian.  After the first climb I was down a jacket, and moments later was hiking in a t-shirt, still sweating.

When we arrived at the base of the mountain, we were given the option to either take the chair lift, or walk the steepest portion of the climb.  The way the guild’s phrased it, it was like, ‘unless you are in great shape, you should take the chairlift, we really recommend that everyone take the chairlift.’ (oh and by the way, the chairlift is another 12 dollars).  Then they ask for volunteers to walk, my arm was the only one that went up, and I could also see the disappointed look in the guide’s eye who would be accompanying me up the first climb.  I was shocked that there was even a lift, I want to say ‘I climbed the volcano,’ not ‘I rode to the top of the volcano.’

To their credit, the chairlift section was the most difficult, both because I was wearing 5 shirts and because my main exercise for weeks has been walking to the bus terminal, to sit on a bus for 15 hours.  Also, I was with all the other ‘good hikers’ who were basically running up the mountain, so the pace was somewhere between a jog and a full out sprint.

However, at this blistering pace, we managed to catch the massive main group not 20 minutes after we reached the top of the chairlift section.  At first I felt great about my catching up abilities and strength for the rest of the climb, when I noticed the near snail pace of the main pack.  It was going to be a long and slow accent for this summit.  Some guys already had ropes tied around them and were being pulled up the mountain by the guides, some girls were just sitting down on the trail, refusing to continue on.  I began to think many of these people must have thought climbing the volcano would be more fun.

Before the snow section we stopped to eat lunch and put on our crampons.  My keen travel sense allowed me to quickly pick out the 3 non-Israeli trekkers on the trip (hint, there were the only ones speaking English).  It was Brenda (who I already knew was on the trip and who I had met previously in Bariloche) and two Australian travels.

After lunch, with the crampons on, we learned the safety basics: how to walk (seriously) and how to stop if we should fail step one and begin sliding down the mountain.  The safety was key though, as three weeks prior two people died on the volcano.  I guess the conditions were terrible and they should have not been up there. A huge gust of wind knocked two people down the glacier, both lost their ice axes making stopping nearly impossible, and fell into a crevasse.  Rest assured, this was on a much colder day, where the ice never softened, making conditions much more dangerous.

We walked in lines, single file, up through the snowy section.  I was honestly mostly concerned that if another person fell they would hit me, but the actual climb was cake.

We reached the top of the 9,300 foot peak around 1pm.  I was super stoked to be at the top, before I realized how I thought it sounded cooler to climb to the top of a volcano, than it actually was because of one reason… sulfur.  The sulfur smell was so pungent that to actually take a full breath made me cough violently.  My eyes began to burn, along with my nose and throat.  All of the guides wore masks, which I wished was included in my gear bag.

  

The good news was that the views were gorgeous, the wind was blowing generally in one direction, so we scampered over to the non death-by-sulfur side to make the experience much more pleasant, and we got to see LAVA!!

 

But as cool as the lava was, the best part was definitely the decent.  By the late afternoon when we started to head down, the snow was good and slushy, basically turning the whole volcano into a giant slide (with huge massive crevasses everywhere – wouldn’t want it to be too easy).  Basically we put on full snow gear that was provided in the gear bag, and slid on our butts down the whole slope.  We used our ice ax as a brake to keep from flying out of the ice tunnel that had been formed from all the previous sliders, or as an ore for more speed (if you were cool).

We charged down the dry section of loose gravel and rocks, making it very easy on the knees and super fast.  It was a great climb and a great day.

At the finale, we went back to the shop to drop off all the gear, and the guides all gave us fresh cold beers to celebrate.  With so little water and food in my system, I got a quick 2 beer buzz… it was an amazing day, and maybe my favorite of the trip thus far.