Advertisement
Published: December 24th 2008
Edit Blog Post
Since the late summer I have been training for
El Vulcan Lanin. Sitting in a rowing machine and training in a studio 4 times a week with a personal trainier. 5 weeks of hiking and climbing in Patagonia. Is my fitness well enough? I really had to try it .... I have been thinking of this event for 4 months now....
I came to San Martin de Los Andes on the 19th of December, 7 days ahead of plan. There could be some waiting because of bad weather or waiting for mountain guides.
There are three different weather forecasts in Argentina. The rangers use the military forecast for the Lanin Vulcano. When I went to the local military base on the 20th. they said that the weather would be better the next two days, so I ran to buy a licende for climbing. I took a last check of the equipment necessary, bought a new pair of mountain sunglasses and another inner layer, etc. A last check of boots.
THE LANIN VULCANO
Let me give some information about The Lanin Vulcano before I continue. It rises from a base plain of 1100 metres to a height of
3776 metres. In December, the thick cap of heavily crevassed glacial ice makes it look almost impossible to climb, but up its eastern side is a strenuous ascent route. The Lanin Vulcano is the next highest mountain in Patagonia, but I am told it is the highest mountain possible to climb in December (I have not checked 100% whether Monte San Valentin in Chile, 4058 metres, is climbable).
Most of the trek is loose earth and/or snow. Keep away from ice that seems to be snow (dark mountain sunglasses)! I tell you it is not easy to see the differende between snow and ice while being up there in the sun! Freezy winds can pick up at any time and and with little warning. The schedule recommended is three days.
Day 1 normally is from Base Plain (Guarderia Tromen) to Refugio BIM-6, 7km and 1100 metres in altitude difference. Day 2 is from Refugio BIM-6 to the summit (11 kilometres and 1575 metres up), and return to Refugio BIM-6. Day 3 is down from From BIM-6. I had asked the rangers for a 2-day trip (day 2 and 3 in one day).
The Mapuche Indians called The
Lanin Vulcano "Dead Rock", as they believed that anyone who climbed the mountain would be killed by evil spirits. Today, freezing winds and glacier crevasses maybe are a greater danger.
DAY 1
I wake up 07:30 the 21st of December, took a colectivo to Junin de los Andes. There I met Yhum from Hong Kong who was also heading for the volcano. We decided to walk together, and got some transport for The Lanin Vulcano. I was sitting looking for the King, but no King disappeared. But suddenly something really BIG and WHITE appeared! What a mountain! Never seen anything like that before! Maybe the Mapuches was right some 600 years ago?
It was blowing and raining cats and dogs. I got a bit scared, maybe weather conditions longer up were fine? The rangers checked my boots and equipment carefully, gave me a map and told about the track to RIM-6. My backpack was 14 kilos (including water, no water supply on the route), which is normal for a two day trip, mountain gear included. There I should meet other climbers and the mountain guide who should take me to the summit.
We started walking. First,
1 kilometre through a
lenga forest. Then another kilometre over a dry bassin of vulcanic sand and stones made of water flewing from the vulcano area during the spring. Then the track started escalating. After some time we found that it was too windy to follow the normal route. We found a little valley-like route possible to walk. We came to an old secondary crater and picked up the normal route again. I think we lost an hour because of that.
We met the climbers who had gone up two days before (the day before nobody were allowed to go). It had been so windy the the day before so they were not allowed even to open the door for a toilet visit. There is a rule at The Lanin Volcano saying that if there is too windy day 2 you have to climb down again. Bad luck.
The rest of the route was steep and hard climbing up a volcano side with stones and sand. Sometimes the rocks called for carefully footwork. But I had no problems so far. Some places I had to climb outside the track because of much sand and small volcano stones. Those
stones are hard to climb, if you start rolling you loose balance. It may be dangerous. After some time it got steeper. Bigger rocks. And more sand/small volcanic stones. I began thinking about how many metres I had been climbing. That´s not good, the best is not to think at all and always concentrate on the footwork and balance.
After 6,5 hours of hard work we reached the BIM-6. We had been climbing 1100 metres! At one moment I never saw the end. I climbed and climbed, had a short break, and climbed again. I tried to motivate myself. I was lucky. No rain, windy and cloudy ... exellent conditions for climbing. I was a bit tired, but not as much as expected. It would be possible to be 100% fit again after a nights sleep?
At BIM-6 we met some other climbers and the mountain guide who said that there was too much wind at the moment, but the wind was on the way down. We got a short briefing in different techniqes in using crampones, ice axe and ropes, and we practiced a couple of hours in the mountain.
We packed a daypack for the
next day and discussed when to start in the night. We found out that 04:00 would be best. Then we could pass a distance of hard snow/ice in the dark when the snow was hard, and when we came to the rocky climbing part there would be more or less daylight.
The first day was a success. So we only had to hope for nice weather the next day.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.217s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 12; qc: 61; dbt: 0.152s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb