Advertisement
Published: April 19th 2007
Edit Blog Post
Leaving the lovely Rio de Luna hostel early on the 19th, our next stop was Pucon, known for its hot springs and the Villarrica Volcano.
Arriving at lunchtime, we had plenty of time to check out the accommodation on offer before deciding on our home for the next few days, Hostel Geronimo. Having dumped our bags in our room, we were given a recommendation from the receptionist of a good tour operator so headed off to book our next excursion.
Volcan Villarrica, an active volcano, standing at 2,842 metres dwarfs the little town of Pucon and, weather permitting, can be climbed in a day. Having decided to visit Chile at the last minute and mainly to climb Villarica we hoped that for once the weather would be on our side. Fortunately it seemed that we had arrived in perfect time as the forecast for the next two days was for sun, so we hastily booked a couple of places and hoped that the very changeable weather in these parts did not spoil the party. We also booked a trip to one of the many hot springs in the area for that evening.
At 8pm we were picked
up by minibus and headed out of town to the Pozones Hot Springs. The springs being quite secluded meant that we had to carefully descend many steps in near total darkness with only the moonlight to guide us. Here we spent the next few hours sitting in water hot enough for a bath listening to the crashing river water making it´s way down from the mountain - a very soothing evening!! We finally got back to our hotel at 1am, not that late but in hindsight, this probably hadn´t been such a good idea as the next morning we had to be up at 5.30am for the hike up the volcano!
So, with very little sleep we were picked up at 6.00am and taken to the local adventure shop and decked out in all the necessary paraphenalia required for climbing a snow covered volcano - huge boots, waterproof jackets and trousers (very nicely colour coded in orange!), gaiters, crampons, ice picks and helmets. It was an hours journey to the starting point of our climb, which was an adventure in itself as our bus got stuck in the snow meaning we had to walk the last half mile!
It was a lovely clear day with only a few scattered clouds visible and from the base of the volcano we could see both the beauty of this smoking mountain and its immensity. What had we let ourselves in for!!
Undeterred we started the climb and were rather pleased when offered the option of taking the chair-lift part way up. Only a fool would decline so we gladly accepted and a short while later were no further up the volcano....well at least that´s what it looked like!!
From there the guide explained that it was approximately 4 hours to the top depending on the pace and off we went, zig-zagging in single file, occasionally looking up but feeling no closer to the summit. Seeing people the size of ants further up the volcano kept on hammering home how far we´d yet to climb. In places the snow was evidently deeper than 3 feet as our ice picks disappeared when leaned on for support. The higher we climbed the steeper it got and the harder the wind seemed to blow. The snow underfoot also becaming firmer necessitating the need for crampons and even more exertion as we stamped our
feet in to the hard snow/ice for grip.
We stopped briefly on two occasions to rest our weary legs and of course for those photo opportunities of the breathtaking views from above the clouds. The stunning vista of the town and the surrounding lakes, the distant view of other snow capped mountains including Volcan XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. Spectacular, simply spectacular!
We finally reached the last stretch and the steepest so far. The entire group was exhausted but motivated by the site of the rim of the volcano. However it was not to be.
A leading group had reported poor conditions on the final leg making the final ascent/descent a dangerous one, leaving the guides with no option but to return to base. Although disappointed, having reached so far, we were also somewhat relieved having been spared the further physical punishment.
As they say, what goes up must come down, and we did, very, very slowly as the steep ascents we had navigated earlier had now turned in to very scary paths where one slip meant you would tumble down at least a couple of hundred feet. Thankfully, we got through this part without any problems despite a close
encounter where Suzz lost her footing and very nearly became a human snowball!!
The dangerous part over with we were now allowed to have some fun, the slopes not being too steep. We could slide down some of the slopes on our backsides - Great!!
We slid down what seemed to be miles but in fact was only a fraction of the overall distance covered. The fun over we continued to trek down to the base without the assistance of the chair left on this occasion - boo! A few hours later we made it back down to earth, exhausted!
The following day we nursed our aching muscles and prepared ourselves for the onward journey to Santiago in the evening.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.094s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 11; qc: 59; dbt: 0.0594s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb