Climbing an Active Volcano in Pucon

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Our main reason for visiting Pucon, Chile was to climb Volcan Villarrica. Villarrica is one of Chile's most active volcanoes, and is one of only a handful of volcanoes worldwide to have an active lava lake within its crater.

We decided to do the early climb, which only one of the twenty or so tour companies offers. We got up at 3:45 am and started climbing at 5:30 so that we could watch the sunrise from the volcano. The sunrise was pretty incredible, as we were well above the clouds by the time the sun was peaking up from the other side of the volcano. The lower part of the mountain is a ski hill, as you can see from the lift towers in the photos. It only took about an hour to climb past the lifts...

About 3 hours up, we had to put on our cramp-ons and pull out our ice axes, as the final 2 hours of trekking was on snow. The ascent wasn't too difficult, as long as you watched where you put your feet and were ready to duck every time someone yelled "ROCK" (given it was late summer, there were many lose rocks that tumbled past us - we were very happy to be the first group going up!). It took 5 hours to get to the top, but it was well worth it! Unfortunately, despite much belching and gurgling, we didn't get to see any lava - we think this might be a rarer occurance than the tour companies would tell you - but the steam did clear long enough for us to get a great look deep into the crater's mouth. The inside is very green from the sulfur, which was not pleasant to breath when the wind shifted in our direction! The trek down was an easy 2 hours, with the last half hour spent sucking dust as every step kicked up a cloud.

That night we soaked our very tired and sore muscles in some natural hot springs nearby - not a bad day! This travelling thing is really growing on us!!!

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Photos

Volcan Villarica
The still active volcano rises above Pucon, Chile.

All geared up
Our first rest as we climb past the top of the ski lift. We're still wearing our headlamps, having hiked the first hour in the dark. The sun was just starting to colour the sky.

Just getting Artsy
Chairlift against the rising sun...

Andean Sunrise
Jen surveys the landscape as we continue to climb the rocky slopes.

Reaching for the Moon
Ascending the glacier as the moon sets behind the ridge.

In the Mouth
We're standing in the mouth of the volcano here. The foul smelling steam obscured the view into the cone when we first arrived.

Jen with Cone
The steam cleared up as we had lunch and explored around the lip of the cone.

Still no Lava
We could see right into the cone when the steam cleared, but although there was lots of burping and belching, we saw no lava.

Climbing Down
There was lots of rockfall on the glacier. We had to dodge a few falling rocks ones on the way up!

Heading Down the Ridgeline
Still above the clouds, we reach the edge of the glacier.

Eating dust
High winds on the way down caused everyone to choke on the fine dust that we kicked up.

Schoolbus
Safety first! Children heading to school.