Advertisement
Published: March 4th 2006
Liquid Hot Magma!!!
This is what we had climbed so far to see, and the Volcano duly performed for us!!! An unforgettable experience.Pucon is the first taste of good weather I've had in a long time. but donning a pair of shorts was not the entire reason for travelling here: the plan was to climb the 2847 metre Volcan Villarica - an active Volcano on the town's doorstep.
The ascent can only be done with an accredited guide, so we signed up with one in town and we were fully kitted up with boots, gaitors, waterproofs and best-of-all an ice axe!!! As I said to Chris, my motivation for doing even the most menial of tasks would be huge if only I was able to complete them using an ice-axe!! I don't know why but it just feels really good to be wielding one of the beasts!!
The ascent initially sounded quite daunting, 1400 metres straight up the side of the volcano. But with all the trekking I had been doing, and the fact that I only needed to carry a light day pack, meant that it ended up being quite an easy day´s walk. Additionally, a gentle set of traverses had been formed by the groups preceding us which allowed us to zig-zag easily up the
Long Way Up!!
The view of the volcano as we embarked on our trek. mountain. Well, that was until one of our guides asked if anyone was looking to increase the pace a little and the little whippet Alessandro took the fastest five from our group and we simply blazed our own trail straight up the mountain´s flank!!! This was great fun - if a little hairy at times!!
We overtook almost all of the other groups that had started before us, and consequently we were among the first 6 or 7 people to reach the summit and enjoy the spectacular magma show.
The crater was probably 20 metres or so wide and belched out clouds of steam and gas along with the requisite bubbling noises that suggest that there is something very hot down there!! Every 10 minutes or so the bubbling would become more frantic and we'd be greeted with the fantastic site of a mini-eruption!!! I've never seen anything like it before and it definately made the climb up worthwhile!!
If the ascent didn´t seem too tough, the route down was a breeze - possibly because we didn´t have to walk much of it, instead we donned waterproof trousers and jackets and
The Climb
Trekking up through the snow, getting closer and closer to our goal!! went sliding down the mountain on our arses using the trusty old ice-axes as a crude braking system. Needless to say the way down was a mite quicker than the way up and a huge amount of fun to boot!!!
Advertisement
Tot: 0.263s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 24; qc: 97; dbt: 0.1638s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 2;
; mem: 1.3mb
