Adventuresome

The Púcon area is famous for outdoor activities - I had heard about the hikes and volcano climbing and had put together some plans with my partner in crime, Eli. When we arrived at the town, the sight that greeted us was that of the above - the volcano Villarica absolutely looms over the town, sitting there quietly releasing clouds of smoke. Climbing the volcano is something which almost everyone who goes to Púcon has a go at, going up with organised tour groups. Eli, being an experienced mountaineer, had different ideas.

So, having arranged the necessary equipment for the climb, I found myself catching a taxi hours before sunbreak to get a jump on the other climbers and to see the dawn over the mountain. Approaching it was quite incredible, as in the darkness the red glow of the cone is clearly visable, and certainly hits home that you are about to climb a live volcano. The first three hours or so of climbing were in darkness, with a little moonlight to show the way. Whether the light is good or bad, plotting a course for the climb can be difficult; several times we were forced to turn back due to high drops, and sometimes the ice axe and crampons got involved in some pretty vertical climbing - a lot of fun.

Soon enough, as can be seen below the sun arrived, and provided some amazing views.

Finally, after around four and a half hours climb and lots of stops for photos, we got to the top - the shots below are the last couple of metres before arriving at the summit.

Finally, the top - and it was here that one of my biggest misconceptions about the summit of volcanos was dispelled. I had thought the presence of liquid hot rock would perhaps provide some warmth one you were within metres of it. Not so much. I don´t remember ever having been as cold as I was at the top of Villarica - the wind, with nothing to block its path, whips the gas (extremely smelly and none too healthy for breathing) from the cone, and bit right through the gear that up to now had kept me perfectly comfortable. I had hoped to see some of the molten rock that the glow from earlier had hinted at, but unfortunately only clouds of gas was visible from the edge of the crater.

After stopping for some lunch, it was time to head down - which, unsurprisingly, was something of an easier task, made even more so by the idea we had of sliding down using our gators as toboggans. The route chosen by gravity ended up being perhaps a little more interesting than that we might have chosen with more cerebral mothods, but way more fun.

The trail down the mountain opens out into some strange shaped landscape at the foot, caused by previous lava flows, over which the forest of the national park has grown. It was through this that we decided to trek back to Pucon from, and after working through some pretty dense forest on very broken up ground, it was a pair of very footsore walkers who stumbled out onto the road about 5 kilometres down the road from Pucon and were kindly given a ride into town by a passing ute.