Day 44 - Up up up

Pucon

M had to be at the tour office for the trek up Volcan Villarica by 6am, so it was a very early start to the day. A quick breakfast and a dose of Codral (not the best time to have a cold!), and off to the trek office through the very quiet town, escorted by roaming dogs along the way. Once there he was fitted out with gear - a pack with a few essentials (more on those later), a helmet, a pair of boots, jacket, waterproof pants and gators. There were four others on the trek, and there were three guides - a pretty good ratio.

The drive up to the volcano took about half an hour or so, then onto a chairlift for the first part of the climb. The guides had politely insisted that we should do it, and no-one in the group objected. By the time the ride finished the sun was coming up, with the shadow of the volcano easy to see against the clear sky,

Pucon and the lake in the distance, showing the volcano's shadow

The trek was a constant upward climb, initially over the ubiquitous grey gravel, but as we advanced it became rockier and a little less stable. The guides showed us how to use our ice picks to steady ourselves, always with the pick on the mountain (uphill) side. There were regular short breaks to hydrate and have a bit to eat - needed to keep our fuel reserves up!

The glacier begins

We steadily climbed and were soon above the snow line, much of the snow had melted over summer so we were able to climb a fair way on the gravel. Eventually we reached the glacier, so we put on our crampons, and started up the ice. Having done the glacier trek in El Calafate this wasn't new - however by this time our group of five had split into two groups, M was in the front group so the ice trek was a lot less leisurely this time!

Single file only up the glacier please ....

After about an hour or so of ice climbing, we reached a layer of rocks and gravel over the glacier ice, We had to keep the crampons on, but from here the rocks were getting bigger and were less stable, so a combination of fatigue, the weight of the crampons, the altitude and possibly M's cold meant that M was having a little trouble keeping up the pace and not tripping over.   

A little further and we were able to remove our crampons, that made it a bit easier, then more climbing before another short break where we were able to remove our packs for the final assault. We had been able to overtake the slower groups during the ice climb, so we were the first group to head to the crater. Another 15 more minutes over very scrambly rock and gravel we were there, we knew we'd made it as we started smelling acrid fumes, and had to don our gas masks.

After all that the crater wasn't as spectacular as we'd hoped, it was having a quiet day so all we could really see was a cloud of gas and the occasional spark of glowing lava. We spent just six minutes at the top, enough time for a look at the crater and a few photos.

Wouldn't want to fall in ....

Fortunately for all of us his face is hidden

The trip down was much easier, the highlight being that we were able to slide down the glacier in a few stretches. Apparently earlier in the season when there's more snow the slide goes most of the way down and can go for up to an hour .... our slides were limited to four sections of just a few minutes each time. For the sliding we put on some glissading shorts (before today who even knew these existed?) and hooked a plastic seat thing to our packs that we then put between our legs to create a toboggan. Using our ice pick as a brake, we were then able to control our slide, though there were a few crashes along the way when there were slower people in front.

Wheeeeeeee.........

After the sliding it was a long walk down, but the gravel was very easy to walk down below the glacier, this time bypassing the chairlift to the car park.

We made it back to town by about 4pm, where K refused to tell M what time she got out of bed. M suspects that he had probably reached the crater before K had even stirred!