Climbing Volcán Villarrica!

December 4th, 2010

Finally, our 4th day in Pucón was clear and sunny- perfect for summiting Volcán Villarrica, one of Chile's most active volcanoes. The day before we had already been fitted for all our gear (boots, waterproofs, helmets, crampons, ice picks!!) and we joined in with about 20 other people at AguaVentura, the company that came highly recommended to us by all the locals we encountered. We all loaded into mini-buses and within 45 minutes were at the base of the volcano. We slathered on the sunscreen and were chairlifted up until we hit the really snowy part (since December is summer in Chile, the ski runs were all closed and there was dirt on the lower parts of the volcano).We strapped on our crampons, had a quick lesson about how to walk in the snow and ice (you really don't want to walk with your feet too close together when you have massive metal spikes attached to them!) and then we hit the snow.We zigzagged up... and up... and up. It was beautiful and sunny- incredibly bright with the reflection off the snow- and the perfect day for climbing. We took a couple of short snack breaks, and our group naturally separated into a fast and a slow. In the fast group we reached the summit in just over 3 hours and the wind conditions were good enough that we could sit around, take lots of photos, and stare down into the crater. Unfortunately the lava lake wasn't bubbling up but it was still smoking enough to be ominous.Our trip down involved trekking part way, then layering up with waterproofs, removing the crampons, and sliding down over the snow and ice on our butts (or faces, as sometimes happened). We had little plastic sleds to sit on for when it flattened out a bit, but for me the sledding was the most terrifying part of the day!
By the bottom I was exhausted, but we piled back into vans and headed back to the shop where we all sat on the roof and drank a couple of beers in the sun, back to where we could ogle the volcano from a distance and feel pretty awesome for tackling it.