V for Volcano

As the thick mist enveloping the Volcano refused to disappear, a frosty gust of wind battered us with renewed vigour. The Sun's pathetic attempt to rise was thwarted by a battalion of thunder clouds. The clock struck 6a.m. A tremor of terror ran down our spines. The hardest was yet to come...

Hola Chicos,

Our border crossing to Chile from Argentina was a fruity one. We had a stop on the bus at Agricultural Control (glorified farmers) in Chile. The sniffer dogs gave our bags a thorough going-over before deciding that Ed's stash clearly had some illicit goods. This is the second time this has happened to Ed since he left the UK. If he never makes it home he wishes you all a long and prosperous life. We are still unsure whether it was Ed's dirty washing or his scented shower-gel that attracted the dogs so much. I think we can assume it was the former.

An early wake-up awaited us on Monday morning as we had the intention of climbing a 2,800m, active volcano in Pucon. The sun hadn't yet broken through the shroud of mist which was cloying to the volcano when it dawned (bazinga!) on us that we were horribly under-equipped and poorly-dressed for such an expedition. As hinted at in the prologue, due to "a battalion of thunder clouds" we were forced to abandon our quest and advised to come back the next day.

Volcano Villarrica

We had more luck with our second attempt. We wrapped up with several layers and prepared for an Arctic ascent. We were presented with the option of walking for an extra hour or cutting off the first 400 metres of the climb on a chairlift. You can probably guess which option we took.

Sunrise half-way up the Volcano

The first half of our ascent was a relatively steep hike up rocky and stoney slopes. The best was yet to come. After a couple hours we were told to take a break and unleash our crampons (snow claws for the feet) and unsheathe our ice picks which were bordering on the barbaric. We felt awesome. Suddenly we realised - to our joy and to the others' dismay - that we were kitted out with equipment which could be lethal if it fell into the wrong hands (namely our own hands). We could see the dread in the eyes of our fellow adventurers. I don't think we let go of our ice picks for the rest of the climb, until we had them forcibly severed and surgically-removed from our grasps when we had descended to the bottom.

Walking with the crampons was a euphoric experience and we felt so powerful being able to scale a vertical wall of ice.

We reached the top in 3h30m, an hour faster than the average time. That sort of thing just happens to people like us. It was only when we had reached the top that we remembered we had left the One Ring back at the hostel. Thank God Frodo and Sam never made the same mistake. (Middle) Earth could be a very different place. At the top we had a clear view of the crater and the smoke rising out of it. The sulphur tickled our nostrils. To the East we had the highest volcano in the Andes, to the South we had the most active. The volcano we had just summited is called Villarrica, it is the second most active in Chile. Its last eruption was in 1984 where it destroyed the local ski resort, and the one prior to that was in 1971. The eruption in 1971 left 50cm of ash in Bariloche, an 11 hour bus ride away. We like to live on the edge. 

The Crater

At the peak (please note the ice pick)

The most exciting bit of the peak was when our guide chucked a rock off the side of the volcano and we watched it careering down the glacier, sometimes bouncing as high as 10 metres in the air. It looked absolutely lethal and we then understood why we needed our crash helmets.

The shenanigans had only just begun. Normally when descending a mountain the walk down is tiring on the knees and this is when blisters begin to erupt (bazinga?). This was no issue for us, as Mother Gravity was bountiful. We were told to slide down the glacier on our bums, using our ice picks as as brakes and paddles. This has to be up there with one of the most adrenaline-inducing things we have done this trip. 

Once we were back on the rocks of the mountain we could slide down the rocks on our feet, making for a very quick and easy descent. 

After unanimously declaring ourselves the undisputed winners of the ascent and descent, we made our way back to Pucon to enjoy some well-earned beers on a terrace with views of the volcano we had just conquered.