Based on the first rule of weather ruling everything, I should make a new rule not to predict in blog posts what I do the next day. Yesterday morning, we woke up bright and early, but when we arrived at the Auguaventura office, they said that the winds coming from Argentina were the worst, so nobody would be able to climb. "Try again tomorrow." So back to the hostel to bundle up and avoid the gusts. Later in the afternoon, two separate Brazilian women arrived. One wanted to climb the volcano with us. I had entire conversations with her speaking Portuguese, me speaking Spanish, and both of us pantomiming. Somehow, we were able to communicate enough that I escorted her to the Aguaventure office again to get her fitted for gear, then took her to the Supermercado.
Today, however, was the perfect day to climb. Clear, sunny, not too hot, not windy, and not too much toxic gas rising from the crater. The two Germans (Sophie and Mara), the Brazilian (Livia) and I arrived at the Aguaventura office at 7, packed our things, and got to the base of the volcano around 9. We were wearing rented hiking boots, our own pants with rented waterproof overalls over them, our own jackets, and hats with helmets. We also had big backpacks full of crampons, gaiters, lunch, etc and ice picks. We took one chairlift from the base of the Ski area to the cafeteria, then started our hike. Immediately, I was sweating and overheating. At our first water break, I stripped down a few layers, but hiking uphill in the snow was definitely getting my heart rate up. Up up up for quite a while, then a 15 minute snack break, where we split into a faster group (including Germans and myself) and a slower group (including Brazilian). Then we really got going. Mostly, I was using other people's footprints as steps to follow, but since I am shorter and lighter, sometimes I would make my own shallow steps with a smaller stride. We hiked in a zig-zag, always holding the ice pick in our uphill hand as a walking stick and also in case we lost footing. I kept stripping down until I was only in my microfleece Boston running tights and a light fleece on top.
We climbed this way for roughly 5 hours, with about a 15-minute break, a 5-minute break, and a 1-minute break every hour. The whole time, we had amazing views of Lake Villarrica, Pucón, the surrounding volcanos and mountains and lakes, and the rest of the Andes in the distance.
At almost the top of the volcano, we stopped to put on gaiters and crampons for the icy summit. Now, choosing our footing was very important. We finally arrived at the crater, but could only stay for about 15 minutes. Just enough time to sit for a minute, take a bunch of pictures, then climb into a lip in the crater itself to eat lunch.
This would not fly in the US. We were standing right at the edge of a live, active, smoking, gurgling volcano, hopefully waiting to see lava. Lawsuits much?
Before starting our descent, we hiked over to one side of the crater to see the best view of the Andes. Oh hey, Argentina! We saw a volcano with the international border right down the middle. Nifty.
Then, down. Some had lugged their snowboard/skis up the volcano on their backpack, but we had opted not to. Instead, we started walking with the crampons, then took them off and swapped them for a waterproof diaper/harness thing and just slid down on our bums. We used our ice pick and feet as a brake of sorts. It was very fun.
Unfortunately, we had some sissies in our group who would not embrace their inner child and let loose, so they took forever. We were trying to make the last lift down at 5 to avoid extra walking (I didn't really mind). Despite some of us speeding down the mountain on butt, foot, and plastic sled, we didn't make it. We walked the last bit down, exhausted, in need of baños and cervezas, but so thrilled with our day.
Now here's the good part: my hostel does these tours on our own if we have enough people doing it, which means I'm going to be able to do this for free all the time hopefully. Stadiums definitely, definitely paid off, but my legs of steel have a ways to go. This might do it!
And look, a video!!
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