Climbing the Volcan
The last time I climbed a volcano was nearly 2 years ago with my cousins Shezza and Bons in the Philippines and I thought that was quite spectacular and a piece of cake. Admittedly the malnutritioned horses did all the climbing but the weather was scorching and it was hard work applying sunscreen.
Volcan Villarica didn´t allow the luxury of a horse but the guides we hired provided us with an ice pick, crampons and some sexy waterproofs (note to self: must buy myself an icepick). Apart from that, it wasn´t as difficult as I had imagined - thanks mainly to the amount of trekking we´ve been doing lately.
Luckily, we had clear weather, great guides and a great group, apart from the terrified Brazilian girl who cried all the way up the volcano and all the way down. I shouldn´t laugh...but I did.
Anyway, after a short ski lift up the mountain (to cut out a bit of time), and then crunching up volcanic ash and heaving ourselves through the ice with our trusted ice picks, we finally reached the summit gasping for air where we were welcomed by huge plumes of stinking sulfur. The guys with the funny masks I was laughing at earlier in the climb were not so stupid looking after all. However, putting up with suffocating from the noxious fumes did nothing to distract me from the spectacular vista from the top and even more exciting, watching the amazing show of churning lava bursts!! It was awesome. I´d never seen anything so full of life before. I felt like I was looking into the centre of the earth.
We finished this spectacular day by glissading down the mountain, ie: sliding down the mountain on our rears using only the ice pick to navigate or apply the brakes. Great fun!
Later that evening, Dave and I caught the sunset by the lake in Pucon and observed the top of the Volcan Villaricca glowing an eerie orange. Spooky but hey, what an excellent day!!!
Volcan Villarica didn´t allow the luxury of a horse but the guides we hired provided us with an ice pick, crampons and some sexy waterproofs (note to self: must buy myself an icepick). Apart from that, it wasn´t as difficult as I had imagined - thanks mainly to the amount of trekking we´ve been doing lately.
Luckily, we had clear weather, great guides and a great group, apart from the terrified Brazilian girl who cried all the way up the volcano and all the way down. I shouldn´t laugh...but I did.
Anyway, after a short ski lift up the mountain (to cut out a bit of time), and then crunching up volcanic ash and heaving ourselves through the ice with our trusted ice picks, we finally reached the summit gasping for air where we were welcomed by huge plumes of stinking sulfur. The guys with the funny masks I was laughing at earlier in the climb were not so stupid looking after all. However, putting up with suffocating from the noxious fumes did nothing to distract me from the spectacular vista from the top and even more exciting, watching the amazing show of churning lava bursts!! It was awesome. I´d never seen anything so full of life before. I felt like I was looking into the centre of the earth.
We finished this spectacular day by glissading down the mountain, ie: sliding down the mountain on our rears using only the ice pick to navigate or apply the brakes. Great fun!
Later that evening, Dave and I caught the sunset by the lake in Pucon and observed the top of the Volcan Villaricca glowing an eerie orange. Spooky but hey, what an excellent day!!!
posted by W at 8:48 pm
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