Volcano Villarrica
Today we had one of the most amazing experiences of our lives. For Janine it was her first time hiking on ice as well as her first volcano. For Johan it was by far his most amazing volcano experience to date. We joined up with the Politur adventure company, who provided us with all the gear, and braved the active Villarrica volcano. The climb would take us 5 hours to ascend a vertical 1500m which could be reduced by 1 hour (a good 400m) if the chairlifts at the base of the slope were working today. They weren't.
The day (which started at 6:20 a.m. at the Politur's office in Villarrica) was an icy one, but still a good sunny day with some cloud cover. By 9:00 we were ready to start our ascent. At the base of the conical mountain we were already worried if we were going to loose our toes and fingers because it was so cold. We started our climb as a group of about 25 people with about 5 guides between us. The group naturally split into 3 smaller groups according to pace, differentiating between those who were walking slowly and those who were walking slower and even slower. We managed to keep a good strong pace in the second group. The guide that accompanied us most of the way up and down, Armin, was very good with us and we were overall very impressed with the professionalism of the company who maintained good control over the groups and the temperamental conditions by means of walky-talky communication between themselves.
The photos we managed to take through the icy wind and steep slopes (sometimes the slope we were zig-zagging up was convincingly steeper than 45 degrees) cannot do justice to what we experienced on the volcano. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences we had yet experienced together. So worth the money, the time and all the excursion it took to get ourselves up to the summit which sits at 2580m above sea-level.
The volcano is active and there was a lot of gas coming out of the crater. This was problematic as breathing in the SO4 gas burnt any part of your exposed flesh that may be in any way moist (the gas dissolves very quickly to produce a highly corrosive H2SO4 which is very nasty to breath in or have anywhere near you for that matter). Throats, noses, mouth, eyes, around our nostrils which was moist from the climb. We tried to filter out the bulk of the gas through handkerchiefs, gloves and whatever else we had at hand.
The climax was the final walk around the crater rim. This was the most extreme part of the day as the path along the crater rim was very narrow with steep drop-offs on both sides. The winds seemed to be stronger than before and the temperature dropped considerably so that Janine had an ice-cream headache for most of the way. Dodging the gas was our main concern. It swirled all around us and you could feel the heat of the lava below (although we could not see it through all the gas) despite the cold cold winds around us. It was beyond words.
The first part of the decent was a brisk walk down the ice slopes aided by our crampons and ice picks. Later we chucked the crampons and slid the remainder of the snow slope down on our rears which was such a welcome change to the walking! The last section of the mountain, covered in loose volcanic stones, was equally easily covered as we walked through the cloud layer at the base of the mountain in a wide, comfortable steps. This was a beautiful, almost surreal moment for us. We reached the base and were welcomed by a view of the Villarrica lake under the cloud layer.
That night we watched the volcano through our bedroom window in Villarrica. We could see that strong orange glow of the lava in the crater reflected by the gas pluming out above. Amazing to think that we had been there just a few hours earlier...
The day (which started at 6:20 a.m. at the Politur's office in Villarrica) was an icy one, but still a good sunny day with some cloud cover. By 9:00 we were ready to start our ascent. At the base of the conical mountain we were already worried if we were going to loose our toes and fingers because it was so cold. We started our climb as a group of about 25 people with about 5 guides between us. The group naturally split into 3 smaller groups according to pace, differentiating between those who were walking slowly and those who were walking slower and even slower. We managed to keep a good strong pace in the second group. The guide that accompanied us most of the way up and down, Armin, was very good with us and we were overall very impressed with the professionalism of the company who maintained good control over the groups and the temperamental conditions by means of walky-talky communication between themselves.
The photos we managed to take through the icy wind and steep slopes (sometimes the slope we were zig-zagging up was convincingly steeper than 45 degrees) cannot do justice to what we experienced on the volcano. It was by far one of the most amazing experiences we had yet experienced together. So worth the money, the time and all the excursion it took to get ourselves up to the summit which sits at 2580m above sea-level.
The volcano is active and there was a lot of gas coming out of the crater. This was problematic as breathing in the SO4 gas burnt any part of your exposed flesh that may be in any way moist (the gas dissolves very quickly to produce a highly corrosive H2SO4 which is very nasty to breath in or have anywhere near you for that matter). Throats, noses, mouth, eyes, around our nostrils which was moist from the climb. We tried to filter out the bulk of the gas through handkerchiefs, gloves and whatever else we had at hand.
The climax was the final walk around the crater rim. This was the most extreme part of the day as the path along the crater rim was very narrow with steep drop-offs on both sides. The winds seemed to be stronger than before and the temperature dropped considerably so that Janine had an ice-cream headache for most of the way. Dodging the gas was our main concern. It swirled all around us and you could feel the heat of the lava below (although we could not see it through all the gas) despite the cold cold winds around us. It was beyond words.
The first part of the decent was a brisk walk down the ice slopes aided by our crampons and ice picks. Later we chucked the crampons and slid the remainder of the snow slope down on our rears which was such a welcome change to the walking! The last section of the mountain, covered in loose volcanic stones, was equally easily covered as we walked through the cloud layer at the base of the mountain in a wide, comfortable steps. This was a beautiful, almost surreal moment for us. We reached the base and were welcomed by a view of the Villarrica lake under the cloud layer.
That night we watched the volcano through our bedroom window in Villarrica. We could see that strong orange glow of the lava in the crater reflected by the gas pluming out above. Amazing to think that we had been there just a few hours earlier...
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