Volcano climbing

Tuesday 4th March

Pucon is just under halfway to Santiago, near the east of Chile. Its a volcanic area and the town sits on a lake at the foot of Volcan Villaricca... which I wanted to climb! Its 2780m which is a touch higher then Mount Blanc (i think).

It was too cloudy to climb in on Friday, my first day in Pucon, so I postponed til Sunday when the weather forecast promised sun. Its not safe to climb in cloud because you cant see rocks falling (of which there were scarily alot of) which have been dislodged by snow melting and climbers higher on the mountain.

So Saturday I went rafting in a 2 man raft called a ducky. It was fun although the river was low which meant that alot of rocks were near the surface and we kept getting stuck on them. It was fun except in one instance when we got pushed off course by the force of the river onto a slope of rocks. Our raft got well an truly wedged between two rocks and consequently started to sink beneath the water. The only way out was to try and free the raft and then try not to fall out as it slid over 20 metres or so of rocks (backwards) into the rough water below! Well, once I realised it wasn't as dangerous as it felt and that we didnt have to get out of the raft it was quite exhilarating but was relieved when we regrouped further down river.

Sunday was volcano climbing day. Set off at 7am with a group of 6 climbers and 2 guides all kitted out with crampons, ice axes, helmets, gaitors, waterproofs and rather oddly a 'nappy' as it was called!!! We drove to the start point and then took a ski lift up part of the way (it was compulsory). Then it was a steady paced walk on rock to the start of the snow. Trudged up the snow, dodging falling rocks. It makes you feel quite small when you are on a steep ice slope watching a rock boucing and thundering towards you in a completely unpredictable way. Luckily none came too close, although one climber in another group got knocked off balance by a stone the size of a tennis ball... doesn't take much!

Got to the crater after about 4 hours of climbing and it was amazing. A bit smelly though! Reminded me of the smell in chemistry labs at school. The volcano was steaming nicely although it wasnt possible to see the actual hole or bubbling lava because the crater was too deep. View was fantastic and could see all the surrounding volcanoes. The one next door had erupted only a couple of weeks earlier! Although Villaricca last erupted in 1984.

The most fun bit was going down the volcano... thats where the nappy came into play. Basically we togged up in all our waterproof gear, strapped this nappy thing round our bottoms and then slid down the snow. There were 3 snow slide runs, the first was flat but fast, wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee. The second and third were in a sort of groove in the snow like a luge run. I liked going super fast... although had to keep braking with my ice axe (boo).

There were some really cool rocks from where the lava had flowed and cooled. And as we know, "its all in the rocks" eh Sian!

The towns in the volcanic region all have sirens, like the old airraid sirens which they test every day at noon. Unfortunately I didnt know this the first time it happened and it completely scared the wotsits out of me!

So got back to Pucon, showered and jumped on a bus to Santiago which is where I am now.