South America Day 44

We were up early ready to leave at 7am for our trek up Villarrica Volcano (2847m).  We called at the office to pick up provided backpacks containing protective jackets and trousers, crampons, ice axes, helmets, gaiters, gloves, bum protector and plastic spade sledge.  Once we'd added our own supplies, food and water, they were quite heavy for a day pack but comfortable and manageable.  It was a half hour drive to a ski resort at the base of the volcano and the snow line.  We started hiking at 8am.  It had been a cold night so the snow was nice and crisp, great for walking on, apparently it had been wet and slushy the day before.  We used ice axes to help with our ascent but no crampons, we didn't need them there was a reasonably good trodden in path in the snow.  It was a good clear sunny morning with great views and a cloud inversion in the valley.  The ascent was steep in places so we zigzagged up and had a few short rests, it was quite warm in the sunshine. It took us four and a half hours with stops to climb the 1800m from the ski resort base. Eleven of us set off, only eight of us made it to the summit, it was a strenuous climb.  We had good views most of the way, the odd cloud blew over us but soon disappeared again.  Unfortunately for us, ten minutes from the summit the cloud blew in for good, so we weren't able to see the huge crater rim on the summit, we had seen the smoke plumes blowing out of it on the way up though.

We stayed on the summit for a while, it turned cold and windy though so we sheltered in an ice cave which was nice and warm.  Whilst in the cave we had some snacks and then got kitted out in all our extra layers, gaiters, crampons, bum protectors, spade sledge, gloves etc ready for our descent.  Emerging from our cave it had turned bitterly cold and cloudy with visibility about 10m with light hail and snow.  We started descending, following the zigzag trail down on the initial steep sections then straight down on the more gradual slopes.  Half way down we stopped to remove our crampons and then sledged the last half down on our spade sledges.  It was great fun but quite painful on the derrière!  The hail and snow stopped and visibility improved once we reached the snow resort at the bottom. We walked the very last section and were down just before 4pm.

In the evening we all went out for a lovely group meal to a local restaurant.