23:00 - Mmmmm... So... Egged on by Phil and Sally during the Pato Andino trip, I had actually signed on for climbing to the top of the Villarrica vulcan. One of the most active vulcanos in Chile but perfectly safe to climb. On a good day you get amazing views from the top of this perfect cone. So off I went at 6.15 this morning to meet Claudio at Summit Chile. He was to be our guide and by the end of the day my walking stick :-). Me and Tina (from Finland and a ranger in the finnish forests, so I guess she walks now and again) put our gear on and Claudio drove us all up to the entrance and then onto the ski lift. On the way he very quickly rattled off his life. He said Pucon was great to leave in and that his 20000 inhabitants became about 50000 during the chileans summer holidays as it was one of their favourite haunts. In two weeks time there would only be foreign tourists he said. He met his wife when he was working in southern Patagonia. She was a Canadian that had been travelling around the world for 15 years just to go back 2/3 months a year in Canada to work for money to travel. They started a relationship and then she went back to Canada saying that if he really missed him she would be back. Claudio wrote an email every day and sure enough she came back and they are now married and have two kids. They moved to Pucon 10 years ago and love it.
Back to the climb...
We got the chairlift to the starting point and then started our ascent. The pace was not too bad and we got to the beginning of the snow in about an hour and a half. There were several groups there having a little rest. We put our crampons on (well Claudio put them on), gloves and off we went on the snow. As we walked into the cloud that would stay with us for the rest of the day, Claudio checked the weather again on the radio and was told that there was sun everywhere and they still expected the cloud on the vulcano to lift by 1pm. So we carried on up the steep hill. About half an hour after we started walking on the glacier he was told the cloud didn't seem to go anywhere and it was then that I noticed that none of the other groups had followed us up. He gave us a choice: go back having made quite a headway anyway or carry straight on quickly as the wind was picking up and it was very cold and wet. Tina really wanted to carry on to the top even though there was nearly no visibility. If I was really honest I would have turned back. I was going up there for the views...I'm not much of a walker and the conditions where not exactly ideal. I didn't want to be the one to make Tina turn back, and I was actually feeling ok, so I said I was ok to carry on. As it git steeper Claudio roped us up to avoid losing us...mainly me I think :-). It got harder and harder and the last 20 minutes wearing crampons and climbing the craters debris to reach the summit where the longest 20 minutes of my life! Still with some difficulty I had actually made it to the top...who would have thought...there wasn't much to see as visibility was about 2 metres. We got Claudio to take a quick picture and we started back so we could get out of the freezing wind. Of that long painful descent (by then my legs were starting to give way) I remember gradually getting foggy vision...and my inability to walk straight down the hill as instructed by Claudio (I felt I was going to fall off the face of the mountain). My eyesight got gradually worse and the descent of the ski lift (they only take you to the start but not back) I did arm in arm with Claudio who was trying to avoid me falling over the rocks (by this point I could only see vague shapes and a lit of white out of my right eye and foggy out of the left). My legs were burning but we made it down and he drove us back to the shop where we andressed and washed out my eye. There was a combination of snow blindness and sand/dirt in my eyes that contributed to the problem. He drove me to the hotel very concerned I wouldn't find it or my legs would give way :-). What a day!!!
I had a shower and sat down to have some food and a drink in the bar. I felt a lot better cleaned up. I picked up my clean laundry from the lavanderia and waited for the rest of the group to come back (they went for a walk in a national park today). Toby had decided not to bother to organise dinner so each if us went their own way and I joined Tina, Peter, Karen and Lisa for an off the run choice: a lebanese restaurant. Gradually my eyesight got better and as I write this it is perfectly fine. I just have a little bit of a red eye.
A note on Pucon. It is rather lovely, on the shore of a lake, warm sunny, it has the feel of a sea resort but it has however a peculiarity: it is a sea resort with building that look like ski chalets! :-) Nevertheless it is really nice.
Tomorrow morning we leave early for Puerto Varas.