Villarrica volcano - I was on my own for summiting this one, well not quite on my own just without Donna. I was up at 5.30am and at the trekking agency at 6.15am to get kitted out. You can hike up this volcano independently but you need a car to drive the dirt road to reach the base. I had booked a place with a trekking agency for Friday as the forecast was excellent. We all crammed into a minibus with rucksacks on our laps - there was no floor space remaining. We started walking in the dark, I couldn't quite believe how many people there were. The agency I went with was fully booked and I guess every other agency in Pucon was as well. Our hostel seems deserted but there are loads of places to stay in Pucon so others must be faring better. It was the best forecast for a while, so just about everyone visiting Pucon wanted to climb the volcano on the same day. Just 5 minutes into the walk we arrived at a chairlift for which you had to pay extra to use. The trip wasn't cheap in the first place and further expenditure wasn't welcomed by anyone. You did have the option to walk from there, 4 of us chose to walk whilst the rest joined a ridiculously long queue. The guides did everything they could to talk the 4 of us into paying for the chairlift - 'it's an extra hour of walking and you will have to face the consequences, you will be behind everyone else, you won't have many rests, the rests will be short, if we think you are too tired later we will not let you go to the summit' and so on. Take 5 minutes and think about it, my response was why waste 5 minutes let's start walking now. Not happy with our decision a guide had to walk up the hill with us. We were given free reign to plough on up as fast as we liked but told to regroup at the end of the chairlift. The 'hour' walk took me about 30 minutes. There was a guide waiting for us, after 5 minutes another of the 4 arrived but the last 2 weren't in sight. The guide said we could go with him and the guide walking up would look after the last 2 guys. The 3 of us were soon ploughing past herds of other trekkers who seemed to be slogging uphill in slow motion. Very soon we caught up the rest of our group who had shelled out for the chairlift. We weren't allowed to carry on at our speed but had to join our agency group. The pace seemed awfully slow - I wished I was with Colin Crabbie and Enrico Bonino and could get a wriggle on. Before long people were complaining that they were tired and asking when they could rest. Once we reached the snowline it was clear that most of the trekkers didn't know one end of an ice axe from the other. The guides had to fit almost everyone's crampons for them. With minimal instructions on use of crampons / ice axe and without being roped up we set off up a steep icy slope. I couldn't quite believe that they would take so many people without any ice walking experience up such an exposed mountainside without even a practice at ice axe arrest (should they fall or slip). The fresh snow from a few days ago had melted leaving just the glacial ice that remains all year round. At this time of the year the ice and snow peters out before the summit and it's back onto rock. Many of the group were relieved to take their crampons off (well the guides took them off for them as they didn't know how to). Despite the pace being slow we were still one of the first groups off the ice. Under instruction we ditched our rucksacks 20 minutes from the summit and continued lightweight with just ice axes, cameras and gas masks!! A steep rocky slope yielded to reveal the crater rim and frowns turned into smiles. The gas masks were precautionary in case we struggled to breathe with the noxious fumes emitted from the crater. The gases were minimal but we wore them anyway just for photos. You couldn't see any lava but you could tell this mountain wasn't fast asleep. Back in December trekkers saw masses of lava boiling in the crater. A guide showed me a video he took of it - frightening but spectacular. The steep rocky descent was a lot more difficult and dangerous than the ascent. Going down the ice in crampons un-roped would also be difficult - but fortunately they don't do that. We skirted around the mountain side for a different route down - on our bums. In the rucksacks provided by the trekking agency were trousers, jackets and a canvas diaper to go over our own clothes and protect them from damage. We took it in turns to glissade down snowy / icy chutes already formed by many previous expeditions. You use your ice axe as a brake to slow you down. One section was so steep and icy (rather than snowy) that my ice axe brake didn't seem to have any effect and I was just picking up more and more momentum. I was close to being out of control and have to admit to being scared (Donna couldn't quite believe this). We made much faster progress downhill on our bums than on our legs going up. Soon we were off the snow and trudging through volcanic gravel heading down to the minibuses. I guess for most it was a really tough day and they were relieved to be finished. The woman running our hostel said I wouldn't be able to walk properly tomorrow, I guess she is used to seeing the consequences of inexperience. Even though the safety aspects of the trek are quite shocking they have very few accidents, but when they do they are usually serious injuries and there have been fatalities. No incidents today though, what a great hike. Thanks to Donna for the lemon meringue pie awaiting me when I arrived back in Pucon.