I have always had a fascination with volcanoes. I’m not quite sure when it started, probably some time in grade school when I saw my first pictures of flowing lava in a textbook.
Or maybe it was when we learned about Pompeii? Kind of morbid, I know, since a city was completely covered by the destruction of a volcano. But I was fascinated.
The Idea
During our time at Hostel Pudu in Bariloche, we became friends with an Irish guy travelling around South America. He had just been to a little town in Chile called Pucon, which we had never heard of, and he told us about how he hiked to the top of an active volcano. He got out his camera and started showing us pictures, and that was that.
I was in, the wife was going to have to humor me despite the idiocy of hiking to the top of an active volcano. I HAD to do it. So we started making plans right then and there, and a few weeks later we were in Pucon, planning our trek to the top of a freaking volcano.
I was like a kid in a candy store (or just like my 30-year-old self in a candy store, because hey, I LOVE sweets).
How to Do It
Hiking to the top of Volcan Villarrica has to be done with a tour and guide unless you belong to a mountaineering club and can show proof of membership. Since Pucon is a very touristy town, there are tons of tour operators offering treks up the volcano.
With this amount of tourism obviously comes varying degrees of professionalism and safety, so shop around. This is obviously one of those times that you don’t want to go the cheapest route. It pays to spend a little extra money.
Itinerary
The company we went with (Sol y Nieve) was great. We had the choice of an early departure or an even earlier one.
We chose the earliest as we figured the light would be best and the sun less intense, so we met at the office early, around 6am if I remember correctly. Cost was about $65US/person, and that included the guides (who were awesome), all the equipment (cramp-ons, backpack, boots, ice pick, pants, coat), and transportation.
After meeting at the office, we got all our gear (which we tried on the previous night), the guides went through all of it with us to make sure we knew what was what, and once the group was ready, the van picked us up and we were off.
After a nice little drive of about 30 minutes, we arrived at the start. Everyone had the chance of spending an extra $10US to take the gondola for the first 1/4 mile, which I suggest. Most did this.
The Beginning
The rest of the story is taken straight from the blog we kept while on the trip. I was so happy upon returning that I had to write about it immediately. While most of the time on this site I like to re-create the scene after having reflected on it, I thought this time that I would let my emotions from that day do the talking.
The weather gods were with us as it was a beautifully sunny day with bright blue skies. There were some clouds, but that was all right because we were above them, making the scene that much more spectacular.
The first hour of the hike was on a sandy gravel, making it a bit difficult. There was nothing but beauty everywhere around us, including an interesting structure (not sure what else to call it) which Megan said looked like belonged on the Lost island (just one of the many reasons I love her; dropping Lost references while hiking up a volcano, seriously, she’s freaking awesome).
After the first hour, we came to the snow, which was quite interesting considering it was 70 degrees and I was wearing a t-shirt. But it was actually quite a bit easier than we thought it would be, and it was pretty cool since the sun was booming and it was warm outside.
It was about 4.5 hours total to the top. And I have to admit, I was pretty damn proud of us. While it was difficult, it wasn’t too bad, and we were a little nervous at the beginning of the day when we saw that we had four 20-year-old guys from Brazil in our group. But I guess Patagonia trained us well as we were right behind our guide while the Brazilian boys ended up 45 minutes behind us sucking wind the entire time. Every time it did get tough, all we had to do was stop and look around us, and then look at the smoke billowing out of the volcano we were climbing up to.
After leaving the snow briefly, we had one more short climb over lava rock and solidified lava flow (which we regrettably did not get pictures of as there was a logjam behind us making it hard to stop). We soon reached the top, saw into the crater, and admired the spectacular beauty all around us.
After eating a quick lunch at the top, we had to go back down (even though the views were amazing, the sulfur fumes were a bit much, so not much time was spent up there).
Now I’m not sure who came up with this idea, but whoever did deserves some kind of prize because he or she is a genius. While at the top, we had to pull out our awesome uniform that would prepare us for our ride down.
We had pants and a jacket, then a nappy (or diaper) that went over that. This diaper was made of fabric and was basically just there to try to protect us from getting wet. We had to walk a little ways down, then came to some luge-like grooves in the snow that we had seen our whole way up. This was our path down the volcano. What took us 4.5 hours to ascend took only 45 minutes to plummet back down to Earth.
We stood in line like kids on snow day hurling ourselves down the luge tracks with nothing more than our uniform between us and the icy snow. Each track was of a different length and steepness. Some were pretty slow, some were super fast. Our brake for the fast ones was our ice pick that we were given at the start of the day. It was an exhilarating ride down to say the least.
After getting most of the way down, we did have another short 30 minute hike to the very bottom, talking with one of our guides, Gabriel, along the way.
While the scenery and experience of climbing a volcano was beyond words (even though I’m going to manage to use 1000 of them to try), the little personal experiences are really making this trip. The short half hour conversation with a local Chilean guide put the cherry on top of this spectacular day.
This hike really was an incredible experience, to put it mildly. While so many memories were created during our year long journey, there are some that just rise above the rest. This is one of those memories. How often in life do you get the opportunity to do something so unique, so spectacular, so amazing that it has you feeling like a kid all over again?
Have you ever hiked or seen a volcano up close before? If so, where?
While traveling, have you ever had one of those experiences that force you to pinch yourself to make sure it’s real?
I’d love to hear your stories, so comment below!
For more recommendations in this region view my Chile travel guide.
