Gringo and the Volcano
Espectacooolar!!! The korean man kept yelling every 5 minutes. Espactacoolar!!!
He was right, it was truly spectacular. Paul and I climbed an Active volcano a few weeks ago, and we have the pictures to prove it. Some fun video as well of our descent.
After arriving in the lakes district of Chile, Paul and I immedeately went into adventure mode. We went whitewater rafting 2 hrs later on a river with class 3 and 4 rapids. No one died and it was a great time, but unfortunately, I couldn´t bring my camera. Something about water and complex digital machines. You will just have to trust me that it was a thrilling ride.
We did all these activities in Pucon, which is the adventure capital of Chile. It has every extreme sport imaginable, set in the beautiful lakes district area, which is just north of Patagonia. Pristine blue lakes, pine trees abound, and many inactive and active volcanoes tower over the countryside. One particularly active volcano exists right next to the town of Pucon. Guess what, you can climb it, with a guide of course.
The volcanos last major eruption was in 1982, but every year it has some minor eruptions and every day it spews noxious gas and smoke, much like our current government.
We set off to the volcano early in the morning with a group of 4 other tourists and our guide. We donned all our hiking gear; rain pants, survival jacket, snowboots, and ice pick. Ice pick? Wait, isn´t it summer there. Yep, thats true, it was t-shirt weather everywhere else, but on the volcano its a different story. The mountain actually has an enormous glacier on top of it, so most of the hike is on top of ice and snow. The glacier is an amazing 50 meters deep at some points and you can see a blue glow coming through the ice.
We started out on a lava field but quickly came to the snow/ice section. The hiking was not terrificly difficult, mainly because our group was a little slow (see the above mention of spectacular Korea man) but it still wasn´t a short jaunt. In all it took us a little over 5 hrs to ascend to the top. Because of the ice and steep grade, we needed to keep making zig zag patterns along the face of the volcano.
After snow throwing, some slipping, and lunch, we made it to the top and peered into the abyss. You know what we saw? Not much. You can´t actually see the boiling lava, but you can hear it. It makes a low rumbling noise every now and then. The thing that was most present was the sulfuric gas pouring out of the crevice. It was completely overwhelming. We could only stand there for a few minutes before gagging and coughing.
After 20 minutes of prodding around the mouth, it was time for the descent. Ingenuously, the agencies make the descent rather fun. They give you specially made ass pads that strap to your body. At which point you are able to slide down long chutes dug into the glacier. We achieved a surprising amount of speed and there was plenty of crashes and out of control people. Paul ended up with a bloddy lip, courtesy of me. One of my South American triumphs. Check out the videos to see the sliding action.
We descended in a little over an hour and luckily the volcano never erupted on us. Although, if it came down to it, I think that would have been a great way to go. Shot out of a Chilean volcano. Out with a bang!