Chilly in Chile
Trip Start
Sep 04, 2007
1
17
59
Trip End
May 28, 2008
Santiago,
Chile
Tuesday, November 13, 2007
We arrived in Santiago which is a very modern city, and feels a lot like Europe. Unfortunately prices are back to European levels too so maybe not so much steak and wine in Chile. I spent a day walking around Santiago but there wasn't that much to see. The highlights were Cerro Santa Lucia (a park in the middle of the city), and the funicular railway up to Cerro San Cristobal.
On the second day a group of us went go-karting which was much cheaper than the UK. It started to rain when we arrived at the track, so our 26 lap race was entirely in the wet. It was quite tricky to keep the karts on the track but I was happy to finish 3rd out of 8.
We then left Santiago and headed for Pucon in the Chilean lake district. We decided to try to climb Volcano Villarrica. We were picked up at 6.30am and kitted out with boots, crampons and ice axes. When we arrived at the base of the volcano we found out that all the ski lifts were closed, so we had to walk all the way up the volcano, rather than taking the easy option!
The beginning of the walk was over icy snow and after about 1 hour we stopped to fit crampons. My hands were freezing cold despite wearing gloves and mittens. Fortunately when we started to walk again I warmed up a bit, but as we went higher up the volcano the wind speed increased and the clouds closed in. We guessed that the air temperature was minus 10 deg C, but the strong wind was picking up snow and blowing it horizontally into our faces so it felt much colder. Some of the other groups on the mountain aborted their attempt, but our guide decided to continue. Then the water in the tube of my hydration pack froze despite the neoprene insulation, so I had nothing to drink. My face was frozen because there was nothing I could do to avoid the vicious wind. Fortunately the rest of me was just about warm enough (I was wearing 3 layers of trousers and 4 layers around my top!).
We eventually reached the summit of the volcano at 2847m after more than 4 hours of walking. The volcano is quite active so there were plenty of acid fumes which made my eyes water and my throat was burning. We waited around long enough to take a few photos and then made a quick descent. Going down the volcano was much easier because for a lot of the trip we just sat down on the snow and slid, using our ice axes as a brake. The last mile or so back to the car park was really difficult though because the snow was so soft.
It was an amazing experience to climb the volcano and well worth the effort, but I would have preferred better weather!
Comments
busy bee
Oh my god you have been a busy boy.