Onwards to Pucon

So, Joe has posted some photos of us climbing in Frey. We spent a week camping by the lake there, with the occasional swim, pasta and tuna as usual and some very fine climbing. We meet an American couple and a Polish couple, also climbing. We were woken one morning by a helicopter that came to collect supplies from a branch of the army that were climbing and hiking also. We were lucky to meet some Chileans who told us of the wonderful climbing in Socaire near San Pedro de Atacama, that Joe writes about above. We said goodbye to Brid & Jim and Craig as they headed off on their own adventures. Brid & Jim chose to rent bicycles and visit a few vineyards in Mendosa and Craig had a date in Brazil. We had our last tastes of Bariloche cake and steak and headed to Pucon, Chile.





Pucon is home to Villarica Volcano. This is an active volcano that gives a wonderful backdrop to the town. Joe & I packed bags with a fine lunch, for extreme picnicing, and our crampons, ice axes and wolly hats. We managed to get a lift to the base of the mountain. The only downside was that we were collected at 4am!Well 3.45am as it turned out. This proved to be a winner as daily, tour groups drag stacks of tourists up to smell the sulphar. We would avoid the crowds and have the top to ourselves.





So, with head torches to light our way we followed switch backs up the mountain until we came upon the snow and ice. The moon was helpful and with the aid of the reflective snow, we no longer needed torches as we carefully climbed up the ice cap. At this stage the sun was begining to rise and colour the sky beautifully. More difficult ground of loose scree of wonderfully formed volcanic rock lead to the edge of the crater. A cloud of stinking sulphur constantly rose from the crater and we could hear a deep grumbling from within. We fed it a bread roll, just to keep it happy, before sitting down to our own lunch. The edge of the creator was also dotted with small jets of sulphur, burping and pulsing out.





On the way down we spotted a well established ice slide. A short cut to avoid the steepest section of the downhill ice trudge. Joe, poised with ice axe, climbed in and descended the mountain at high speed. Im delighted to anounce that although I could see the spray of snow as he desperately tried to perfom an ice axe break before reaching the scree at the bottom, he made it down without a scratch. His biggest complaint being that his bottom was quite cold!!!