Dia 21 El Volcan Villarica

I woke up at 5:00 a.m. anddrove Tracy´s funky old Subaru down the hill, through town, and up to the ski area on Villarica.  I stopped in at the CONAF office at 6:45 a.m. to convince them that I was worthy of a  permit.  Judging by their reaction, I somehow think that they don´t get many chicas showing up and asking for a permit to climb solo.  They inspected my gear and asked for my qualifications.  I had done my homework on this and was therefore able to produce 3 climbing club membership cards.  For $3,500 CH pesos ($7.50 USD) I was on my merry way.  I started at the very late hour of 7:15, but to my surprise, I was the first person on the mountain.  The first 1,200´were a slog up scree and dirt to the top of the chairlift reminiscent of the initial slog up the south side of Mt Hood.

Once I reached the snow, things got much easier.   I initially started following the trail the guides put in, sans crampons.  It was horse graded and extremely unappealling.  The mountain was a little icy from the hot temps yesterday and overnight freeze. So, I strapped on my crampons and took a more direct line.  It felt soooo good to be back on a mountain like coming home.  I listened to a mix of Beck, Beastie Boys, and G Love as I made my way up.  I could see the throngs of guided groups below me, but for the most part I was alone and enjoying the tranquil beauty and early morning light on the scenery below (Picture 4).  Villarica is one of the few volcanoes that you can look into the crater and see lava.  I topped out, but the mountain was angry and belching continues clouds of noxious gases which the wind carried my way.  I could only stay 5 minutes before beginning my descent.

On the descent, I think I blew past 80 or so people in guided groups marching up in neat little lines along the horse-graded zigzag path the guides had set.  I was really happy that I was able to pull this off solo, beacuse I would not have enjoyed marching along with the throngs.  They were all very surprised to see me.  Every guide inquired about the wind/smoke conditions at the crater.  One of the guides was kind enough to snap the picture above.  I descended in good form by walking down rather than glissading and was in the parking lot 1.5 hrs later.