Out of the Wild

Climbing the Volcano

Standard -- High Def

Our First Video Chat

Standard -- High Def

Patagonia was almost behind us. The snowy mountains, blue rivers, and spectacular skies, would soon be replaced by strip malls, tractor-trailers, and busy metro-areas. We had one last chance for Patagonian adventure-tourism: the exciting town of Pucon, nestled between Lake Villarrica and Volcano Villarrica. It promised to give us one last taste of the active, cold-weather active lifestyle.

After another few days of riding through chilling rain, and a very exciting vomit by Chris outside of Villarica (try not to down a liter of strawberry milk before riding), we arrived in the famous adventure town of Pucon. First off, the town has some of the most beautiful scenery we’ve seen on the trip, when clouds aren’t dominating the sky line. We rented our first hostel on the trip, another big moment for us. After everyone had their turn washing off the last three days of road grim in the warm shower, we set our plans for the next few days.

My alarm went off in the darkness of the early morning, but I was already awake. Soon our little hostel was a flurry of activity, packing food, searching for gear, Daniel staggering around, still half asleep. This was the moment we had been waiting for, the volcano was in our sites. We had been waiting for three days for the thick clouds to clear out above us. Finally, the weather was clear, and before we knew it, we were suiting up, boots, gaiters, ice axes, crampons, helmets, and a packed stuffed with a jacket, fleece, gloves, food, and water.