Pucon I: Hiking Beneath Volcan Villarrica
Pucon is one of the popular destinations in the south of Chile. Sometimes called “the Aspen of Chile”, Pucon sits at the base of the active Villarrica volcano which (as of this writing) last erupted in February 2015. The town is a vibrant outdoors town, and attracts hikers, climbers, mountain bikers, and rafters. Despite being in Chile for two years, I had yet to make it to Pucon, and I had been wanting to climb the volcano.
A group of friends in Santiago decided we should try to climb Villarrica before the summer began in earnest, to take advantage of the snow cover (walking on snow is generally more enjoyable than walking on loose volcanic rock). We rented a cabaña and car in Pucon for the weekend of 7–10 October, and planned for a few days of hiking and a day to climb the volcano. Five of us would be coming from Santiago, two from Concepción, and one from New York City.
On the night of 06 Oct, three of the Santiago+NYC contingent (Tanio, Sarah, and I) got on a night bus from Santiago to Pucon. The 22:50 departure and next-day arrival of 09:00 meant a full night of sleep.
Day 1: Parque Nacional Huerquehue
Upon our our arrival we were greeted by a cool morning and quickly piled on jackets. We retrieved our bags from the back of the bus and set off to pick up our rental truck and check into the cabaña. Both steps proceeded without issue and we were ready to begin adventuring by noon.
Tanio, Sarah, and I had arrived on Friday morning and expected the rest of the group to arrive in the evening. Our general plan was to attempt Villarrica on Saturday, shifting to Sunday if the weather did not look good on the first day. After the eruption of Villarrica in early 2015, climbing access has been controlled, and a guide is more-or-less required to attempt the summit. Most of the our group lacked mountaineering gear (and for a few this would be their first mountaineering experience), so hiring a guide was the prudent thing to do. We spent a while in town scoping out a guide company and eventually made the reservations for our party of eight. The weather forecast for Saturday was looking very windy, so we signed up for a Sunday morning climb. Now, with the afternoon free, it was time to get out and do some hiking!
We opted for a nice sounding hike in the Parque Nacional Huerquehue, a 45 minute drive northeast of Pucon – the “lakes trail”. The first portion of the hike followed the edge of Lago Tinquilco, before starting to climb along switchbacks through a dense forest. The trail was very muddy in places, an interesting change from the dry, sandy trails around Santiago. On the way up, we were rewarded with incredible views of Villarrica across the valley.
As we climbed higher, we approached the araucaria trees we had been seeing in the distance. Eventually, as the trail leveled out at the elevation of several higher lakes, we began passing by arauciaras.
We rounded Lago Chico and came to the edge of Lago Verde. With a sunny day with a slight breeze, the waters of the lake lapped up against the boulders against the shore. We found a large, flat rock and parked ourselves on it to enjoy lunch. There were great views of the trees across the lake and araucarias dotting the ridgelines.
After dining on bread, cheese, tortilla, and sausage, we all ended up falling asleep in the sunshine for a while. It was a relaxing afternoon, but eventually we had to return to town.
After packing away the remains of lunch we turned back towards the car. Along the way we took a detour to the third lake up high, Lago Toro, and were rewarded with a gorgeous reflection of the mountains on the other side of the lake.
The trail up to the lakes was a few hundred meters from a creek and some waterfalls. On the way up, we had passed two spur trails to see the waterfalls, opting to continue up high. But on the way back, we took the short excursions to the waterfalls. The hillside was in the shadow of the ridgeline by then, and the cool air combined with misting from the waterfall made for occasionally chilly stops. But the waterfalls were neat to see, and each seemed to drop 30 meters or so.
After the hike we returned to Pucon to meet the rest of the crew arriving from Santiago (Neil, Claudia, and Anna) and Concepción (Deborah and Woody). We met up with little fuss and hung out on the main street—“O’Higgins” of course—while enjoying a beer.
During the drive back to the cabaña, on the road to the ski resort and the volcano, we stopped to enjoy a spectacular sight: in the darkness the glow of the lava in the crater was reflecting off the clouds of smoke venting out of the top of the volcano. It was bright enough to see, but maybe on the edge of visibility. A glowing caldron in the sky.
Day 2: Parque Nacional Villarrica
We had a fairly leisurely start to Saturday and ended up at “Pucon Doughnuts” for breakfast. The ordering process seemed fairly complicated, but we eventually ended up with the food and caffeine we each wanted. The next order of business was to visit the guide shop to fill out waivers and sort out gear. A few of us had our own gear (which needed an OK from the guides) and the rest need to try on boots, jackets, and waterproof pants. After the gear tryout, buying groceries, and a quick stop back at the cabaña to drop off mountaineering boots, we piled back in the car (sans Sarah, who stayed in town) to go to Parque Nacional Villarrica for an afternoon hike.
As soon as we left the cabaña the skies opened and a solid downpour began. On the one hand, it affirmed our earlier decision to attempt Villarrica on Sunday, but how much fun would it be to go hiking in the rain? But we pressed on anyways.
And, in the end, we were glad we did not return to the lit wood stove of the cabaña. After a bit of waffling about where to hike (“do we really want to spend CLP2.000 to see a waterfall or should we go hike in the national park?”) we parked our cars at the entrance to Parque Nacional Villarrica and start hiking up the early slopes of a long trail through the park. The thick clouds threatened rain and obscured our view of anything more distant than the turns ahead of us in the trail but they never opened up on us again.
We hiked upwards for 90 minutes or so, getting a good warm-up for the next day’s climb, before stopping underneath a large araucaria tree for lunch. As we sat, the clouds above us started breaking and reforming. We caught intermittent views of the snow-covered slopes on the opposite side of the valley, but never saw the smoking crater father up. As the clouds feigned dispersal, tendrils of water vapor dragged through the trees on the valley sides. It was wonderful to sit partway up the valley and watch the clouds dance through the forest.
Eventually we retraced our steps down the valley and back to the cars. Along the way, pausing to sit on a log, I noticed black rocks in all the dips and crevices of the log. Taking a closer look, these were all fragments of pumice – somewhat unsurprising, being below a volcano. But as I scanned around me, I saw the pumice everywhere, forming a layer between the ground below it and the leaves from the most recent fall above them. Then I realized the carpet of pumice was from the eruption a year and a half ago. This rough ground cover had thus far escaped unnoticed, but it was obvious the rest of the way back to the car.
After assembling at the car we returned to town, picked up Sarah, and had an early-ish dinner, so we could get back to the cabaña to rest for our 05:00 wakeup at 06:15 departure.
Check out more photos from Parque Nacional Huerquehue and Parque Nacional Villarrica and continue to the climb of Villarrica.