The first group of specialist tourists meet us just a few meters after leaving the prepared ski area. Today is not a good day for a summit attempt, the leading mountain guide tells us - while his clients stagger down the moderately inclined slope and try not to trip over their own feet. They are wearing crampons on their hiking boots, have an ice axe in one hand and a "butt-snow scoop" in the other. You can't do without crampons today, it makes sense to turn around, he affirms in rudimentary English.
It's one of those scenes that is typical of tourism in South America: breathtaking landscapes that are predestined for mountain sports. On the other hand, attempts to develop a kind of alpine mass tourism like in Europe are implemented in an almost absurd way. Nevertheless, we enjoy our ski tour to the Villarica volcano to the full.
Pucon
We are in Pucon, a city in the south of Chile in the Araucania region. Pucon is known for its breathtaking landscape. High rainfall and the associated abundance of water and lush vegetation, a variety of thermal springs, the picturesque Lago Villarica and, of course, the Villarica stratovolcano. At 2840 m high, it rises almost 2600 meters above the landscape and impresses with its almost perfect conical volcanic shape.
Thanks to its easy ascent, Pucon's local mountain is one of Chile's tourist magnets. Lieschen Müller tries her hand here, as do completely inexperienced South Americans. No wonder, because in the countless "guiding" agencies in the Pucons tourist mile, the volcano ascent is sold as an easy half-day walk. For the equivalent of around 40 euros, anyone is promised that they can reach the summit - if they are prepared to sacrifice just a few dollars and around 6 hours of their precious vacation time. The price includes not only "high-quality guiding" by self-trained and self-appointed "Guias de Montana", but also the complete equipment. A ski suit from the 80s, which is certainly inappropriate, is provided, as are crampons and an ice axe. And for the descent, of course, a classic Popo snow blower is a must. After all, the cone volcano is not particularly steep. Even at its steepest point, it is less than 40° steep and can therefore be classified as easy to moderately difficult from an alpine perspective. Nevertheless, the weather conditions, especially the often strong wind, can be difficult for climbers. No wonder that several groups, sometimes even hundreds during the vacation periods, attempt the ascent in the best lemming style every day and all too often fail due to the 1600-metre difference in altitude.
Despite the tourist marketing, the Villarica is a great ski touring mountain. It is easy to reach via the ski area of the same name with its typical facilities. A drivable access road or even permitted access to mountains is often not a matter of course in South America. If you wish, you can even use the existing lifts to make access easier. The day pass entitles you to use the two to five open lifts and can also be used after the ski tour. Unfortunately, a one-way ascent is only available for the first lift, which climbs the first 200 meters in record slow motion: If you are reasonably good on foot here, you can easily match the speed of this lift.
Ascent and wind for free
A total of 1600 meters in altitude has to be mastered from the ski resort parking lot on the Villarica. The route is very simple. Take the only slope up to the top station of the first red chairlift for a leisurely start. Then cross to the left on the pull trail to the orange chairlift. This is often closed in high winter and usually only opens in mid-August - if at all. Unfortunately, there is no one-way ticket for this lift. Gradually steepening, you climb on the ridge in the immediate vicinity of the lift up to the mountain station (1800m). Then continue left (east) up a slope to the clearly visible solitary mountain station of an unfinished lift. Continue straight ahead over a wide slope and keep left of the Piedra del Condor (striking rocky ridge) up to the saddle. On the shoulder, now gradually steeper, you climb another 300 meters in altitude and finally, depending on the conditions, follow the ice or rock ridge to the left (somewhat steeper) or right towards the top of the mountain (crater rim). After a short, steeper step, you reach the crater rim within a few minutes - and can look into the eye of the volcano.
Our first summit attempt on Villarica is a success straight away. Due to the exposed location of the cone volcano, this is not a matter of course, even for experienced ski tourers, despite the relatively low level of difficulty. It is often stormy, sometimes a thick cloud cover makes an ascent uninviting, it often rains and sometimes an ascent is not even recommended due to the strong sulphur emissions from the active volcano. The last major eruption of Villarica was in 1984, since then there has only been one minor eruption. Fortunately, we only found out after our ascent that the next eruption was statistically overdue for several years. In any case, our hostel host Fernando knows what it feels like when things get really dicey. In the summer of 2010, he was on the crater rim with friends, pulled out his camera for a group summit photo and suddenly a lava fountain shot out of the crater. The blurry picture of his friends running away in panic proudly adorns his accommodation - "and then, you just run..." is how he vividly describes his adventure. You can usually at least see the red-hot conveyor chimney at night, but unfortunately we are not granted this view due to the short fair weather window.
Bent crampons and downhill fun
With great confidence of a rare powder snow ski tour, we set off on our first volcano tour. Moritz, Uwe and I are sure that the white expanse smiling at us from Pucon must be soft snow all the way up to the crater. Later, we experience first-hand that we were very much mistaken. We already regret the idea of saving the weight of the crampons, ice axes and crampons and leaving them in the car when the first group of package hikers comes towards us. Instead of a layer of powder snow, we find a crust of ice and rain a good one to two centimetres thick. Uwe has already bent his crampons around his skis several times long before we reach the hairpin bend terrain. I, unfortunately also completely without crampons, have been walking with skis on my backpack for some time and am laboriously making my way through the ice crust every single step to find a foothold in the soft snow below. Despite the Vibram soles, the ice simply offers no grip. It takes us a full three exhausting and gruelling hours to climb the first 600 meters to the top station of the orange lift. My motivation is so low that I don't even like the fabulous view. Moritz, on the other hand, wants to keep trying. You can't let him go alone, so he puts his headphones in his ears, turns on his favorite music on his smartphone and hums along happily. As we all know, it's easier to follow behind.
And lo and behold, as soon as we climb a few meters further, the ice crust becomes noticeably thinner and even some soft snow mixes in. Another 300 vertical meters later, we decide to try to reach the summit crater after all. A mountain guide seems to be quite far up with his group and has made a pleasant trail. In places we have to balance a little on his crampon-clad steps, but somehow we manage without any major problems. In any case, a fall would at least not be particularly dangerous. You would certainly slide many meters down the moderately inclined slope before coming to a halt, but there is no danger of falling on the wide, even snow surfaces.
A volcano tour without wind doesn't count
One of the most important rules when ski touring in South America is that a ski tour, and especially a volcano tour, without wind doesn't count. While in the Alps you don't even think about skiing if the wind is around 50 km/h or more, in Chile and Argentina this somehow seems to be a basic requirement for a good day's skiing. After a total of five hours of continuous peeling through the merciless westerly wind, we reach the crater rim. We pass the shiny white coliflores, a special ice structure that is often found on volcanoes in South America due to the humidity and wind. The wind is now so strong here that we can't put our backpacks down on the flat without them rolling away. As a result, we are unfortunately unable to get as close to the crater rim as we would like in order to take a look inside the volcano. At least we are lucky with the otherwise often intense sulphur plumes. We only notice them in passing, while other ski tourers tell us about days of slimy sputum coming out of their clogged lungs.
The descent is not as bad as we feared. After the first hundred meters or so on the Coliflores crust, it goes downhill quite well and quickly with a little caution. The snow has become a little softer due to the sunlight and is very even. Uwe and Moritz listen to my photographic wishes and kindly allow themselves to take a few photos in the reddish clouds.
On the ascent, we had seen three touring skiers choking down - the only ones who made it to the summit that day apart from us. One of the three particularly caught our eye. Using a fabulously uncontrolled stem-bending technique, he somehow managed to scramble down the slope without crashing. Later, back at the hostel, we meet two of the three skiers again. It turns out that the third skier in the group, the one with the exceptionally poor skiing technique, was their guide, who was supposed to take them safely up and down the volcano.
Information
How to get there: From Pucon RN to the west, turn left after approx. 2 km (no markings or signposts). Follow the road to the ski area parking lot.Lift ticket: Day ticket approx. 36 euros, single ride with lower lift (time saving approx. 20 minutes, 200 m difference in altitude) approx. 11 euros.Safety information:Livecam VillaricaEquipment: Complete ski touring equipment, plus crampons and 1 ice axe. Windproof and warm clothing is necessary on the often very windy summit.Rental equipment: available in every second house in Pucon. Mostly low quality and outdated (especially clothing and ski equipment), comparatively well equipped is e.g. the French-run agency Agua Aventura.Prices: Guided tour from approx. 40 euros. Guides do not meet European standards. Groups are often overloaded with completely unfit beginners. Private guide including ski equipment from approx. 80 euros.Special dangers: Often icy, often very strong wind, volcanic eruptions possible at any timeDifficulty: Easy to moderately difficult ski tour, often icy conditions. Steepness around 35° degrees, slightly higher in the summit area.Map: No topo maps available in Pucon. There is no need to buy the hand-drawn sketches.Access: Access to the volcano is officially controlled by park rangers and an entrance fee must be paid and, if necessary, equipment must be shown. In our experience, nobody is interested in this, at least in winter, as the park rangers on the access road are unable or unwilling to distinguish between ski tourers and skiers.Tip: We recommend that experienced alpinists do the tour without a guide. The trail is freshly groomed almost every day and no special skills are required.Other: Freeride guiding and accommodation www.chile-vida.cl
