Cerro San Sebastian

"Scientists tell us that the fastest animal on earth, with a top speed of 120 feet per second, is a cow that has been dropped out of a helicopter."
~Dave Barry

Friday, December 20th 2008

Sometime you get to the most amazing places without planning for it. I wanted to set out to the Villarrica traverse trek but the Internet promised a stormy Saturday so I had to change my plans. Not wanting to spend the day doing nothing in Pucon, I remembered the Huerquehue National Park ranger suggesting to a local hiker a trek up to the summit of Cerro San Sebastian which can be completed in 8 hours. A quick check with the local bus company revealed that the bus can drop us off at 10:00 in the park entrance and pickup for the return trip is at 17:10 leaving us almost one hour short... ho well, I guess I will had to walk faster... Gili elected to stay at the hostel for this one, leaving me with Harel who is a Soccer couch and in fantastic shape... ho well, I guess I will had to walk faster... I packed a light pack with water, food and a good jacket and boarded the bus at 8:30 in the morning. The sky already showed the signs of the storm yet to come, and as we drove though the dense fog to the park we actually thought about aborting and returning to Pucon. The fog cleared by the time we arrived to the entrance, but the sky was still grey and cloudy and the rangers didn't look happy with the idea that two gringos will try to tackle the mountain all on their on and tried to persuade us to do the normal route (the one we already visited) under the pretence that it will take us 9 hours to get to the top and back. Again we almost returned to Pucon, but the bus already left so we decided to give it our best shot - worst case we´ll return before hitting the summit.

Feeling that we are racing against the clock we set an aggressive pace walking up the wooded ridge on a trail that zigzaged with moderate grade. I prefer steep grades and a good view of where I´m going so I didn´t like that part. After about an hour and a half we found ourselves in a small clearing seeing the summit above us for the first time as well as a nice panoramic view of the surrounding volcanoes and lakes. After the strong opening and seeing that the sky has cleared we felt more confidence in our abilities. We stopped shortly to eat a quick breakfast and continued up the trail that soon turned into an almost vertical climb that forced us to grab the trees and pull ourselves up to make any progress - exactly the way I like it. To make a long story short, I found myself on the summit in two hours and fifty minutes. Looking back to the tiny cubes that marked the beginning of the trail I understood for the first time how much I have improved my physical shape in the last 4 months. The climb was hard and fast, yet I almost didn´t stop and gained 1300 meters of altitude over 8 kilometers in less than 3 hours! It felt good... What made it feel even better was that the climb was really worth it. Being the highest peak around, the view was panoramic 360 degrees of the staff legends are made of. I rested on the summit and enjoyed the view for almost half an hour before we started to descend. Since the trail went into the forest again, we were bored and adopted an aggressive pace again.. You can imagine how surprised (and relived ?) were the rangers when we showed up after a little more than 5 hours... Since we had 2 hours to wait for the bus, we heeded their advice and walked 5 minutes down to the lake shore for a well deserved rest...