Villarrica Traverse

"So comes snow after fire, and even dragons have their ending."
~J.R.R. Tolkien

Monday, December 22nd to Wednesday, December 24th 2008

In the Villarica national park I understood how much my physical fitness has improved. I knew that I´m in good shape after the last few treks racing with Harel up mountains, but I was never big on aerobics and my only measurement was Harel - who was still in better shape than I was. So when I decided to hike across the Villarica park together with Harel and Gili just two days after my climb to Cerro San Sebastian, I opted for the shorter easier route. We set put from Pucon with a large group of about 20 Israelis that headed for the same park after the storm that raged on Saturday was replaced by a clear blue sky. Although we all shared a van, we were separated into smaller groups. I continued walking with my two friends quickly loosing the sounds of the others in the trees behinds us as we climbed to a saddle in a thick forest. We stopped briefly at the top to eat some cookies and continued down the marked path that led to Laguna los Patos - our planned campsite for the day. The forest quickly gave way to snow laden lava rocks as we approached the foothills of the small Quetrupillan volcano making us cross snow fields and small streams. Walking on snow was not as fun as it looks though, it´s cold, slippery and worst of all, hinder your steps, especially after the weekend storm who renewed the top layer. Still, we enjoyed the views and the new experience and even stopped to make a small snowman and take pictures with it - leaving him as a sign for those behind us. After about 3 hours we stood above the Lagoon with it´s clear blue waters and in less than 4 hours of walking we stood on the shores realizing that we have 8 more hours of daylight! We setup our tent, ate lunch and sunbathed on the beach waiting for the others. Since we hit the campsite at around 14:00 I figured that we should see the first bunch at around 16:00-16:30, but in reality the first couple showed up on 17:45 and people were still wandering into the campsite after 20:00 full 6 hours after we got there. I used the time well though taking a short hike on the surrounding hills. At around 22:00 it got darker and colder and after we lit Hanuka candles we all withdraw to our tents for a very cold night.

We woke up late on the next day figuring that since we walk fast we don't need a head start. In fact the campsite was long empty when we left after breakfast at around 11:00. We started walking north through a lava field and quickly found out how disorienting this landscape can be. Holding a map with 100m difference between elevation lines I had to count on my experience and common sense. After crossing 2 lava fields we found ourselves below a small saddle where we met part of the group that spent the night with us - apparently lost. I insisted that the correct path is to cross the saddle to the west and then search for a way out of the valley to the north. The other were not convinced, so I continued up with Harel and Gili. On the top we saw no path and Harel wanted to head back east. I convinced him to try it my way, since if I was wrong we will still hit our campsite but using a harder longer route. We descended into a bleak valley with a small stream in the middle and headed west along the north bank looking for a way out. after about 20 minutes we found both the exit and the trail and saw others way behind us going down from the saddle. We had a saddle of our own to climb, one that gave us a good view of Laguna Blanca and we rested and ate a snack watching it. The trail was well marked from this point taking us through a broad empty valley and up a small ridge that although unmarked, was also the Chile-Argentina border at that region. We ate our lunch after a hard climb to a viewpoint overlooking the majestic volcano Lanin and walked another two hours back to the forests and down to the sandy beach of Laguna Azul crossing several waterfalls along the way. We were surprised to find the beach empty at 17:00 but we enjoyed it all by ourselves for another 3 hours when it started to fill up with our friends telling long tells about hard walk and harder navigation... We lighted the candles again and went to sleep waking for a short 3 hours walk through the forest that took us to our waiting transportation back to Pucon which we reached just in time to be invited to a Christmas Asado by our friendly hostel owners...