Check Another One Off the List - Guest Blog #2

Check another one off the list.

That seems to be the mantra that my son, Izzy, lives by, and last week, I got to help him make a check mark on his long list of things to do in life.

Now four months into his travel around the world, his mother and I visited Izzy and his girlfriend in Pucon, Chile. On the agenda was climbing the Villarrica volcano, a common adventure sport activity for the young crowd traveling through the Chilean Lakes District no matter what time of year.

The Villarrica volcano is one of four in the world known to have an active lava lake in its crater. It rises 9,340 feet above sea level, and its peak is snow-covered year-round. It last erupted in 1964.

Getting started
After haggling with different guide services in the tourist town, we settled on one with a good price and a representative that offered a well-structured presentation. Having Marisa, Izzy’s girlfriend, who speaks fluent Spanish, helped in the negotiations. The next day was going to be perfect for climbing, so after jotting down our names, passport numbers and paying the 35,000 pesos (about $58 U.S) each, it was back to our cabana for an early night as wakeup time for climbing day was 5 a.m.

There was no need for an alarm as my internal clock, fueled by excitement, had me up before the buzzer went off.
Izzy soon followed, and after packing our lunches, energy bars and plenty of water, we hiked the mile into town in the dark to meet our guide.

He arrived as promised, at 6 a.m., and soon the rest of the climbing group trickled in. Pedro, the guide, opened the shop as he had done thousands of times before, everything at a brisk pace, intermingling a few English comments amongst his Spanish instructions to keep us informed of what was going on.

There was no signing of release forms, no questions about health, insurance or age. It was all business as he and his two helpers fitted us with climbing boots, crampons, ice ax, gloves, gaiters, helmet, pants, jacket and a climbing pack to put it all in.

It was already 60 degrees on the streets of Pucon, and Izzy and I couldn’t help but think that this was all overkill -- for show.

The mountain is my friend
We piled into a 15-passenger van for the ride up the mountain, and at the end of the wash-board road was a ram shackled ski lodge, ground zero for our climb. We gathered our gear, and at about 1,400 meters above sea level, began preparation for our assault of volcano Villarrica.

Pedro set a slow pace as we started out hiking over years of weathered volcanic rocks, warning us the climb seems easy now, but quickly gets difficult.

I asked him how many times he had been up the mountain.

“Maybe 1,000,” he says in his best English. ‘I’ve been guiding for 16 years - the mountain is my girlfriend. Some days she says yes, some days she says no, no, no.”

The higher we climbed, the more I related to Pedro’s comments as I kept mumbling to myself, “the mountain is my friend” as I struggled up the volcano.

Distances on the volcano don’t look that far, until you try walking them. With each step up, and always needing to be carefully placed, the excitement soon wears off and you realize this is no walk in the park. At least not for a 54-year-old, out of shape old man such as I. For a seasoned backpacker like Izzy and the likes of nearly everyone else in our 12-climber group, it was much easier.

While others were starting to put on layers the higher we went, I was sweating up a storm and already starting to labor.

I still felt confident, though, as long as were skirting lava rocks and boulders. But, when the rocks ended and the snow started, it really got tough.

Strap’em on boys
Remember when we started out and Izzy and I thought all the equipment was for show? Things were getting serious now.

At the snow line, the guides ordered us to suit up for the next ascent. That meant full climber gear. Empty the packs.
We started with pants and jacket, then gaiters to prevent the snow from going up our pants and in our boots. It was also time for the crampons and the ice ax.

Of course, no one knew how to strap the crampons on, so Pedro and the other two guides went from climber to climber lacing the snow spikes to our boots.

All suited up, including safety helmet, we received instructions on how to walk in the crampons, how to use the ice ax in case you fall and slide down the mountain, and how to use it as a walking stick.

Walking in fresh snow from the day before, we headed out, one after the other, each walking in the footprint of the one in front. The higher we climbed, the colder it got, and the more the wind blew. Ice pellets were pelting us in the face.

I’m sure from down below in Pucon, it looked like a pleasant day on the mountain, but it was a much different story on the volcano. “The mountain is my friend,” I kept saying under my breath.

One-legged man
The steeper the climb, the tougher it became on me as my thigh muscles began to cramp. With every step, I’d try to massage my leg before firmly planting it in the snow. I was starting to labor, but I didn’t know which was worse, the pain or the fatigue.

Izzy kept trying to encourage me, and as we fell back from the lead pack, I worried he wouldn’t make the top because of me.

I treasured every rest stop, and tossed in as many of my own as I could. As Izzy coaxed me to breathe in through my nose and out through my mouth, I kept telling myself, “the mountain is my friend.”

At the rest stops, I rubbed sore legs and downed as much water as I could. I ate fruit and granola bars while others laughed and chatted. At one stop, Pedro separated the group, taking the faster climbers on ahead, and leaving Izzy and I in a group of three other climbers who lagged even behind me.

Our guide was patient, and eventually led us to the top, plotting a pace and course we could handle. The closer we got to the summit, though, the steeper it got, and the slower we traveled. So slow, in fact, that Pedro and his group were coming down when we still had at least 30 minutes to go. I was worried the guides were going to tell us we had to turn around so close to success, but they not only led us to the crater, but allowed us 45 minutes on top to rest and celebrate.

I was a new man having reached the summit and relieved to know that I hadn’t kept Izzy from checking off one of his goals in life.

It was rewarding to celebrate with him on top of the world, 7,000 miles from home and some 2,800 meters into the sky. Who else gets that chance? We had a bird’s-eye view of the Andes Mountains and two other volcanoes. We could see lakes and rivers, the town of Pucon, even into Argentina. There was a blue sky and puffy clouds.

At the time, I considered the accomplishment the toughest thing I’d ever done in my life. But, I still had to make it back down the volcano.

It’s all downhill from here
The best thing about climbing the Villarrica volcano is that you get to slide back down it. Of course, on our way up, I thought there was no way they would let us slide down this fresh snow as steep as the volcano is. But, thankfully, they did, and that’s where we were at our best.

Our days of winter sports in Ohio paid off as we can slide in the snow with the best of them. We swooshed down the mountain on our butts, using our ice axes as a breaking system. We did it in sections, sometimes having to hike through the snow to safe spots, but for the most part, we slid down all of the snow-covered portion of the volcano, much to our delight. Izzy and I took full advantage of the treat. After all, we paid to be punished on the way up, we were going to get our money’s worth on the way down.

Once the snow ended and we were back in lava rocks and rubble, we still had a couple of miles to hike down the volcano, but at least it was all downhill.

In the end, it was an exercise in mind over matter, of will and determination., of setting a goal and accomplishing it.
I won’t go down as the oldest to reach the summit of the Villarrica volcano, that belongs to an 86-year-old, and I won’t come close to climbing it the 1,001 times that Pedro’s had a date with his “girlfriend,” but I have done it, and I did it with my son. That’s good enough for me.