I Climbed Volcán Villarrica... and Lived To Tell About It

You all have no idea but you are in for an insane blogpost today.  Why?  Well, yesterday definitely made the top 10 list of craziest days of my life.  Yes, I climbed Volcán Villarrica and lived to tell about it.  Maybe that doesn´t seem like a big deal to you but perhaps a little background information might change your mind...
First of all, this volcano is one of Chile´s most active volcanoes and has an active lava lake within its crater.  Furthermore, this bad boy rises 2840ish meters about sea level.  It´s high and steeeeeeep.  And from the get-go of my planing this trip down to the south, I have had it in my mind to climb it.  It just sounded like a cool thing to do, you know, climb a volcano and all.  Well, I really had NO idea what I was getting myself into, which was probably a good thing, otherwise I might have chickened out.  Anyways, costing about $70 US dollars, climbing Volcán Villarrica is no walk in the park.  In fact, you have to get suited up for this journey.  What does suited up mean?  Well, suited up includes boots with cramp-ons, snow pants, windbreaker, two pairs of gloves, helmet, AND an ice pick.  And that´s just what´s provided in the $70... The fact that cramp-ons and an ice pick were included in this trek should have been the red flags that this is like nothing I have ever done.
Anyways, let´s get to the details.  A group of us from the hostel in Pucón decided to take the first hike of the day, which leaves at 4am.  With this trek you don´t have to worry about a TON of people climbing up and down the mountain AND you get the see the sunrise.  So why not?  Well, the only downside is not being able to take the chairlift which cuts about about an hour of the hike and might I add it is one of the hardest hours.  But in our minds, climbing up the ENTIRE thing sounded the most hardcore.  We didn´t want to wimp out and take the chairlift.  Haha.  Well, the ENTIRE thing includes 1400 meters of steep rock, ice, and snow.
Starting off at 4am, we drive to the base of the volcano and immediately begin to climb.  It is cold and dark and I couldn´t see a thing.  A few of the people in our group had headlamps, which helped, but it was still almost pitch black minus the extraordinary twinkle of the stars.  However, even the stars couldn´t numb the pain of climbing up that first hour in the dark.  Luckily, there was the nicest guy from Israel who had my back and kept encouraging me through the first hour or I might not have made it past the end of the chairlift!
Okay, so we get up to where the chairlift ends, take a quick break, and then are back at it.  The second and third hour we mostly walked on volcanic rock.  It wasn´t until the fourth hour or so that we made a pit-stop to put on our cramp-ons and grab our ice picks.  Then the real fun began.  Steep.  Steep.  Steep.  Pure sheets of snow and ice.  Honestly, I was horrified that I was going to slip, even with the cramp-ons and slide to my death!  It was insane.  I cannot even begin to explain how hardcore this was, especially for me who is not a big-time hiker and have definitely never worn cramp-ons or wielded an ice pick before.  If it wasn´t for our amazing guides (shout out to Richard!!) I probably would not have made it up or down that volcano. 
Five to six hours, that´s how long it took us to get up to the top.  And when I did, I was so overjoyed I wanted to cry.  And I´m not exaggerating.  I was SO happy to be at the top.  To have made it.  To have achieved it.  There were points on that volcano where I wanted to scream, give up, or be anywhere but on the side of that volcano.  But when we got to the top... Well, I´d like to say that at that point I thought to myself how worth it that painful five hour hike was... but I can´t.  My first thought was no one could EVER pay me enough money to do that again... EVER.  (And just think about our guides who do it everday.  Richard alone has climbed it over 450 times.)  Then my second thought was how the heck am I going to get down without breaking my neck?! 
About the whole getting down part, we were told that once we climb to the top we will be sliding-sledding down the volcano.  Well as we are climbing up snow and ice, steep snow and ice, I am thinking to myself if they think I am going to slide down this steep volcano on my butt they have another thing coming! if i don´t die getting to the top, I will surely die on the way down!  However, to my joyful surprise, there are canals, or little paths on the way down this volcano for us to slide in!  So we get out our mini-sled-thingy, using our ice pick as our break we start sliding down the volcano.  And what took us five to six hours to climb took us an hour, hour and a half, to slid down.  It was amazing.  I really got some speed!  (And yes, I definitely was making some car noises vroom vroom on the way down!)  By the time we are at the bottom I have never been happier or full of joy or just plain ecstatic!  Thus, perhaps I can compare this volcano-climbing experience a little bit to childbirth (yes, I know, I haven´t actually experienced that yet but hear me out).  So I have heard that childbirth can be one of the most painful experiences ever (I can´t even begin to imagine).  However, after birth, I´ve heard that a woman´s body releases a hormone or something that helps her forget the pain of childbirth so she will want to have another baby, biologically-speaking.  So when she is holding this little life in her arms afterwards, she forgets about the pain and might, just maybe, do it again someday.  Well, that´s how I felt about the volcano.  While in the midst of climbing this thing, I just want to scream it hurts so terribly.  And the whole time I am thinking I will NEVER do this again.  However, then I have done it and then I am sliding down this amazingly steep volcano (best sledding of my life) and I am completely overjoyed and proud and I feel so achieved and tough!  And just for a second, I think perhaps I would do this again... if only to experience the joy of sliding down this volcano after having done one of the most physically challenging things of my life.
However, after waking up today with weak and sore muscles beyond belief... someone would really have to talk me into climbing that thing again!  Luckily, yesterday after the climb, the group of us hit the hot springs just outside of Pucón in hopes of soothing our muscles a bit.  And as relaxing as it was, I am still sore as ever this morning.  Even still, I am so happy I climbed the volcano.. 
Yes, I climbed Volcán Villarrica... and lived to tell about it.  :)
Until next time... (Valdivia is next!)
¡Ciao!