Pucon

Today, I climbed up to almost 3000m on one of the most active volcanoes on the world (volcano villarica)! Sweet! It was definitely one of the highlights of the trip. We arrived at the office at 6:30 in the morning and took an hour-long bus ride to the base camp. After that, it was five hours up and two hours down. On the way up, we used crampons about half of the time, which is tiring whereas on the way down we were able to slide on the ice, using our pickaxe and our heels as breaks. It's very safe but it does feel like it's easy to lose control of your speed because we were sliding down some steep, iced-over hills. The snow had been heated over by the unusually hot summer, so that made conditions more challenging. It was interesting- I was controlling a pickaxe that served as my breaking device while sliding down a mountain, digging into some rough ice that was slushing up all over my hands while the whole thing was vibrating. But in case of a mistake, there was a clear path with a safe end - no risk of injury involved. Anyways, at the top there was lava and breathtaking views. I had never been on such a tall part of earth in my life.

Some of these pictures are from the first day I tried and failed to make it up because of the weather conditions.