Volcan Puyehue

Getting a  bit short on time and loving Chile too much to want to leave and hit ash-covered Baroliloche, I planned a two day stop in Parque Nationale Puyehue 20kms shy of the Argentine border and just east of the Chilean lakes district.

Apart from being a beautiful park, I had heard that there was a great walk one could do in two days spending the night at a refugio at 1600m and then ascending the caldera of Volcan Puyehue to 2240m for some great views of the Andes and the various spectacular volcanoes in the region.

What I hadn{t realised was that just north of this caldera (which last erupted in 1961) is the current Volcan Chico that is depositing tons of ash on Bariloche and the Argentine Andes that  started erupting in June 2011....
So waht was normally a scenic and punchy hike through forests to a quiet hut set in a meadw, is now a trek through ash covered desolation to a deserted hut with no water and then an ascent of the dormant caldera with no path but a scramble over ash and volcanic debris to the summit and you have to go when the wind is right or else you need to take a gas mask!   luckily thee wind was right for me as I hadn{t thought to bring one of these....

So I headed off for a 3 hour walk straight up the guts to the refugio on Monday afternoon and shared dinner at the hut with a little farm dog with the shortest legs, called Penguino (I found out afterwards) who followed me up, despite me trying to chase her back down.
There was no running water and I had been warned to boil any standing water due to ash etc. 

I woke early hoping to catch the sunrise and left by torchlight for the last 600m of climbing making it up in two hours.  It was rough going, with no path and only a few footprints in the scree and mud to follow.  Penguino came along, but seemed to stop at a particulalry hairy section just before the top (although i am now not sure she did), which I was happy about at the time as it was quite steep and loose.  In the pic below which I took from the refugio (hut) when I got back, the summit of the caldera which I was heading for is the high point on the right of the pic and the path sort of followed the gully up the centre before running right up the ridge, the new volcano is off to the left and you can just see its ash cloud.  It would have been straightforward but steep normally, but it was a bit more interesting with all the ash which was a bit like walking on icing on a cake, as it seemed to have formed a wet mud with the rains and so had covered everything in a crusty layer, but part of it was frozen which in the early morning was hard and good for walking on.

360 degree views when I got to the top and it was exhilirating.  It was still early and the sun had come up as I crested the ridge, so from walking in shade I was suddenly in full sun and had this for a view (pic below) looking north west to the new volcan with the frozen caldera of the original Volcan Puyehue below me to the right in the pic.

The views to the south west were also spectacular of Volcan Osorno, Casablanca and a few other domes and calderas as below.

 Here is Penguino on the way up just before she stopped.  When I  walked down though I couldn{t find her and after making lunch at the hut she still hadnt arrived so I headed down and halfway back she appeared behind me a little hurt, seems she had taken a tumble the poor thing, bit of blood and looking a bit unhappy, but I dug some ham out of my bag for her and she was fine after that, wso tail wagging we headed off back down and I dropped her at the estancia where there were many choruses of "pobrecito" but they were happy she had come along and she seemed fine.  One tough pup!

So having had a steak and an ice cream in Barloche, it is time to head home to Lucy, Thornicroft and Uni.....

Patagonia is magnificent and I will be back.