Volcán Osorno

What is the meaning of life? no idea (apparently to find your gift)... what is the purpose of life? (apparently to give your gift away!) probably to learn and experience as much as you can. A part of that is work but when you are in a beautiful place like Chile one needs to make opportunities and take advantage as they present themselves to explore and see what amazing places our planet has to offer. Los Lagos is one of the most picturesque regions in Chile (one can argue in the world!). It still has lots of native forests, wild and untamed rivers (not so many due to salmon farming but this is one for another post!), pristine lakes and all of this with the beautiful addition of permanently snow capped volcanoes.

The view from our room in the B&B

Wanting to make this a budget journey, we opted for taking an overnight bus from near our house to the south (some 800Km as the crow flies, a 12h journey, but in the comfort of a Turbus with fully reclinable seats, the future of overland travelling). Once there, we wanted to climb the Osorno volcano.

This is not an easy climb (not like Villarrica). It takes roughly 6h up and 3h down (without resting much but also without killing yourself). It requires specialist equipment (crampons, ice axe, perhaps ropes and definitely helmets... small chunks of ice went on our heads more than a couple of times). We hired Huella Andina (an austrian-chilean couple who run a small business) as our guides and they were excellent.



Osorno in the clouds from our B&B (which also served delicious vegan dinners!)



The trip starts on the evening of day one, where you spend the night and have some delicious dinner (Vegan Snitzel, directly brought from Austria, with chips and salad) at the Teski mountain hut (it is very luxurious, at least for our smelly mountaineers' expectations! - it had wifi, hot water and we had the place to ourselves at this time of the year!).

Day 2 starts at 4am, get ready, have breakfast and start the climb. The ascent is on the southern side (so no sun, most of the way, which is good and a safety measure as the sun makes the ice/snow melt and it gets slushy and slippery). You see the sunrise as you ascent and it is all very scenic!

The sun is slowly rising (Volcano Calbuco is in the clouds)

The climb gets steeper and steeper.

Till you need an ice axe and some ropes

But it is fun (especially if you go with someone who knows what they are doing)

The descent is also fun and you get to do some abseiling

Amazing views (if you ignore the fact that if you slip you would probably end up in the lake ;op)

A very satisfied team, almost back to base camp!

Looking at the day's work with a mountain tan (and a burned nose)

Chilling in Chile

 Slide show below (high resolution here):