The first thing you see when you arrive by sea into Puerto Montt is snow covered Volcanoes all around. So being a climber it was necessary to climb one especially as it is topped by a glacier. The closest to Puerto Montt is Volcanoe Osorno in the Los Lagos region it is 2,652 meters high and perfectly conical.

Osorno is on the shore of Llanquihue Lake and Todos Los Santos Lake. It is considered to be very active with 11 eruptions between 1575 and 1869. The conical shape reminds me of Mount Fuji which I went to as a little girl when I was either 7 or 8.

On Friday after work I picked up some rental equipment from Ensenada as I hadn’t brought my harness, boots, ice axe, crampons and helmet.

Then on up to the Teski Refugio on the side of the mountain just above the snow line at the ski resort. The view of the lake was stunning and got even better as the evening wore on.

After a tasty dinner it was time for bed in our bunk room as I had to be up at 4am to head on up the mountain with my climbing partner/guide Paulo.

The CONAF office is 100 meters from the Refugio so at 5am you fill out the permit application and get a permit to attach to your backpack. Then head on up past the ski lift as the sun comes up lighting up the underside of the clouds which you are soon above.

The shadow of the volcanoe can be seen in the clouds.

We put on our crampons and continued up to one side of the heavily crevassed area of the slope. The mountains of Patagonia spread as far as we could see ranks and ranks of them on all horizons.

 As it gets steeper time for ice axe and then roping up.

The ice features were incredible all swirly shaped from the wind.

It was very icy and we really needed an ice axe and hammer preferably a technical set as it became steep. But we made do with an ice axe each and had to cut steps.

To get onto the summit it is necessary to climb under the cornice which is very stable along a very exposed shelf.

The summit was spectacular it is a large flat platform that was windy and cold. We were the first up to the top after a bit of an ice climb! Other volcanoe summits popped out above the clouds.

Total return trip was 10 hours. It was hard work getting down hill as the snow got soft in the hot sun above the clouds.