Volcan Puyehue

volcan puyehue - 7336'
January 2023

To begin what would be a fun two month trip back to Patagonia in Jan-Feb 2023 My partner and I along with Itai who also returned from Israel started on a nice backpacking trip into the Puyehue park in the Lakes District of Chile. Back in 2011 this volcano violently erupted and changed the landscape in the region in drastic ways. Spending three days exploring through the devestation was awe inspiring to say the least. The landscape experienced total coverage of volcanic pumice, in some places over 100 feet thick which made the whole landscape a bright white color in contrast to the dark greens found further away from the volcano. During the eruption, which similar to Mt. Saint Helens, blasted away the north side of the mountain, a secondary crater began forming, called Nuevo Crater where a huge lava flow emerged and covered many square miles to the northwest of the mountain with lava nearly 100 feet thick in places. As we hiked through the entire volcanic field, many steam and sulfur vents, whiteout conditions, eerie creaking and gases coming from the lava flow, and even tall dust devils provided us with a spooky experience on a landscape that just felt alive.

We began the trip by first picking up our rental vehicle in Orsono upon landing after the long trip from Bozeman and after stopping at a small market along the way, we drove east onto CHile Highway 215 and turned into the quiet dirt drive to Restoran El Caulle. Here, the caretaker of the land surrounding the south side of Volcan Puyehue had historically provided information, camping, and a resturant for hikers and backpackers looking to embark on trips into the national park. The entire area had been closed for about 8 years since the eruption, but some rumors that people were beginning to venture back into the park had been floating around, so we were determined to see if we could get in. Luckily, the caretaker was eager to provide us with information and was happy to allow us to camp in the grassy fields that night, despite the resturant not having been opened yet for the season (it was still early January which is beginning of the short summer season). We made a rough plan to try and hike way out to the Bano Norte, which few people had hiked out to. Since the volcanic eruption covered the more popular Termas baths, much fewer people came out to the area, and the historically overlooked Banos Norte being too far for most hikers, the caretaker simply told us it was small, but incredibly beautiful and worth the trek out there.

So, early the next morning, after a nice evening campfire we got a fairly early start and made quick work gaining 1000 meters elevation on the nice switchbacking trail to the Refugio Volcan Puyehue at 1400 meters, which had survived the eruption being located on the south side of the mountain. A few volcanic bombs were found scattered around the tall grasses around the refugio but the roof was still good and provided a usable stove. We didn't stay too long though as we had a long ways to go. The map at the end of this report more or less depicts our route from the refugio across the entire volcanic field to Banos Norte, another 15+ miles on top of the 4 we already did to hike to the refugio. Initially we began hiking the gentle south slopes of Puyehue but then veered left and traversed around the west side of the whole mountain. Early on in this traverse we crossed a wide runoff valley with a stream flowing through it. A 100 foot descent followed by a steep and loose re-ascent on boulders was needing to cross the valley. Beyond this, the feeling like we were walking on the moon really became evident. The pumice was difficult to walk on at times, and the large water channels that had since carved out the pumice deposit where snowmelt would flow down and erode the pumice proved very difficult to cross. This stuff was extremely unconsolidated and just gave way underfoot so care and good routefinding was needed to work our way around the mountain until we approached a rounded flat-top feature called Cerro El Domo. The map at the resturant shows trails throuhout the area but it's important to note these trails are all gone, buried under dozrns of feet of pumice so the hiking was a choose your own adventure. Traversing below and around the SW side of El Domo we made our way to the marked Camp El Domo, which used to be a good overnight spot prior to the eruption. The caretaker did mention running water could be found here and thankfully he was right, as we were in need of a water refill. This is the only water in the entire volcanic field until reaching the Rio Los Venados river valley. As we continued hiking in a northwest direction, we began ascending up a 400 foot hill to the summit of Cerro Los Banos where we entered a whiteout as the overcast clouds overhead lowered around midday. We traversed over the rounded hills towards the steaming fumeroles that had been visible all morning. Just before reaching them however (they are emitting sufur based gases which are not great to be in close proxinity to), we turned north and descended towards the gigantic lava flow covering the landscape to the north.

We continued walking north navigating around the west side of the large black lava flow. In a couple short spots we were forced to traverse across a narrow pinch point where crossing the lava flow was necessary. As fresh lava flows always are, this was slow going on very loose rock. I could not imagine having to walk any sort of long distance over that stuff. Looking up at the serrated rocks seemingly perched haphazardly atop one another resembled Mordor in my eyes, and the edges of the flow were guarded by 50-100 foot high unstable cliffs. Add to that the gases still escaping the lava flow as I can only presume from still cooling deep inside the flow, it really had an eerie atmosphere. Definitely glad to be walking on the pumice alongside the flow by this point! Eventually, as we moved past the northern edge of the lava flow, the pumice coverage thinned, and we started to see some signs of life when we reached a large flat valley. After crossing to the north end of this valley (which sat at 1500 meters elevation), we ascended a short hill to a broad saddle and descended into a winding dry creek bed on the other side. We passed by another fumerole above us to the right and then finally reached the final 200 foot hill that brought us to an overlook of the gorgeous Rio Los Venados valley. This vibrant wide valley seems to have escaped most of the eruption as it was teeming with grasses and shrubs, and was a welcome repreive to the dead moonscape we had just spent over 6 hours walking over. To make the moment even more memorable, it was at this point the weather began clearing dramatically.

We descended into the head of the valley, and amazingly passed by a group of gauchos with horses and gear, presumably assisting with some kind of group. They would be the only people we see the whole time beyond the refugio though. As we continued walking now along a decent path, we reached a point where Rio Los Venados turns northeast and descends steeply into the tick forest below down to the Nilahue River. We curned left though and followed another side drainage gently upwards in a westward direction, still following a good path. To avoid a narrow clifft section in the creek, the trail ascended up a couple hundred feet, then back down to the north of the creek. Shortly past this, we finally arrived at Banos Norte, a small but stunning little hot spring pool with crystal clear water. It was very apparent that few people have made it up this far as the whole grassy field surrounding the hot spring was totally unspoiled. Since it was getting pretty late at this point, having hiked about 20 miles without really stopping carrying overnight gear, we wasted no time setting up the tents and quickly made our way into the water. Amazingly the temperature was perfect for some long term soaking! It would have been awesome to spend another full day there, but I was pretty gung ho to also make the summit of Puyehue and move south into the heart of Patagonia, so once it got dark we turned in for the night after only an hour soak.

The following morning, we got a relatively early start and broke camp, and began reversing our route all the way back to the refugio. The hike back was under much sunnier skies, which was super cool once we made it back to the top of Cerro Los Banos. Here we saw at least a dozen towering but very narrow dust devils migrating and zig-zagging across the landscape. As we were enjoying a lunch break at the top, one even began chasing us around the summit area! The spiraling winds in these 12 inch wide mini tornadoes were enough to lift small pumice stones off the ground a few inches. Such a cool sight on an otherwise bluebird sunny day. Well off to the south, we were able to see very clearly Cerro Tronador, and Osorno Volcano, both of which I still have not successfully summitted.

As we got closer to the hut, we took a slightly higher route through the section around Cerro El Domo and traversing around the west side of Puyehue in an attempt to bypass the deep chasms formed by meltwater. I never really determined if the route we ended up doing was any easier, but the sidehill traversing was definitely worse. Eventually we made it back to the gentle south slopes above the refugio and reached it with plenty of daylight to spare. As we were relaxing in the hut, a single lady arrived with plans to also try to reach Banos Norte, since the caretaker had mentioned we were planning to go there. We gave her all the information she would need and enjoyed hearing about her travels. Shortly before sunset, a helicopter landed next to the hut and some mountain bikers got out to say hi. They were scouting for a potential line to ride down from the summit. Not my favorite thing to hear but we wished them luck.

We enjoyed a very nice rest in the hut and the next morning Bri and Itai opted to stay back and sleep in while I hiked to the summit. Despite having just hiked 35 miles I felt pretty good making the 800 meter ascent to the summit. Most of the way was marked by a wear path in the scree and pumice, but at times it as still very loose. After just over a couple hours though I topped out, and was greeted to a stunning crater filled with radially cravessed glacier. This was a shock to me considering the volcano had just erupted 12 years prior. I snapped a wide panorama of the whole crater and admired the views south into the heart of Patagonia. I was super stoked to make my way back to the far south.

After 20 minutes on the summit basking in the warm morning sun, I made very quick work getting back down. Bri and Itai had already started down the trail from the hut so I quickly packed up the sleeping gear and went to catch up with them. By midday we made it back to the truck and celebrated the first successful hike of the trip. Once we made our way back to the restorante, the caretaker was amazed we had made it all the way out and back in just two nights. He was thrilled whe we offered to share some of our photos which he was able to use to help many other hikers throughout the summer season who came to enjoy the area.