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Villarica traverse is indeed an interesting alternative for GPT16. The views on Volcanos are gorgeous and trail in good conditions for the all trip. My personal camping recomandations are Laguna azul, volcan Quetrupillan waterfall (on osm : -39.51160, -71.75365) and estero aihue (39.47713° S, 71.88582° W) or Zanjón pino Huacho for clean water access and sleep under the stars ✨ Although siphon water from the bucket in the zanjon was hard but should be better after recent rains.. Water from the various glaciar rivers is way cleaner in the morning to be drunk. An interesting combo for people in need for a treat would be stopping in Termas Geometricas wich looks to be one of the best attraction of the region.. (20mil or so)
I luckily was granted with nice weather for Quetrupillan climb wich for me is really worth-it. Hopefully you get a lucky ride for the long descent from the centro de ski to Pucón. Take plenty of water if you start nobo !
*22/02/23-26/02/23 / Natalie & Tomáš/ West-bound? Villarrica traverse (option01,03)/ ~4days
We did not end up following the GPT but instead ended up doing the Villarrica Traverse (so options 01 and 03 of GPT and then some more). It was our last trip before flights back home so ending directly in Pucón made the most sense, just sad that our last hike wasn't actually on the GPT...
Thoughts: Really beautiful, surprisingly diverse and not as many people as expected. The busiest place was at Laguna Azul and the glacier lookout. We are both very happy to have walked it and since it was our last hike it was a pleasure to be on trails that allowed one to reflect rather than think about the next step. Highlights were the ease of the trails, vistas, Araucaria sillouettes, a return to volcanic landscapes, the crater of Quetrupillan and the forest canopy.
Access: Bus from Curarrehue to Puesco leaves at 5pm, just once a day. It leaves from here;-39.36321, -71.58433 and is white and green. Probably easier to hitch as it only goes to Puesco (aka CONAF). It leaves Puesco to Curarrehue at 730am supposedly.
Description: The traverse is well documented and therefore I will only explain two different side trips. Note that if coming from Puesco the last section between Chinnay camping and the ski hill is scarce of water because most water available is recommended not to drink due to high levels of ash in the melting glacier. The two good sources are; estero aihue; 39.47713° S, 71.88582° W and Zanjón pino Huacho which is actually just a tap over a bucket; 39.43604° S, 71.99502° W. There is also an app you can use to follow the traverse; https://villarricatraverse.cl/
Camping at Laguna Azul is crowded (in the minds of a GPT hiker) so one can camp on a different beach or up high on the trees on the south side of the lake. Wild camping is supposedly illegal but does not seem to apply for the section of the traverse between Chinnay and the ski resort, there are many bivy spots.
Side trips:
First side trip, Volcán Quetrupillan:
If one is doing the traverse and wants to summit Quetrupillan easily and quickly I recommend following the osm trail on the NW side of the summit, there is a good trail, however we both did something different. Tomáš was successful at making a traverse of the summit and I was not. From lake Azul we followed the GPT option03 until the base of the col where one goes straight up to the crater. I continued on the GPT trail and turned back ~2m from the true summit due to the terrible rock quality but at least the way to the crater was easy (if you are there know that the red dirt is soft and not that steep). Tomáš on the other hand went one ridge further south and was able to easily follow it up to the summit, traverse south on the summit and come down on the osm trail. He notes there were only two bits of simple scrambling but was still easy despite having his bag. After my failed attempt on the summit I just went straight down the West side of the mountain to hit the normal Villarrica traverse and met back up with Tomáš.
Second side trip, glacier Pichillancahue to above "glacier mirrado" and back to normal trail (the route is on OSM):
When coming from Chinnay there is a very obvious trailhead for Glaciar pichillancahue. Tomáš used this to make a small but high traverse to somewhere near Estero Aihue and therefore avoiding the last bit of road walking and elevation loss. I was lazy and hungry and opted to have lunch at the camping Pichillancahue instead which was a terrible decision because the water there was barely drinkable (ash and dirt) and Tomáš supposedly had nice clean water up top.
If it wasn't for bad weather I think this traverse could be done easily in 3days, even two if you are efficient. We took 4 because we had one morning of rain and were in no need of rushing and did the sidetrips. However it would have been nice to have one more free day to rent gear and try to climb Villarrica but the information on whether or not the summit is open was very confusing. Locals told us it was closed but you could go up most of the way if you had gear but then again there was a mountain guide who said we could go, so it will be a mystery. We both would love to come back to this area with simple glacier gear and climb Villarrica and Lanin and also go back to Sollipulli to traverse its glacier. For now it will have to wait :)
* 02.02.23-05.02.23 / Yannic & Mirjam / Northbound + Quetrupillan + Option01
