Cambios

Although I was a little mad at myself for not doing the night walk to the hot springs, I was really happy with a night on the plateau and everything that followed the next day. The camp spot where we separated had snow melt. I forgot to make a way point but it is seasonal and annually dependant anyways.The following morning I made an easy CC to the ridge on 02A. The snow was rock hard in the morning (7:30am, around 9 am the snow became "crunch-able" - that being a warm and sunny day). So, a warning to any early birds, unless you have micro spikes. There was only one baby slope I had to go down but it was enough to hurt my bum as I slipped down it (I accidentally dropped my hiking poles and they sailed down like a bobsled, so trying to get down the slope on rock hard snow without poles was next to impossible). Getting up the ridge was easy thanks to the consolidated pumice. It acted like mini crampons and my large pack and 3L of water did not make me feel insecure. At the top I felt rejuvenated. Beautiful views of the snowy plateau and the volcanoes to the south. For the first time I felt like I could gallop along the ridge because the terrain was so easy. There are ups and downs but they are less in number and larger in scale, for me I MUCH prefer this. The only thing that slowed me down were the 100s of photos I took!

My future plan was to do the crater circuit, but due to time and energy I wanted to try and and gain the rim closer to the north. So after the ridge I started to do my own CC which at first turned out to be continuous with 02A and the RR. I eventually left the RR around here -40.55454, -72.14794. Overall I think it would have been easier to stay on the RR for longer. I did not like the snow slope I hiked up and I did a few "back and forths" because of snow drop offs. Just before giving up on finding water, I found my first source just before heading to the rim , -40.56451, -72.12754 . It is underneath the crater like depression north of the 04A accent route. It was, shall I say, "crunchy". Lots , lots of sand/grit. I began my ascent to a low point on the ridge north of 04A and east of the crater like depression besides it. I did not like the final 200+ meters. I was expecting soft ground but instead got something just slightly better than "kitty-litter" (the term I use for small pebbles grit on slab/hard ground). Luckily when I kicked hard enough I made good steps (this is not the case with kitty-litter), sometimes Sometimes the ground was soft. There was a snow slope but the snow was harder than I would have liked, glad I did not have to go down it. At the top, views were fantastic as expected but I didn't waste time and just started the loop. It was windy but not "body pushing" wind. Looking back I was glad to have bypassed 04A. The circuit posed few issues, there was some snow slopes, but luckily they were soft and I was able to kick steps down or upenough for kicking. I would not recommend doing this without micro spikes if the snow is NOT soft(ie early morning). If one wants a super easy way up to the rim, or needs and emergency escape, the slopes up the NE of the crater are very easy, starting around here (40.57497, -72.10480). I had to laugh at myself from time to time. I felt a bit out of place with a lifejacket and couple of paddles sticking out of my bag...