I was in Pucon, Chile, and after four straight days of going to the hiking agency's office at 6AM and being told to go home because the hike was canceled, I FINALLY hiked the 9,000 foot lava spitting hill on the 5th day. It was a highly anticipated event, since Thursday's, Friday's and Saturday's hikes were canceled due to rain, and Sunday (which did not have a cloud in the sky) was canceled because the guide forgot to show up.

Monday more than made up for the lack of clouds on Sunday, but surprisingly (and thankfully) the hike was not canceled.

The guide service provided all the gear to look like professional nerds, highlighted by the bright orange and royal blue two piece suit with matching mittens and neck warmer, accented nicely with a teal helmet, ice ax and crampons. Starting at the base of the volcano (which moonlights as a ski mountain in the winter), we started walking up the granular lava rock mountain side in our inflexible hard plastic boots. The entire way, we could see where past eruptions had flowed, and in one case, wiped out an entire chairlift enclosure halfway up the mountain.

It was about at this point that visibility went from clear to decidedly non-existent, but we continued up the mountain like sherpas-in-training getting pelted by a sideways rain, which as elevations increased, became sideways freezing rain, and eventually, just horizontal snow and 40 MPH winds. However, out of 15 different groups that started hiking that day, our group was the only one that reached the summit. Our group felt very good about that, and this elation turned into us making arrangements to meet at the bar later that night and get drunk like sailors.

On a clear day, you can reportedly see red lava bubbling down in the crater below, however, on a day with snow and gale force winds, you have trouble seeing the edge of the crater, and subsequent 50 foot drop.

Even with the 40 mph winds, snow, asphyxiation from the sulfur and zero visibility at the summit, the hike was great.

And on the way down, we slid down the mountain, producing 5 of the most giddy 25-40 year old grown men you have ever seen.