Volcano adventure but where’s the lava?

Travelled from Bariloche with Clare and Tom back over to Chile and the picturesque little town of Pucon, which is set on a lake and is flanked by a 2,700 odd meter high volcano. It was the chance to climb up an active volcano that brought us here… the problem was that the weather seemed to be doing its best to scupper our plans! No one had climbed for a few days due to cloud and some light rain so we weren't getting our hopes up too high but instead made the best of our time anyway and went out on a cool little horse ride into the hills and visited some thermal springs. The day before we were due to do our climb we went to check with the company if everything was still ok because rumours around town made it sound like it wasn't going to happen! They seemed to still think it might be ok and so bright and early the following morning we woke up all hopeful only to be greeted by drizzle, booo! We still went to the tour agency just in case there was any chance but it was cancelled! After a quick chat with the guide though we agreed that if possible we'd trek tomorrow but leave extra early still giving us time to catch our afternoon bus! So at 4:30 the next day we trudged down to the offices, just as we had the day before, with fingers crossed that it would all be ok… and it was yaayyy! We set off from the base of the volcano at around 5am in pitch black with only our head torches and the stars for light. We had the volcano to ourselves, just the 4 of us along with our 2 guides steadily trekking up the loose gravel paths. By sunrise we'd reached the start of the glacier, in front of us was a steep wall of ice we had to traverse, so with the aid of crampons and an ice axe we set off. There were no other footprints visible on the glacier as it hadn't been climbed in days and we felt like real explorers. We walked along thin ridges, clung to ropes as the wind hit us, watched the sun shimmering off the ice and stared in awe at the amazing views all around… it was really cool. As we climbed higher the smell of sulphur from the crater started to increase. We stopped just before the top for a quick breather and to take off crampons before hurriedly scrambling up the dried lava to the summit. From the top you could see the sulphur steadily rising out of the crater which made it almost unbearable to stay for too long as your eyes and back of your throat started to burn. So after 10 minutes or so it was time to start making our way back down and in the distance we could see the morning groups slowly winding their way up the volcano following our footprints. The climb down was a lot easier and quicker, especially the part where you get to just slide on your bum using the ice axe as a brake… or the person in front! Made it back to town with an hour or so to spare before jumping on the bus to Puerto Montt for the evening. Sadly said goodbye to Clare and Tom first thing the following morning.