It’s volcano day (again)! Technically, it’s our third volcano, Salina (day 16) and Stromboli (day 17) being the first two. However, Etna is Italy's highest active volcano, with its summit just above 3,300 meters, and with a guide, you can reach the rim of its highest crater at 3,263 meters.
Our day started with a pickup by our tour operator. Karine, knowing I dislike large groups, arranged a private tour of the volcano (and, once again, confirmed she’s the most wonderful girlfriend ever). This tour includes pick-up and drop-off at your hotel. We were driven for an hour to meet our mountain guide at Refugio Sapienza at 1400 meters. From there, we grabbed the cable car to reach 2500 meters. Finally, we hopped into a hybrid of a Humvee and a bus to reach 2920 meters. That’s where our hike began with our guide (Boggio) and our tour organizer (Emanuela).
You might think: “wait a minute, you are two experienced hikers and you need a mountain guide and your tour operator to go up 343 meters!! WTF?!” First thing you need to know is that there’s no map of Etna's summit. Indeed, the landscape changes constantly due to volcanic activity, so each year they have to remake the trails and the approaches to the craters. Even the number of craters can change. During our hike both Boggio and Emanuella kept pointing to sections that changed due to lava flow saying things like: “this part of the summit used to be flat before 2002 and then after an eruption the lava flow took out part of the cable car and created a new mound there” and “we used to go down on this face but the lava flow from 2012 made it too hard” and “The activity from 2017 moved this section of the terrain and created a new crater there”. On top of that, there’s the changing weather at that altitude that brings its own risks. When you’re walking on the summit of such a high volcano with no vegetation around, you are at the highest point in the area, and you are highly conductive. If a lightning storm hits, you are in big trouble. Then there are the regular explosions of Etna, sending rocks and ash your way. If that’s not enough, there’s also the fact that some areas are cakes of lava under ash under snow with some ash on top, creating unstable areas of ground indistinguishable to the untrained eye from the rest of the dark gray summit. These areasare, of course, great for cave-ins.
Like Bill Bryson in a Walk in the Woods, first reading about bears and how they can run faster than you, climb faster than you, swim faster and better than you and, of course, are stronger than you and can pretty much kill you if they felt like it (luckily they very rarely feel like it); we’ve learned that active volcanoes are no playgrounds for ignorants like us: we needed a guide to keep us out of trouble.
We started our hike by going to the highest crater. Boggio, our guide, pushed us to go as fast as possible so we could be there before the weather changed (according to him, on Etna the weather changes at noon and midnight). It took us a little under an hour and a half to get to the edge of the highest crater, and even though there was a lot of steam and the clouds were starting to make their way to the crater, we managed to get impressive sights. On our way there, we even had two explosions, and one sent ash raining on us for a couple of seconds.
The original plan was to make our way down on the other side of Etna and go see the craters that way. But since the bad weather was coming in on that side and the forecast called for lightning storms, our guide decided it would be much safer to go back the way we came, since we could always make a run for the bus stop if things got bad.
We made our way back down from the first crater by a more sinuous route than the one we used on our way up. We had more time, and Boggio wanted us to see different types of terrain. He and Emanuella kept pointing out interesting rocks or rock formations (if you're going to become a geologist, I highly recommend hiking with them). My own impression is that a walk in these areas can approximate the feeling of walking on the moon. There’s no life on that part of the volcano, only gray volcanic rock and sand.
By choice of route, or simply because Etna is different from Stromboli, it made for an easy way down; the sand was coarser, allowing far less to get into our shoes. We were, however, told that some sections of Etna are covered with such a fine ash powder that you can ski down it. That’s assuming you don’t want to use these skis ever again, since they’ll be ruined by the rocks underneath, and the ash itself is still a lot harder on them than snow.
As we started hiking toward the first crater, we put on our long-sleeved merino vests. At these altitudes, the temperature is much cooler than at the volcano's base. We estimate it didn’t rise much above 12°C on Etna that day, while in Catania it was a breezy 30°C. On our way up, we saw a lot of people near the bus station in what could best be described as beach attire (sandals, shorts, t-shirt), likely freezing their asses and trying not to show it.
As we neared the bus station (the other craters are nearby), we encountered hail slightly larger than pepper grains. It pinched whenever it would hit exposed skin. Of course, Karine is enjoying this immensely and laughing her head off. It’s about 12:15 by then; Boggio had proudly pointed out the darkening sky a couple of minutes ago as definitive proof that the weather changes at noon. It was indeed a little before noon when he told us that, and minutes after noon, hail began. Based on that one data point, I must conclude that he is right; it was indeed sunny with some clouds, and by the time we came back to the bus stop, we had hail. That’s quite the weather change.
Minutes before the hail started, we passed a couple with a baby in a stroller. They were both wearing shorts, but the dad was keeping warm by pushing a stroller over gravel. As soon as hail started, we saw them running back the way they came (with the stroller and the kid in it, just in case you were worried). They were covering the stroller with a jacket they had, but decided not to wear it despite the cold. By the time we made it to the little hut where the bus stops, it was full of people, most of them dressed for their day at the beach, cowering away from the hail. We elected to stay outside. Something we regretted a little when the hail turned into pouring rain. I barely had the time to get our hardshells out before the rain doubled down and became a torrent. It’s as if Etna decided to help prove Boggio’s theory.
As soon as the rain let up a little, the bus opened its doors and people ran in to go back to the safety of the cable car station (and likely making their way down to the warmth of the city). We, on the other hand, were guided to our next crater. By the time we arrived, the rain had turned to a fine mist, and we could appreciate the view. It looked more like an impact crater than a place with steam and lava coming, but we did see a small vent at the bottom. Compared to what we had seen, it was a little underwhelming at first. Then Boggio and Emanuella explained that these didn’t exist a couple of years ago, and that they opened up over a fracture that spanned the mountain itself, and then it got impressive. Indeed, as we gave it a second look, we now could see a series of three craters in a perfect line, a volcano “boutonnière” of sorts.
We left our craters and kept going down. The rain was turning into a thick fog, and there were no trails to mark. Since the summit changes every year, they don’t bother marking trails they would have to re-mark the following year (and likely remove old markers). There’s no map either (for the same reason). If there’s no visibility, you can very easily get lost. That cut short our hike even further since the only viable way down remaining for us was along the only path with regular markers: the bus road. Even then, I suspect our guide had to guess part of the way. The fog got so thick that I could barely see the person five meters in front of me. In the end, as we kept going down, we emerged from the fog layer (also called a cloud) and could see where the previous cable car had stood (it had been destroyed by a massive lava flow that even threatened the town below). Just beyond a couple of markers, we found the new cable car station where our hike ended.
In total, we hiked a little over eight kilometres of the projected fifteen. We did go as high as we planned, but not as far down. We’re still very happy we got to see what it’s like on such a large active volcano.
As we entered the cable car station, we were reminded that we were tourists here and they wanted our money. To get to the cable car, you have to queue through the gift shop, where tables are lined with knick-knacks made of black volcanic rock or ash. We’re not sure what they’re made of as we didn’t ask. We would never want any of the many people manning the gift shop tables to think we wanted to buy any of these things. Aside from being jet-black, they are nothing special or useful. It’s mostly fridge magnets and trinkets for the shelves, ranging from a Smog figurine (the dragon in the book/movie A Hobbit's Tale) to large crucifixes. Once you’re out of the gift shop, you walk through the restaurant and are finally allowed to make your way back down.
We said goodbye to Boggio and went with Emanuella to grab a coffee while we waited for our ride back to Catania and our apartment.