Hot-steppin’ up Mt. Etna

Photos: author

As far as volcanoes go, they don’t come much more famous–or infamous–than Mt. Etna. Its snowy roof is perpetually in view from anywhere on Sicily’s east side.

Around 430 BC, the Greek philosopher Empedocles is said to have thrown himself into the fires of Mt. Etna. The reasons why he did this vary, but the common theme is that he wanted to prove he was a god. Nowadays we clone sheep and genetically modify food.

A few years ago my wife and I arrived at Etna Sud (Rifugio Sapienza), the southern access point of Europe’s largest volcano, early in the morning and well before any tour bus arrived. We quickly headed up.

A buried house on the way to the car park

One option to reach the summit is a combination of cable car and 4×4 bus; this option would also run you close to 50 Euro and give you no sense of accomplishment.

If you want to hoof it on your own, layer up as the weather can change very fast. The elevation difference from the bottom to the point where the 4×4 bus drops its load off is 1000 meters. It’s a couple hundred more meters climb to a couple of smoking craters which can be closely inspected (depending, of course, on volcanic activity).

The highest peak, at 3329 meters, is inaccessible without proper climbing gear (and recommended guide).

On your marks, get set…

From the car park there is a maintenance track that switchbacks up to the top of the cable car run. It is possible to go straight up the slope, following the gondola line, but of course this route is much steeper and can be a bit dodgy in parts as you need to walk over loose rock.

We learned this the hard way. Bored on the snaking road, we switched to the straight up route where it was two steps forward, one step back on the sliding stones.

Decision point

I would consider us average hikers, and it took about two hours to reach the cable car’s top station, where there is a gift shop/cafe selling overpriced goods.

If you didn’t take the combo cable car/bus ticket, this is your opportunity to pay for the 4×4 up. We briefly contemplated it, in the end opting out, of course.

From here the walking route follows the 4×4 bus track. When we were there in the spring, there was a wall of packed snow four meters high on either side of the track.

As the buses drive up they belch black smoke out the side that draws a knee-high line all along the snow walls.

Another couple of hours will get you to where the buses stop and unload passengers. Still heading up we crossed over black lava rock with snowy patches until we made it to the two craters.

At one of them you could walk along the rim of the crater and stare down into the steaming vent.

Hike up, “ski” down

You can take the gondola down, but we found it more fun to hike–we used the patches of snow to ski down in our boots.

It was only about 1.5 hours for the descent, making the total around six hours, plus time for sightseeting at the top.

The history and the myths that surround Mt. Etna make it a mysterious place. A trip to southern Italy wouldn’t be the same without a visit to this legendary volcano.

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For more volcano adventure, check out Matador member Olivebeard’s post on climbing Pacaya in Guatemala.