Etna Nord

What an experience. The photos and description will not do it justice. I used Guide Vulcanologiche Etna Nord for my trek to the northeast summit crater of Mt. Etna. The guides Daniele and Marco were fantastic and I cannot recommend their service enough if you are considering treks on Mt. Etna. It was without question, the most impressive outdoor experience I have ever had.

Traveling from my accommodations in Taormina (more on that later), I drove on the twisting winding mountain roads leading to the rendezvous point at Chiosco Bar Etna Nord in Linguaglossa. In the winter, there is a small ski resort that operates a few lifts from this location.

We rode an offroad vehicle to approximately 2800m and then hiked to the summit craters at about 3300m. Our time at the summit was short, and for as excited as I was to get there, I was also excited and anxious to leave. It is a cold, windy, barren, and inhospitable land with plumes of gas that change direction at a moment’s notice. Our vulcanologist guide explained the differences in gas color, and what they mean to simplify: white=good; blue=bad and time to go, along with what the absence of gas means (the main crater means that it has sealed off and pressure is building underneath= time to go). We were caught in a few cross wind plumes of gas and briefly experienced the inability to breathe. Though I wasn’t able to capture on video, there was one audible eruption that shook the ground under our feet as we were standing within a football field of the center of the crater. The colors of the different minerals, and chemical reactions ongoing were beautiful. The odor was of sulfur but not oppressively so.

We hiked on foot all the way from the summit to our beginning point at Chiosco Bar (1800m). We hiked through snow, loose pyroclastic ash and sand and eventually the more stable footing of the ski resort. The walk down itself was an experience, looking at the birds flying above, and the progression of vegetation from absolutely nothing to mature forest in a matter of a couple hundred vertical feet.