Climbing the Volcano

Friday I climbed the highest volcano in Europe. At 10,922 feet, it covers around 460 square miles of area. The volcano is active, and atop it I breathed in my fare share of sulfur and carbon dioxide gases combined with water vapor. It is not a healthy mixture, and can be deadly in large doses or low areas.
Rob, Matty, and myself rented a van locally and made our journey through the narrow and twisty roads of Catania province. Our van was named "Harry", as denoted by the sticker on the back doors. "Harry" was a white Fiat diesel mini-van with power and air-con! A mixture of the directions drawn on our tourist map and the verbal directions from the rental car agent were sufficient to get us to the volcano. Of course we also looked up at the volcano while we were driving to verify that we were headed in the correct direction. Twenty euros worth of diesel was enough fuel for our day of running around Eastern Sicily, and a strange fact is that the van was loaned and to be returned on a quarter of a tank. Piedmonte was the first town we drove through as we made progress up the slope of Etna's flank. There we stopped at a cafe' for paninis and cigars. I tried the slot machine with some fifty cent euro pieces but came up empty. Piedmonte is a classic Sicilian mountain town, it looked like a great spot to find some authentic dinner and souvenirs. Of course, even the take out from the corner cafe' is as authentic as anything.
The road switchbacked, and an occasional Etna Nord sign posted kept us comforted that we were making forward progress. We had to pass some trucks and buses on the narrow street, which was all about opportunity amidst the hairpins and s-curves. At the same time, we were getting passed by motorcycles, and a car whose driver we figured was late to work passed us as he ran a red light. Once to the park, it was slightly confusing which turn would lead us as high as possible into the lava fields on the North side of the volcano. Taking a few wrong turns allowed us to see a lot of the park, and there were many trailheads leading off into the evergreen forested woods surrounding the volcano. Lower on the access road, we passed a tourist center which was selling trips on horses, bikes, and atvs.
Reaching the upper parking, the tourist stands and excursion booths were in our grasp. Matty, Rob and I grabbed our packs and set up to find a 4wd to get us up on the mountain. Walking would have been a more fun option from the trailheads slightly lower down on the mountain, but we didn't have the time to make it up and down that way as it was already 11:00. Within 45 minutes we had secured tickets for the next truck ride up the hill, and I had a topographic map of the park and a small bottle of Fuoco di Etna; "fire of Etna". The jeep was a large Mercedes truck, and our truck was full. The windows were large and dusty, and our spot in the back seat was far from any openings making photography difficult from the bouncing truck. The 4x4 crawled its way up the steep and winding volcanic dust track buldozed into the old lava flows. The wildflowers of the lower elevations gave way to snow fields as we climbed. The track moved past many vents, which we all struggled for a view into the earth as we peered down from the height of the truck. Within about 30 minutes, the truck came to a stop and the group unloaded for the guided walk to the top of the main caldera.
The guide overheard me referring to the trail we were on as an uphill black sand beach. He laughed and we chatted for a bit with him as we hiked. He explained that we would not see any lava, but plenty of gases and water vapor. He stopped our group near the caldera's rim to point out a vent that was belching steam. We all put our hands over the opening to feel the heated water vapor escaping the fissure. Looking down the mountain held a view of the Catania valley, and the haze below 7,000 feet made those vineyards and towns look further away than they were. 45 minutes walk from the truck had us to the caldera's edge. Our group took turns peering over the edge and down into the abyss below. The bottom could not be seen due to the amount of gas flowing up from the caldera. The wind direction was the best for our viewing, blowing the gases away from our side of the caldera and South across the opening. Those viewers who came up the South side, more popular side, were not allowed a view from the top on that day due to the dangerous conditions brought by the wind.
Volcano lookers took turns holding their breath, and squatting down beside the upward flowing steam and sulfur for a photo. If your photographer took to long to get the shot, you were forced to take a shallow breath of the stuff. It shocked your mouth, throat, and lungs; making you move away from the area with squinted eyes into an area of fresher air. Next, we moved across the ridge, and I broke out the Fuoco di Etna to toast the highest point of the mountain that we would reach. The summit was slightly East of us, but we would not be able to get there. The guide explained that there was too much danger of land slides. I opened up the booze and took a shot. It tasted like cinnamon schnapps, and I passed it on to Rob who then passed it to Matty for a ceremonial shot. After shooting the rest, we charged away from the group to the ridge, hoping for a look down into the harbor where the yacht was at anchor. We saw her far down below in the haze, and ran back to the group who where now heading down the trail. The three of us veered from the trail to glissade the small snow field. Back at the truck, I had trouble staying awake during the hot ride back down to the parking.
Leaving the park, we stopped at the tourist stop. After a drink there, we headed back down towards sea level. Driving though the conifer forest smelled great, and only heading to a camp site close by would have made the adventure complete. Instead we moved toward a destination completely different in nature. To be continued.