Bill-on-the-Hill

The big thing about this day was that it stank. Well, actually, that was the whole idea, because our destination was the active crater of Mount Etna, one of the world's most active volcanoes and its second largest source of malodorous sulfur dioxide and other evil gases. Why, you say, would anyone want to go to such a place? Read on ...

First, however, let me sing (or at least blog) the praises of the Hotel Corsaro Etna Sud, http://www.hotelcorsaro.it/ , our base of operations for the next couple of days. In addition to its creature comforts, which I will describe shortly, they also host today's Web Site du Jour: http://www.hotelcorsaro.it/Hotel%20Corsaro%20Krabusch%20Photo%200507%20Frame.htm, which is an absolutely amazing set of Etna photographs by a couple who go there every year and are fantastic photographers. We got to see several of the things that appear in their photos, notably the "unlucky traveller" and the splattered lodge at the Torre del Filosofo, but their photos are so much better than ours that it's almost embarrassing. Note also their photo of the Valle del Bove; we'll have more on this place tomorrow, and hoo boy. Back on the Hotel Corsaro itself, it's an amazingly incongruous place: a pleasant, rustic little ski lodge (reasonable enough, as Etna is skied during the winter) that would not be out of place in Switzerland or Colorado, but is set on a blasted basaltic landscape that looks like the surface of the moon (not a bad analogy, actually, as a lot of the moon's surface is basalt). In addition to comfortable rooms, they have an acceptable restaurant (Marco clucked about the repetitiveness of the dishes, but his standards for restaurants are higher than ours...), moderately interesting gift shop, and lots of information on things to do. It also has the advantage, for the would-be Etna visitor, of being located 2000 meters above sea level, so that the visiting flatlander can spend a little time getting acclimated to the high altitude before venturing to the top of Etna. Our family didn't really need this, as our home in New Mexico is itself at about this elevation, but it probably helped D and Z (and maybe Marco) to have a night there before we went up the mountain. As will be seen, having D in the mood for hard work and schlepping stuff would have its advantages ...

The big activity for this day was a trip to the very top of Etna and back. This is accomplished in three distinct phases. First, one rides a funicular (aerial tramway) from Sapienza up to an upper building at about 2500 meters or so. Pretty well anybody can do this; you just buy your ticket and ride the thing, and the views from the top satisfy many people. The more adventurous, however, take the second step, riding large, 4-wheel-drive shuttle vehicles -- they (or at least their tops) look like this -- another 300 meters higher, to be deposited at a parking area at the "Torre del Filosofo" site, next to one of the flank cones through which Etna erupted in times gone by. For the really adventurous, the fun has just begun at this point, as we'll see. However, hikes from the upper parking area to the lower cone are interesting in their own right and may satisfy you if you can't get an Etna guide.

So what's an Etna guide? Well, now we get to that third, most adventurous step. Gruppo Guide Alpine Etna Sud http://www.etnaguide.com/ is the outfit authorized to take climbers to the very mouth of the dragon, the active craters at the summit of Etna. Our guide, collected at Sapienza (Marco, for all of his abundant skills as a Volcano Discovery guide, is not an Etna guide), was one Rosario, a weather-beaten man who looks like he's spent his entire life on the upper slopes of Etna, as he basically has. We fell into line behind him to cross first cinder and then snow fields as we started the 500-meter climb. Unfortunately, WGMIL soon fell out, protesting that she didn't do well on steep snow and had no chance of making the summit, therefore didn't want to slow the rest of us down or interfere with the trip, and turned around and went back to the parking area and lower cone, where she had a fine time waiting for us. Marco and Rosario didn't like this -- even the parking area itself is potentially unsafe because volcanic activity can start any time, anywhere on Etna -- but I tried to reassure them, because one thing they didn't know about WGMIL is that she is tough as nails. For the several weeks before this trip, she'd been fretting to me about not being fit enough for what was planned. So, the Sunday before we left, she hiked, solo, up one of the 10,000-foot mountains near where we live -- and the Monday before we left, she hiked, solo, up another 10,000-foot summit. Between that and 70 years' experience in the wilds, about 50 of it in terrain actually rather similar to where we were, she wasn't going to have any trouble navigating back to the shuttle! Of course, Marco and Rosario had no way to know that.

So on we trudged, up a blasted, desolate landscape toward the craters at the summit. Etna actually has not one but three summit craters, the highest of which has constructed its own little cone on the very top of the mountain. Alas, a recent collapse there had made it unsafe, in Rosario's opinion, for us to go to this, the highest point on Etna, and we certainly weren't going to go without him. That's one of the things about the Etna guides: their constant presence on the mountain means that they have a day-to-day knowledge of conditions there that we greenhorns, and even professional but distant folks like Marco, can never have. (This would create a mildly unsettling moment tomorrow, of which more later.) So we settled instead for the second highest crater, which was just fine as it's the one that's been recently active, was emitting all sorts of gross stuff in gaseous form (it took some coaxing to get Z through the vapor clouds at the top because they were not only stinky but opaque and obscured the route, but she eventually plowed on through), and offered views down to its floor when the fumes lifted. I'd stared into a few volcanic craters before and knew what was coming, but for most of the others this was a first, and a real once-in-a-lifetime experience. It is a rush to look down into the fires of creation, even if they were damped, as they were here; once again we'd managed to put an erupting volcano out of business, as no lava was present at the time, and none would be emitted from Etna for several weeks after our trip ended. Photography on top was a bit difficult because of the fumes, but a couple of shots:

From here there was nowhere to go but down, so down we went, back to the Torre del Filosofo area where WGMIL was waiting, having hiked around that secondary cone in our absence. At this point D, whose love of and capacity for alcoholic beverages had been made clear earlier, amazed us all by pulling a bottle of wine(!) out of his pack, which he had carried all the way to the summit, and offering us a round. Marco was mightily impressed and amused by this, and proposed a toast -- "To D ... the perfect client!" And so we all toasted D's health in this weird, blasted place, and long may he live and continue to do stuff like this. After some resting, most of the party hiked all the way back down to Sapienza, bypassing the shuttle and funicular and descending on foot. Along the way they got to touch rocks that were still warm to the touch from the last flank eruption, which did make a bit of an impression. I was not with the main group, however, as my knee was still a bit tender and I wanted to save it for the next day. D and Z also had had enough and joined me in taking the shuttle and funicular back down. Eventually we all got together, got our certificates from the guide proclaiming that we'd hiked to the top of Etna (only a slight exaggeration, the upper, closed cone was a few meters higher than the one we ascended), and retired to the hotel to wash, de-odorize, and enjoy dinner.

Tomorrow, the Valle del Bove, the high point of the trip; stay tuned.