Climbing Mount Etna from Rifugio Sapienza
Cable car, terrain bus and a guide for the last stretch.
- Answers
- How do you get to the summit of Mount Etna?
- Topics
- environment · holiday · lifestyle · nature · people · review · travel · volcano
- Full article on willem.com
- https://willem.com/en/2017-09-02_climbing-mount-etna/
Summary
When I climbed Mount Etna in 2017 I drove to the Rifugio Sapienza base station, took the cable car to 2500 meters, then a terrain bus to about 2900 meters. Higher up you can only continue with a professional guide.
Full text
Mount Etna on Sicily is the largest active volcano in Europe, more than 3300 meters tall with a basal circumference of 140 kilometres. Besides the summit there are over 300 lateral craters that erupted in the past, and you can climb a few recent ones near the base station. You can drive by car up to Rifugio Sapienza. From there a cable car goes to the upper station at 2500 meters, and a special terrain bus continues to about 2900 meters; beyond that a professional guide is required. Our guide took us into the crater that erupted in 2002 and 2003: it is still hot, smoke rises from between the rocks, and you can feel the warmth with bare hands. Take it easy while climbing, because the thinner air at altitude makes breathing harder.