Climbing Europe`s Most Active Volcano

Mt. Etna is the first volcano I had ever climbed. It was also the first time I had a search party sent out for me.

The mighty Mt. Etna of Sicily recently erupted. My old friend who had climbed it with me tagged me in a video on Facebook.

I commented "it`s been 10 years now.." to which he replied "I Know It’s Crazy, One Of The Best Navy Experiences Ive Had Though... With Mask"

You can`t visit Sicily without getting a Phantom of the Opera style mask

I was feeling particularly MASKuline that day

So, then I thought. Wait a minute.. I haven`t blogged about that yet. 

To be honest, I`ve been planning to but have been waiting to be reminded with an erupting headline so that this old story would more relevant to the present times. and maybe it would help with SEO? 

It was the last day our ship was in Sicily and we decided on a whim to go to Mt. Etna. Truth be told we had not made any plans to actually climb it. 

We took a taxi to the base camp area which had some shops and etc. We said we`d be back around 2 hours. The taxi driver pointed to the bar and said he would wait in there. 

In the distance we saw the summit and thought "I bet it wouldn`t take too long, minus well climb it while we`re here"

We didn`t take any food or water but we did bring the really important stuff; our big cameras and masks. 

Me when I was young and dumb

Well damn, when we finally got to the "top" we figured out that it wasn`t actually The summit. It was a  mini side summit, not sure what the proper mountainous term would be. But anyway, the actual summit couldn`t be seen before because it was covered in clouds but after climbing up the fake summit which was next to the real summit we finally could see the real summit!

It probably would have smart to turn around and go back especially since we had only started trekking at around 4 P.M. and had a curfew but we had already spent so much energy into climbing what seemed like the summit that we couldn`t suddenly surrender our mental momentum.

plus the place was beautiful to say the least. 

It got colder on the way up. We ate some snow along the way.  

I learned that day that volcanic rock is quite slippery and it was more difficult to climb than I was used to. 

We saw nobody else there. When we stopped talking or making noise it was beautifully and eerily quite.

Finally we reached the summit! It had taken longer than we thought and so there was one minor issue.. it was getting dark.

Here is our summit selfies. We were a bit tired. The camera also seemed a bit tired too.

So, there we were, standing on top of an active volcano.. at night.

To say we climbed down wouldn`t be truthful, it was more like we fell down the mountain. The ice and volcanic rock was super slippery plus it was dark. Sometimes we slid uncontrollably on an ice sheet only to be stopped by a pile of rocks. Then try to stand up and walk only to repeatedly slip back down. 

 

Our trajectory gradually moved sideways unintentionally and we got a little lost. However, we saw lights from the search party looking for us down below so we used those lights as a guide to move back on course towards civilization. 

They asked us several times if we went to the top. We lied and said we just walked around and got lost in the dark, just in case there are some regulations against climbing it or fees charged. 

The taxi driver (bless him!) had called them out cause we were gone for much longer than we said we would be. I actually feel pretty guilty right now for the trouble I must have caused. But it was long time ago when I was young and reckless. At least I tipped him.

We were also past curfew coming back to the ship. Which is a pretty big deal in the Navy! Fortunately my Senior Chief, whose usually an asshole boss,  was too drunk to care.  

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