I have hard time getting my sore derriere out of the bed, but finally I leave the refuge at 6:15. It's still dark, I make use of my head lamp. On today's menu I got Piano Provenzana, a half-deserted ski station destroyed during the 2003 eruption, next a hike up to about 2400m a.s.l. on the north-east face of Etna, a check on the visibility conditions, and if the light's green, I proceed to traverse to the south face and go down to Sapienza, before heading for Nicolosi. The trail makes about 18km with 1700m of positive gain, and 1200m of negative gain to Sapienza, plus the 19km and 1000m of negative gain to Nicolosi. In theory, on a broad road, from the start to the end, no way of getting lost. Ahem.
The asfalt road leading to Piano Provenzana is quite uneventful. No traffic. Just the dark, and the approaching dawn. As I get closer to the station area, I see the massive heaps of volcanic rocks, that cut through the local forest a couple of years ago. I see some remains of ruined houses around, but other than that, the place doesn't look so deserted. It even seems, they're constructing new pavillions to replace the old ones.
barrier. Following the road, I spot the fuming triangle in the distance, telling me I still got way to go before I reach the summit. On the way, I capture beautiful pictures of sun lighting up the clouds that I left beneath. Sun sparkling on the snow. Sun flooding the perfect blue sky. I feel comfortable, but soon enough my water hose is frozen. Also, my isotonic drink in the waterbelt starts forming ice.
After 10 a.m., I reach the shoulder at 2900m a.s.l., where I start moving southwards, and looking for the descent behind the craters. I can see the triangle of the Mongibello peak, but after a short dispute with myself, I decide to give up the climb to the craters what with those recent eruptions, massive smoke, killing visibility, and time limit to my trip. On the map and on the pictures, the road seems to circumvent the crater area, in a large loop of around 2km, at precisely the altitude I'm at. One minor problem: the snow cover conceals the road, so I'm not sure how far to go before taking a straight way down, and, guess what, clouds are covering my view down, it's what they call in French 'jour blanc'. I spend almost an hour hiking up and around the craters, but soon enough, my view is cut off by the cloud cover. Noon's approaching, the time's to get off the mountain. Further to the west, I see a promising slope, and I get a flicker of what looks like a road in the distance. I decide to drop the search for the established descent route, the more so that I don't feel like nearing the fuming volcano. I start moving down the slope of snow-covered ice, decorated with single volcanic rocks, which, to make things more interesting, tend to move when I try use them for a grip. Fine. The way down seems to take ages! On less rocky areas, I simply slide down on my butt, or, depending on the inclination, run downhill. After some time I arrive at a vast lava rock field: it definitely looked easier to do from the way up, since the little buggers are quite loose, and they're full of sharp edges. It takes even more time to cross the field, but then I'm done with it. I'm in the center of the cloud now, I take glimpses of whatever I can while it's available, and hold firmly onto what I'd just seen to choose my path. I follow one of the two hilly protrusions in front of me, covered with slippery small-grained reddish rocks, that lead me down and closer to the road. I can see it quite well now. I take whatever shortcuts I can to go down, and finally cross a small field of volcanic rocks, where I take on an enthusiastic sprint towards the road. Bloody hell, I trip over on this easy terrain, and fall face down on the sharp stones. Luckily, the frontpockets of my backpack are full of stuff that makes my fall softer, and I'm lucky to retain all my teeth. I reach the road. Like I thought, I just made my way down to a point in the Pista Altoalpina, the trail I took the day before. There's nothing to it, but to follow it back to the crossing where I can take the SP92 down to Nicolosi. It's around 16:00 that I hit the SP92, at first I walk down, but then, to fight the feeling of cold, due to the thick wet fog surrounding me, I start to run down. The visibility is maybe 3 metres. It's chilly, and it's getting dark. Finally, the night falls, and I put on my headlight. I know I walked up this road 3 days ago, and I know where I'm going. Luckily, cuz otherwise I would be shitting my pants asking myself where the hell I am, and how I get home. The thought of the warm shower at my B and B in Nicolosi does keep me warm. I finally make it at 18:30. I'm exhausted, but I still get myself some food at the local supermarket, that I devour in my room. Warm shower, warm bed. Goodnight.
DAY5 (January 5th, 2011)
l's well that end's well, is what they say. I check out at 8 a.m., grab my bike, and make my descent to Catania. I'm actually going quite slowly, what with having no helmet, and a woman waiting to cross the street urges me to speed up. This must happen only in Italy ;) Still, I'm enjoying the chilly but sunny morning, the road is easy, and I arrive at the bike rental station before 10 a.m. I greet the guy, who takes the bike back from me, and go on to stroll through the streets, and enjoy the feeling I brought with me.
EPILOGUE
On January 12th, 2011, the SouthEast Crater finally erupts, and spits out rocks and lava, that flows to the already devastated Vale del Bove. I missed the event by about a week. Next time, then.
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