Description
The Mount Etna trek with cable car and 4x4 is the alternative to the summit craters for anyone content to stop at 3,000 m. A cable car lifts you to 2,500 m, a 4x4 carries you on to 2,800 m, and from there you walk the last stretch with a guide. The whole outing lasts around five hours, about three of them on foot.
Up high the summit craters come into view, and the guide stops at the side crater of Barbagallo, at about 2,900 m. You see recent lava flows, enter a lava channel and visit an effusive vent from the 2002 eruption. The walk down crosses black sandbanks to a mound over the Valle del Bove, where clear weather gives a view stretching from the Ionian Riviera inland across Sicily.
- Ankle trekking boots, long thick socks, helmets and disposable under-helmet liners
- K-Way jackets, backpacks and trekking poles (limited number)
- A guide for the whole walk
Bring your own packed lunch and water. The meeting point is the Alpine Guides shelter at Etna Sud, next to Rifugio Sapienza. The trek is not suitable for children under 6, pregnant women, wheelchair users or people with heart, breathing or mobility problems.