Mt. Etna and the XC 50-230

On a recent long weekend trip to Sicily, I had a chance to spend half a day around Mt Etna and thought I'd share some images taken with my light travel/landscape tele, the XC 50-230.

The trip

We spent most of the weekend in the city of Catania at the bottom of Mt Etna. We only had half a day to visit the volcano, so instead of a longer trek, we chose to use the gondola lift to get us to 2.500m on the Southern face of the volcano. From there we took a short hike to an inactive minor crater (Cratere Piano del Lago o Escrivà, 2.672m) as a vantage point onto Etna proper (3.357m), its Southern crater (3.294m) and a plethora of views across the mountain. For safety and conservation reasons, ascending beyond a certain altitude is prohibited. That in conjunction with our limited time resulted in our exploration lower on the volcano.

While you'll notice some volcanic activity pictured, the only currently active lava flow is at the North face of Mt. Etna, which isn't visible from the South face of the mountain. We were lucky to be able to observe it from our plane when leaving at night, but I didn't have an opportunity to capture the amazing sight.

Impressions / Images

When you observe the volcano from the city, it's difficult to appreciate how varied the landscape is. As you approach the lower slopes, decades and centuries of inactivity have given nature an opportunity to reclaim ground.

Here and there, lava flow has cut through the vegetation and solidified.

As altitude increases, there is more ground covered with lava from (geographically speaking) more recent eruptions. Immediately the volcano appears rougher, darker and quite harsh. Especially because we didn't have a whole lot of time on the volcano, it takes time to let sink in how much material has been ejected to shape so a vast area.

When you get on the gondola lift, there are still areas with vegetation nearby. That said, the previous base station was buried in an eruption 20 years ago and needed to be rebuilt a few hundred metres away. Then, as you step off, you find yourself in a dark, barren foreign landscape. If you trek the mountain, I imagine you gradually experience the change in surroundings, but the short lift ride made the change in scenery rather abrupt.

On a side note, due to the altitude the ambient temperature also was significantly lower (about 16-18°C) compared to the hot temperatures at sea level (32-34°C).

From the lift station, there is an option to continue on with buses to 2.700m of elevation, or continue on by foot (which we did).

Set against the dark, cluttered alien landscape, the buses reminded me of something out of a scifi movie, as silly as it may sound.

Wherever you looked, the volcano has created a sea of sharp rocks mixed with the solidified droplets of lava ejected in violent eruptions.

In this particular section, the rocks felt as if they had intentionally been sprinkled in a "pattern" atop the lava droplets.

Finally, our designated vantage point allowed us a view across an area with lower elevation onto the South crater and surrounding area.

Reflection

We were thoroughly impressed by our unique surroundings. It is difficult to truly capture the experience, but I hope you'll still find the images interesting. I can only recommend visiting the volcano and appreciate that there is infrastructure to enable those with limited mobility and/or fitness to experience the spectacular area. There are plenty of options offered for families with children and seniors. For anyone more physically able and so inclined, treks are available in many different degrees of difficulty and length.

Photographically speaking, I travelled quite light, bringing an X-E3 with XC 15-45 and XF 27/2.8 for the city, and for the volcano the XC 50-230 used in all above shots. We concluded our tour before noon, but the sunlight got very strong and harsh even early in the day. In hindsight, I would have appreciated bringing a CPL. If we had had more time - on our trip and the volcano - maybe with a tripod I would have focus stacked some of these images. But all in all I am content with what I returned home with considering my rather minimal handheld setup.

If you read this far, thank you for your time.

Final Note: It was our first time visiting and I am hardly an expert on Mt. Etna. I'll happily be corrected or supplemented by anyone more familiar with the area.