Anyone been to Mt. Etna? Experiences? I assume you have to book an excursion.

yup, took the bus up to the top, went for a walk inside one of the summit craters, sulphur smoke coming out of the ground and everything. mental.
didn’t have to book. usual bus from the bus terminal in catania, then a more expensive one to the summit

Cool. Just need to find someone to go with me hahaha

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mount_Etna
One of the most active in the world, so should be guaranteed a show of some sort. It’s something I’d like to do, along with storm-chasing in the States. Enjoy! 😀

Yeah, I’d love to do the storm chasing thing too.

Got one sat 40kms away from me and never been yet. Will do one day though.

My sister.

However we climbed Villarica on New Year’s Eve which was brilliant. And active.

My daughter wants to see one. I may try this myself 🙂

What tires for molten lava? 😀

Visit etna and ride down, it’s fab! I went with Tri-ride

Great family holiday location as well.

Further away, but I visited Montserrat in the carribean when I went to Antigua and that was stunning. We were shown around by an islander who’d been caught up on the ‘wrong’ side of the pyroclastic flow and had amazing tales of 5 days climbing back to civilisation through the rainforest. We went onto the closed half of the island and visited a ‘new’ resort that had been swamped by 5-10 ft of ash almost in seconds. Amazing.

I studied geophysics at Leeds Uni and was lucky enough to spend 3 weeks on Stromboli researching for my thesis. Staring into the crater at dusk and being treated to the fireworks was something I will never forget.

I used to live right next to a dormant(ish) volcano – Solfatara near Naples.
solfatara

Still spewing sulphurous steam and mud. Fascinating indeed, but not sure I want to get that close to a more threatening one.

I too climbed up Villarrica in Chile. It was a great experience. Due to the snow you need crampons and an ice axe (in case you slip) and a gas mask for when you stand next to the crater. The authorities mandate that you have to use a guide to climb it, but costs are reasonable.
It’s a long way to go though, both in terms of the flight and the number of metres you have to climb!

I’ve been on a few steamy, sulphury ones but haven’t seen lava yet. Will do one day though.

Stilltortoise – sounds amazing. With Marge Wilson?

Yellowstone is the closest I’ve been.

I’ve been to Yellowstone as well. It’s an amazing place.

I need to see molten magma and lava though 😀

I cycled up Volcan Fuego in Guatemala. Kin
hard work but rewarding.

+1 for Guatemala if you want volcanoes, I climbed up Pacaya twice, a few months apart. A whole new peak had formed between my first and second visits.

I totally wasn’t prepared for how hot lava is, I expected to be toasting marshmallows and prodding the flow with sticks. In reality it is unbearable to be anywhere near the flows, you have to go “downstream” where it has cooled down and is more like a pile of charcoal.

Anyone used Exodus for holidays? They do a Guatemala trip called “Highlands and Volcanos”.

Try ‘Surviving the Volcano’ by Stanley Williams, fascinating, occasionally gruesome, account of being caught by an eruption and a lot of interesting background. Good account of what makes vulcanologists tick, after a long hard recovery he went straight back to them.

Went to Vanuatu on honeymoon – they have some incredible active ones.

The tours don’t get quite that close but there are specialist guides & companies that can do longer, closer ones than the usual day trips.

Not technically active and a bit touristy but the Timanfaya national park on Lanzarote is worth a visit for the truly bizarre volcanic landscape and a visit to the restaurant which cooks by geothermal heat!

Got stuck in a hotel in Iceland during the 2010 ash cloud eruption no more than 5 miles from the volcano. Heavy ash fall, lightening, mental. It was a Geography field trip so we also had 35 girls in tow. Scariest bit was that we were at the base of the volcano 8hrs before it erupted. We have pics of our group in front of a lake, which no longer exists, and a glacier, which also no longer exists.

The Icelanders were very calm – it seemed more of an irritation it had erupted. Once out of the ash clou you’d have no idea the eruption was occurring – apart from the gigantic plume/cloud. Driving through the ash cloud was crazy – fully sunny day became night – no exaggeration.

GB

Shirley Norway/Iceland is the best place to go, G’teed to see many smaller eruptions that you can get quite close too..

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21823255

@ Sprocket:

Went to Lanzarote last September. I really wanted to go into the national park, but I was outvoted, so we ended up circumnavigating the island instead.

Thanks for the suggestions.

BBC are saying Etna is erupting today, get over there quick 😉

Stilltortoise – sounds amazing. With Marge Wilson?

No, I don’t remember her. This was back in 95 and it was with Roger Clark and Jurgen Nurburg (“Locko”)

Been up Vesuvius. It was a bit underwhelming.

I walked up Volcan Pacaya just outside of outside Antigua in Guatemala. It was pretty good you could see the lava flow pouring out and some people walked right up to it, nutters. I didn’t as it was warm enough from 100yards away and my trainers were already on the brink of melting.

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=volcan+pacaya&hl=en&tbm=isch&tbo=u&source=univ&sa=X&ei=oS5HUdC1F-aX1AXO04DgBA&sqi=2&ved=0CEUQsAQ&biw=1600&bih=698

gee – Member
Got stuck in a hotel in Iceland during the 2010 ash cloud eruption no more than 5 miles from the volcano. Heavy ash fall, lightening, mental. It was a Geography field trip so we also had 35 girls in tow. Scariest bit was that we were at the base of the volcano 8hrs before it erupted. We have pics of our group in front of a lake, which no longer exists, and a glacier, which also no longer exists.

The Icelanders were very calm – it seemed more of an irritation it had erupted. Once out of the ash clou you’d have no idea the eruption was occurring – apart from the gigantic plume/cloud. Driving through the ash cloud was crazy – fully sunny day became night – no exaggeration.

GB

You timed that trip well – did volcanos come up on the exam? Best geography trip ever!

I’m a geographers and one of my colleagues was there a few weeks before it erupted. He was using a laser scanner to survey the volcano and area around it – basically he pointed a laser at it, then it erupted.