As soon as we arrived at our B&B in Stazzo, a suburb of Acireale, and after the initial introductions with Silvio, the owner (he is a lovely person and by now a friend of Ian and Denise, Ian asked when would be the best day to go on Etna and whether we should take an organised excursion. Ian worries too much and is always preoccupied that some mishap might happen to us. So Silvio advised (against my silent wishes) that we should take a private guide who would lead us through easy passes and who could change route if we get tired. He also advised that we should wait for 2/3 days to allow the snow to settle and harden a bit.
Up to the last minute Ian tried to cancel the whole thing – and I don’t blame him – but sometimes you have be cruel to be kind. It is on my instance that we proceeded as planned. The previous day, Denise had been suffering from chilblains on her toes and a new trekking shoes she bought for the mountain walk was making the pain unbearable.
And here’s the beginning of our adventure. It was a fantastic day to go trekking on the mountain – so sunny and warm. We drove with our guide to approximately half way up the mountain, found a parking on the side of the road and off we went.
Thank you all so very much for looking and for your wonderful comments on my yesterday’s picture.
It sounds like it was worth digging your heels in and insisting you go- and the guide was a good compromise. You hear about so many accidents on mountains when people are not familiar with the terrain and snow conditions. Great shot to capture the beginning of your adventure!
It was a cool trek we did with the snow rackets! And it got pretty technical at the end. So sorry that Denise was unlucky on the day as we could have managed a longer route - but that's life................
Most be a wonderful experiment