David von Oheimb's Photo Gallery:
Sicily and Aeolian Islands, Italy, 07 - 12 April 2008

Part of the photos by Gabor Szarvak.

This trip was on a special occasion, which gave me the motive to finally accept a very nice invitation by a colleage and friend, Giampaolo. Unfortunately the weather was cloudy or extremely hazy for most of the time, with the exception of the 9th April which we spent on the island of Vulcano - this is why most of the photos shown here are of that day. Still we were able to visit the main three volcanic attractions of the area, neither of which were particularly active. Each of them had their special safety-related regulations, which we assiduously neglected to make our experience more interesting.  

Flight from Munich		Venice	Filicudi	Etna
Giampaolo's home				well, our stuff ;-)
Stromboli	We first went along the abandoned "telephone line" path along the southern coast from Scari to Ginostra, which requires some UIAA grade II scrambling and wading the sea for a few meters.
	leaving Milazzo
			Ginostra	Ginostra
	Then we went up the north-western trail to the volcano summit, where we were able to observe and listen to the frequent lava splashes in the dusk. Soon a guided group appeared, and it took a few moments to convince the guide that we were as safe as his paying guests, such that we refrained from calling the police. Unfortunately it had already started dripping, and then we were shrouded in a cloud mixed with steam and biting sulfur dioxide. We joined the group for going down the eastern route, conveniently sliding down the ashes while it was raining. Well, we had expected a more pleasant scenario.
			well, this sign is not really concrete
		a very special day in Gabor's life :-)
	standing on the Pizzo	acidly whiteout :-(
Lipari	Lipari
Vulcano
	To reach the Gran Cratere, we did not take the usual route but the abandoned and overgrown steeper trail departing just about 100 meters south of the port.
	The fumarole and "the dead field" (undersea volcanic gas outflow)
	Excursion with quad-bike for the views from Capo Grillo
				Stromboli
			hydrofoil
Milazzo			Capo di Milazzo	Etna
Etna, south side	We started very late, at 11:30. The first and final part of our hike was more or less the Montagnola route. Then we continued (short-cutting the gravel road) to Torre del Filosofo, where we waited for more than an hour for the guides to disappear before we finally at 16:30 were able to continue, hoping that we would not be discovered and fined. When we disappeared an hour later on the rim between the southeastern and main craters, we felt safe :-) Of course, we were careful to avoid the objective danger of collapsing crater walls. As expected, the wind up there was very strong with gusts of up to about 100 km/h that almost overthrew us. Because of the poor visibility and the nasty wind, we decided not to continue to the northeastern crater and started descending at 18:10. Sliding down fields of snow and sandy ashes, we were able to reach the parking lot within only 1.5 hours, such that we did not even need to use our headlamps.
	just above Rifugio Sapienza		Valle del Bove
			shelter of the guides at Torre del Filosofo	just west of Torre del Filosofo
	Central Crater: Bocca Nuova and Voragine	South-East Crater	to North-East Crater
Etna, north side	We did not do the northern ascent thereafter because I had slight problems with my ankle. Instead, Gabor did some lava tube scouting in the Piano Provenzana area.
				Rifugio Citelli
Taormina
Around Etna	Taormina	Zafferana	Bronte	Bronte
Return flight	Catania	polarized light	Ponza, Zannone	Monte Circeo