A river of fireside from the depths of the Earth carves its means by way of the black rocks of a mountain blanketed white with snow. Above, the setting solar tints the clouds purple. Fountains of lava that explode from a crater soar lots of of metres into the air and Etna’s roar echoes throughout the Sicilian sky.
Its current eruptions have been a breathtaking spectacle, drawing hundreds of vacationers and unwary daytrippers – many there for a selfie. For some, the end result was catastrophic.
Dozens of individuals, missing applicable mountain gear, went lacking final week and have been recovered late at night time affected by hypothermia. Many sustained varied accidents as lots of of vehicles, haphazardly parked alongside the highway resulting in the lava flows, blocked the streets and prevented rescue providers from reaching these in want of help. Authorities threatened to report imprudent guests to the police and launched restrictions to steer clear of the magma.
“They have turned a volcano into a playground,” mentioned Luca Ferlito, commander of the operational unit of Sicily’s Guardia Forestale. “After images of the eruption started circulating on social media, showing people skiing just a few metres from the lava flow moving over the snow, thousands of visitors stormed the mountain. Many of them were completely unequipped.”
Ferlito added: “We saw all sorts of scenes. People approaching the lava flow in high heels and miniskirts, people in shorts, someone started roasting sausages, others were taking shirtless photos near the lava. A couple brought a six-month-old baby; an American man showed up in jeans, a T-shirt, and crutches. We stopped a 70-year-old tourist who was wearing cotton trousers and summer rubber shoes.”
The Guardian joined rescue providers on Mount Etna who had been introduced in to help residents and curb the movement of vacationers and daytrippers from Sicily and past, even after mayors of the cities on the volcano’s slopes ordered guests to remain at the least 500 metres from the lava.
“The presence of so many people forced us to work non-stop, day and night without rest,” says Paolo Bernardini, commander of the Alpine Rescue Unit of the Guardia di Finanza. “Since the lava flows started descending to lower altitudes, the number of rescue operations has increased exponentially.”
Italy, dwelling to essentially the most Unesco heritage websites on the earth, is changing into wearily accustomed to episodes of overtourism. Final month, the mayor of Roccaraso, a well-liked Italian ski resort, clamped down on daytrippers after the city was overwhelmed by 260 buses carrying greater than 10,000 guests from Naples and the encircling Campania area, lured by a TikTok star.
However Etna, 3,300 metres (10,800ft) above sea degree, isn’t just a ski resort. It is likely one of the world’s most lively volcanoes, and has been in explosive kind in current weeks, spewing incandescent magma and a copious bathe of ash that has reached so far as the port metropolis of Catania on the island’s east coast.
And although visually hanging, the interplay of lava and snow exposes guests to critical dangers. A BBC workforce and quite a few vacationers suffered minor accidents in 2017 when a lava movement bumped into snow and produced superheated steam that pelted the group with boiling rocks.
The landscapes of its peaks are wild and practically devoid of life, the temperatures plunge to freezing even within the top of summer time and the climate is inconsistent. Bernardini and his unit rescued 4 younger males in the midst of the night time on Sunday after that they had misplaced their means.
“We found them after hours of searching in the dark, with fog rolling in,” he says. “They were wearing sneakers and jeans and were already showing early signs of hypothermia. One of them wasn’t even wearing socks.”
In simply six days since early February, 1m cubic metres of lava have erupted from Mount Etna. The lava movement – which started on 8 February from an eruptive fissure on the southern base of the Bocca Nuova crater – slowly descended to an altitude of 1,900 metres, making it extra accessible to guests. Whereas the magma from this fissure step by step cooled, one other fissure at 3,000 metres close to the mountain’s south-east crater produced recent lava flows final Monday.
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Authorities worry that folks could also be tempted to take treacherous routes excessive up the volcano to expertise the brand new flows.
Accompanied by rescuers, the Guardian trekked to the lava, throughout fragile ash terrain blanketed in ice the place rocks from an eruption greater than a 12 months in the past nonetheless smoulder and temperatures hover close to -5C.
Not everybody has welcomed the restrictions. Guides and close by residents complain that it’s unfair that individuals are not allowed to take pleasure in the great thing about their very own territory, because of the restrictions launched by the mayors.
“We are used to mountain excursions,” mentioned Danilo Spongano, 45, from Lecce, who was visiting Etna along with his household. “Depriving people like us to enjoy a natural spectacle like this, I really find it a shame.”
Gabriella Cannata, a trainer who lives in Catania, has been exploring Etna for years. “There are reckless individuals who come without proper preparation,” she mentioned, “but that shouldn’t mean penalising those who act responsibly.”
Two weeks in the past she was in a position to go to the lava movement, sporting a helmet, headlamps with spare batteries, and hand and foot heaters.
“I witnessed the latest eruption, and before leaving – by then in darkness – I turned for one last look at the lava,” Cannata mentioned. “The scene before me was magical: the crowd of visitors had grown, each person moving around the flow with a small light on their head. It felt as if we were all part of a pilgrimage to Mother Nature.”
“In that moment,” she mentioned, “I realised how important it is to continue being moved by the beauty of nature. Etna is a symbol of that beauty, and it deserves to be respected but also experienced.”
