Off-piste skiing on Mount Etna
An account from our Founding Director Huw.
Waking at 6 am at the wonderful Rocca delle Tre Contrade, I opened my shutters to be confronted with clear skies and a snow-capped Mount Etna glowing in the pink light of the sunrise. I’d heard that it had been snowing for several days on the mountain, and never had I seen the snow stretching so far down the flanks of this great volcano.
After a hearty breakfast consumed in great anticipation by your group of nine (eating breakfast dressed in ski gear at one of Sicily’s finest villas is an experience in itself), we headed to our cars for the drive up the mountain.
Meeting my Mount Etna guide
At Linguaglossa, a beautiful town built from lava stone on the flanks of the mountain, we stopped at the fantastically stocked Simone Sport to pick up some equipment and our guide, Biagio Ragonesi. I was very impressed to find myself kitted out with Lange x9 boots and Fischer Ranger Freestyle skis. Perfect gear for a perfect day skiing virgin powder on Europe’s highest active volcano.
Back in our cars, we headed further up the mountain, stopping just before Piano Provenzana to fit our snow chains. Soon we had arrived at our meeting point and our transport for the day: a kind of bus-cum-snow cat, into which we all clambered for the next stage of our journey.
Carmelo is an expert snowcat driver, and as we trundled up from 1,800m towards the central craters of the volcano at just over 3,350m, trying to grab some views out of the rapidly steaming windows, the building excitement was hard to contain.
At about 3,200m the snowcat juddered to a halt and we could go no further. Carmelo jumped out, swept the heaps of snow that were now wedging the doors shut and folded down the steel ladder that made our bus feel more like a moon landing craft than a ski lift.
Out we tumbled from the etna ski lift onto a snow-swept landscape. The craters just above us belched vapour and a sharp smell of sulphur hung in the air.
A high view from the mountain
The view at this height is incredible at the best of times, but when you’re standing in skis on pure white snow and the skies above you are cloudless blue, it is out of this world.
A short traverse around the craters to the south and we were presented with immense vistas of the Ionian Sea, the Calabrian coast, Taormina, the Aeolian Islands to the north and… a seemingly endless sequence of untouched powdery snow.
Skiing on the volcano
Off we went, alternating on ski slopes between tight turns and long sweeps depending on the gradient and our courage, making fresh tracks in the perfect bowls that in the summer months are covered in fine volcanic dust. The altitude is significant (where else do you have breakfast at sea level and ski at 3,000m?), and as my legs started working hard, my lungs began to burn. But boy was it worth it.
We skied several kilometres of virgin snow down to the bottom of the drag lift at Piano Provenzana, stopped briefly to watch some fortunate Sicilians enjoying a perfect day on the snow, and then headed back into our snowcat to do it all over again.
At the end of our day skiing Mount Etna, after a recovery drink in a bar, we returned to the luxurious confines of Rocca delle Tre Contrade. The fireplaces were burning bright and a delicious Sicilian dinner was awaiting us. The perfect end to a perfect Sicilian winter's day.
Watch Huw’s skiing video here.
Huw Beaugié, Founding Director of The Thinking Traveller
Huw was staying at Rocca delle Tre Contrade in February 2015. The Thinking Traveller and Rocca delle Tre Contrade organise various activities on Etna, including skiing, 4x4 excursions, winery visits, hiking and more.
