Posted by Caroline Powers on Wednesday, May 24, 2017 in 2017 Blog post.

When I heard we were hiking Mount Etna, I was excited. I heard about Mount Etna numerous times during my Greek Myths class first semester, so I couldn’t wait to see what all the hype was about. When we stepped out of the bus, however, my excitement level plummeted. It was freezing outside and raining and I had left my rain jacket and warm weather gear in the United States. We started our hike, and within 5 minutes my ears and hands were frozen solid. The terrain we were hiking consisted of volcanic rock gravel, so my feet sank into the ground with each step and my shoes were instantly filled with gravel. After we rounded a small hill we were given the option to cut the hike short and go to a nearby hotel, which sounded very tempting to me. But most of our group wanted to continue the cold, 2-hour uphill hike to one of Mount Etna’s craters, so I decided to tough it out. I really regretted this decision for a while, especially when hail started pelting us and stinging our faces. Then turning around and seeing how far up we had gone and the few moments where the sun came out from the clouds encouraged me to keep going. When we finally reached the top of the crater I knew I had made the right choice. Standing on the edge of this giant crater and looking down into it alone was awesome. The extreme winds, however, were what made this hike truly unforgettable. While we were on the edge of the crater, the winds were whipping around us at insane speeds. Standing was extremely difficult because the wind kept causing me to fall, and after a few minutes I decided to just remain sitting on the ground so that the wind couldn’t completely pick me up off the mountain and carry me away. Sitting on the edge of this crater with wind and dirt beating against me was easily one of the craziest and most chaotic situations I have ever been in and I was so proud that I had made it all the way up there. Would I ever voluntarily hike Mount Etna again? Probably not. Nevertheless, this was easily one of my favorite excursions we’ve had and I’m going to remember this day for the rest of my life. But going on from here, I’m definitely going to stick to less strenuous hiking trails.

Views from our hike:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4s1HHgmE7V-NGFtSnYtbGVuWkU

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4s1HHgmE7V-T2EtcDZOYWRWUGc

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4s1HHgmE7V-NlgyY2EtNHhIZDA

https://drive.google.com/open?id=0B4s1HHgmE7V-eU1YSGVfN2JkN2M