Etna South Summit 3,340 m: Cable Car, 4x4, and Two Hours on Foot

Three modes of transport stacked in sequence, which is what keeps the walking down to two hours on a mountain this size. From the Rifugio Sapienza at 1,900 m the cable car climbs to 2,500 m. A 4x4 covers the next stretch to 2,850 m. Everything above that is walked: two hours through recent lava flows and volcanic ash to the summit craters at 3,340 m. Up there the route follows the crater rim past La Voragine and Bocca Nuova, then continues to the South-East Crater, the most active of them in recent decades. The descent drops down sandy slopes to 3,000 m, where the group stops for lunch. After that the walk passes the Barbagallo craters, formed in the 2002-2003 eruption, drops into a lava flow canyon and reaches the viewpoint over the Valle del Bove, the ancient caldera on the eastern flank. A last stretch goes by the lateral crater of 2001 before the cable car back down. A naturalist guide leads throughout, and the meeting point is the Monte Gebel restaurant.