Mt Etna

Last week I was on Sicily on a field course looking an volcanic processes on the active volcano Mt Etna with people on my degree course.

One of the many lava flows (2001 I think) on Etna's flanks. Or Mordor. Take your pick.

A intruded dike, you can see the chilled margins really clearly on each side. The black sand on the floor is tephra.

The undergraduates on the course, inside one of the several lava tubes we explorered.

It was an excellent week in good company and I learnt loads, but I suppose I should wait to pass judgment fully until I sit the exam. I'd be quite keen to back, for two main reasons, firstly I flicked through a Italien ski touring guidebook out there and it looks like there is some quite good skiing to be had on the mountain (skiing volcanoes is the thing to do now isn't it?). The other reason would be for caving in the lava tubes, we visited and got into three separate tube systems but saw loads more, with SRT gear (and CO2 monitors) and similar theres a whole other world you can explore below the surface of the flows in in fissures.

Ski Cairngorm

Last day in the Cairngorms on Thursday I decided on an easier day as I was feeling the strain after climbing pretty much non stop since boxing day so headed out on the planks. After some debating I bought a ski pass (£22 for a student) and took the Gondola up to the Ptarmigan station. I did a few laps on the pistes first to get back into the swing of things as the last time I was on my skis was April. I could feel in my thighs that my ski legs had certainly diminished in the last 6 months! Conditions were good for Scotland, although there were patches of bullet hard ice around that you had to watch for as (with my blunt edges anyway) you struggled to hold and edge on them.

Whiteout conditions on Caringorm.

I then put my skins on and headed off up towards Cairngorm. The weather was pretty bad, with a strong winds and visibility down to about 10m. Skinning on a bearing soon had me at the summit, and I huddled behind the weather station to take my skins off and have a quick bite to eat. I skied off on another bearing East towards Corrie Cas, before traversing north and dropping into Corrie Cas itself and down to the ski area.

Last run of the day.

After a late lunch in the Ptarmigan restaurant I spent the afternoon skiing the pistes with the others from LUMC until the sun set, and excellent way to finish the trip.