‘All Alone Up At 2,500 Metres’: Maltese Photographer’s Snowy Trek Towards Etna Ends With Spectacular Snaps
You might’ve seen a couple of dramatic shots of a snowy Mount Etna spraying lava into a cold Sicilian night sky over the weekend, but one Maltese photographer went one step further than that, actually trekking up to the active volcano to get some spectacular shots.
The one and only Rene Rossignaud had been planning the trek and eventual shot for a couple of days, with only a short four-hour window of clear skies being available at his disposition. Leaving in the early morning and eventually getting to his first of three location by the evening, he found what he was looking for – a glorious and very visually stunning eruption. But there was a catch.
At first, at around 6pm, there was so much fog I only had a few metres of visibility,” Rene told Lovin Malta. “Suddenly, towards 8pm, it started to clear. The eruptions had intervals of around one hour, with each eruption lasting between five to 10 minutes. So I had a one-hour wait between eruptions… in Force 8 winds and -15°C windchill.”
“My only fear was being all alone up at 2,500 metres,” the photographer continued. “God forbid anything goes wrong, before you have no one backup person to help. I closest I got was one kilometre from the southeast crater.”
Documenting his journey to the volcano (and his plucky car’s miraculous success), Rene had one last incredible image to capture after managing to get so many great shots – the eruption behind Zafferano’s church, some 15 minutes away.
How awesome are these shots?
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