Northern hemisphere skiers who can’t handle a summer off the slopes usually head to high glaciers, the southern hemisphere, or some sort of indoor training facility. But some people push their off-seasons to the extreme, hunting down the best snowless skiing they can find.
The Buldoz Project Crew is a great example of that mindset, hunting down snowless slopes just about everywhere. Recently a few members, including Blasco Paterno Castello who shared the footage, took to the side of Italy’s Mount Etna to do some pretty incredible skiing on some volcanic earth.
Skiing Valle del Bove
Valle del Bove, where this specific clip was taken, is a huge valley on the eastern side of Mount Etna. It’s about 3.1 miles wide and about 4.3 miles long, forming about 8,000 years ago when the summit collapsed due to explosions and eruption. For quite a while the area was a green oasis, several eruptions of the south-eastern crater which began in 1971 near completely covered it in lava flows, leaving it as the black stone desert it is today.
The collapse also exposed layers of Mount Etna’s volcanic history along the towering walls of the valley. The rims rise as much as 3,280 feet above the valley floor in places, with some sections dropping almost vertically. Among the most striking features are the numerous dykes, which are walls of hardened lava left behind after magma filled cracks in the volcano and slowly cooled. As the surrounding rock eroded away, the harder lava remained standing, creating the unusual vertical formations visible throughout the Valle del Bove.
The valley also provides an unusual look at Etna’s past, with only two volcanic craters, Monte Centenari and Monte Simone, visible within its boundaries. While the lower parts can be reached on foot or by off-road vehicle from the northeast, the most dramatic views come from the rim. From above, the enormous volcanic depression stretches toward the Ionian Sea and reveals just how much of Etna’s eastern side was reshaped by its ancient collapses and subsequent eruptions.