Volcano etiquette

Mount Yasur has killed visitors, and every case had the same shape: a person beyond the line the guides drew, at a moment the volcano threw material further than usual. The line exists because the guides have watched the mountain for years and know how far it throws at each alert level. The rule is that the line is the line. Everything else in this note is detail.

Read the level

Vanuatu’s geohazards service publishes Yasur’s alert level daily. At level one the rim is open; at two the access is restricted to the lower viewpoint; at three the mountain is closed. The Danakil’s Erta Ale has no published scale, and the operators and the Afar guides play that role; when they say the rim is not safe tonight, that is the level. A Thousand Trips models the closure probability for the month, and the plan books a second night for it.

Watch the wind

A volcanic plume is sulphur dioxide, steam and ash, and the wind decides where it goes. Guides position the group upwind and move it when the wind shifts, and the only mistake visitors make is to stay put when the plume comes over because they are getting the photograph. Concentrations rise quickly in a plume; walking twenty metres sideways solves it, waiting does not. Streaming eyes and a cough are the signal. A scarf over the mouth and a particulate mask help; moving helps more.

Carry the right things

Closed shoes with grip, because cinders and lava roll underfoot. A torch, because the fire is a night thing and the walk down is dark. Earplugs on Yasur, where the eruptions arrive through the chest before the ears. Water on Erta Ale, where the walk up is at night and still hot. A mask and a scarf. Nothing that cannot be dropped in a hurry.

Respect the people who own the mountain

Yasur belongs to a village that sells the permit and drives you to the car park; the Danakil belongs to the Afar whose salt caravans cross it. Both places are sacred to someone, and the etiquette includes the fee, the guide from the community and the manners of a guest. The fee on Tanna is what keeps the road open and the rim staffed.

The other fire

The Icelandic highlands are volcanic and the danger there is the opposite: cold. The Laugavegur’s first stage crosses a plateau at a thousand metres where walkers have died of hypothermia in July, in whiteouts, in trainers. Fire etiquette in Iceland is a shell, warm layers and the warden’s advice about the pass. The same rule as the rim applies: the line is the line.