Blizzard on Mount Etna, intervention to rescue 5 stranded people
Five people, including two Polish citizens, were stranded with their cars on the SP92 road in the Etna Sud area, caught in a violent blizzard near the Crateri Silvestri. The intervention of the Nicolosi Mountain Rescue Service of the Guardia di Finanza was decisive
A blizzard, with snow accumulations two metres high, stranded five people on Etna. A situation that was resolved by the intervention of the mountain rescue team of the Nicolosi Guardia di Finanza.
Where it happened
Five people, including two Polish citizens, were stranded with their cars on the SP92 road, Etna Sud area, caught in a violent snowstorm near the Crateri Silvestri.
The intervention amidst gusts of wind and two-metre snowdrifts
The mountain rescue specialists received the report from a motorist at around 5 p.m. on Wednesday, 11 February, and set off - in an all-terrain vehicle - on the route in the direction of the Sapienza Refuge. Intense snowfall and gusts of wind forced the rescue workers to abandon the vehicle and continue the operation on foot in an impassable environment. Movement on the road had in fact been made almost impossible by the accumulations of snow, up to two metres high.
Near the junction between the SP92 and the 'Salto del Cane' road, cars were found whose occupants had been forced to stop due to the adverse weather conditions.
The Guardia di Finanza rescuers, using the shovels provided, first cleared the cars of the snow that had accumulated in the meantime, preventing the doors from being opened, and immediately afterwards, they led the five stranded people on foot to the off-road vehicles with which they were transported to Nicolosi. The service operations, conducted together with Cnsas volunteers and in contact with the Prefecture of Catania, were completed around 7.30 p.m.
