The metal cross which sits in the howling wind on the top of Mount Teide
Mount Teide dominates Tenerife, rising out of the sea to 12,198 feet (3,718 metres) it is inescapable. From its base on the seabed it is 24,600 feet (7,500 metres) to the small crater at the top, making it the third tallest volcano in the world. A caldera rings the mountain half way up, within which is a car-park, here
visitors can leave their cars and walk up, or take the funicular
which runs to within 1,000 feet of the top. A couple of decades ago, when these photographs were taken, there was no restriction on climbing the mountain. This page accompanies you from the car-park to the small crater at the summit - by foot.
The mountain from inside the caldera
Pine trees on the lower slopes of the mountain
The stretches of black volcanic ash that cover the whole island and emanate from the mountain
Once above the caldera...
...the view is out across the clouds, here towards the island of Gomera
The rocks of the caldera
The streaks down the hillside left by the last eruption about 100 years ago
The apparent barren hillside...
...is not so, as flowers somehow find a foothold
Extraodinary lava sculptures on way up
Looking back at the path up the mountainside
Lava sculpture and beyond on the shoulder of the mountain the refuge at the top of the funicular
A British enthusiast for the island - Graham-Toler - had a refuge built up here in the 1890s. To this the funicular railway was directed when it was built in 1972....
...I arrived at the refuge expecting to get a ride back down the mountain to meet only one word through the locked door - mañana - probably the only Spanish word I knew.
So I slowly scrambled up the last 700 feet which, in the thinning air, seemed further than I had come, not helped by being somewhat uneasy about getting down and off the rough ground before dark
Caldera with the clouds beyond
Looking down across the vent to the caldera and clouds, the area has been a
World Heritage Site
since 2007...
...this means it is no longer possible to wander freely up into the vent. Previously, access to this area with its strange sulphurous growths, was easy from the cable car, and as there was no information of any sort, naively sitting down in the sulphur and losing the seat of one's trousers was similarly easy!
Looking at the edge of the vent and beyond. Inside...
...provides some protection from the screaming wind
The setting sun casting the triangular shadow of the mountain across the clouds.
Less than an hour to dark and 6,000 feet of mountain to run down, not enough time for photography! The next page continues with volcanic outcrops in the Atlantic, but now back to the north, to the cold of Iceland and the black ash similar to that of Mount Teide. Here it forms part of the landscape of Iceland's southern shores.
A much more demanding peak - Phăng Xi Păng - that I have not climbed!
