Mayon Volcano
Widely Called The Most Perfectly Symmetrical Volcanic Cone On Earth, And The Most Active Volcano In The Philippines Around Fifty Eruptions In Five Hundred Years · Legazpi, Albay
MAYON IS THE ONE PEOPLE MEAN WHEN THEY SAY A VOLCANO LOOKS LIKE A CHILD'S DRAWING OF ONE - two thousand four hundred and sixty-odd metres of almost flawless cone, and it is routinely described as THE MOST PERFECTLY SYMMETRICAL VOLCANIC CONE ON EARTH. IT IS ALSO THE MOST ACTIVE VOLCANO IN THE PHILIPPINES, with something like fifty eruptions in five hundred years, and the symmetry and the danger are the same fact: the cone is that shape because it keeps rebuilding itself. IN 1814 AN ERUPTION BURIED THE TOWN OF CAGSAWA AND THE CHURCH BELFRY STILL STANDS OUT OF THE HARDENED LAHAR - it is the photograph everyone takes, and it is a gravestone. A PERMANENT DANGER ZONE IS ENFORCED AROUND THE MOUNTAIN AND CLIMBING IS FREQUENTLY BANNED OUTRIGHT. And the summit is very often in cloud: many visitors never see it at all. Check the PHIVOLCS alert level before anything else, get up at dawn for the one reliably clear hour, and walk away from any operator who treats that alert level as negotiable.
Mayon Volcano, Albay, Bicol, Legazpi, Albay, Philippines
LEGAZPI IS THE BASE and has an airport with flights from Manila and Cebu; the mountain is visible from the city on a clear day. THE CAGSAWA RUINS keep daytime hours with a small fee and are the classic viewpoint. EVERYTHING ABOUT ACCESS DEPENDS ON THE PHIVOLCS ALERT LEVEL, which is published and which governs the PERMANENT DANGER ZONE around the summit - a six-kilometre radius as standard, extended when activity rises. CLIMBING IS FREQUENTLY PROHIBITED AND WHEN PERMITTED REQUIRES PERMITS AND ACCREDITED GUIDES; do not arrange a climb through anyone who tells you the alert level does not matter. ATV TOURS run on the lower slopes to the lava front. THE SUMMIT IS OFTEN IN CLOUD - dawn is the best chance. Typhoon season runs roughly July to October and Bicol takes the worst of it.