Piton de la Fournaise

WHEN TO CLIMB

The montain can be climbed year-round, but it's better to avoid the rainy season, from december to april, with heavy rains, and sometimes mud flows and very high winds in the vicinity of hurricanes which can hit the island at this period. Due to the tropical climate and the lack of altitude, snow almost never falls on the Piton de la Fournaise. Whatever, be ready for low temperatures upper than 2000 meters at every time, it can be freezing before sunrise... Last but not least, cumulitive clouds develop very quickly at any time in this island, the weather is generally completely cloudy from 10 AM to the sunset. If you want to enjoy the beautiful landscapes, you'll have to be at the summit before 9 AM and so to wake up very early in the morning...

HOW TO GET THERE

The island of La R�union can be reached by air through direct flights from France (Paris mainly), South Africa or Kenya. From the international airport of Saint-Denis, take the road N2 to Saint-Beno�t along the ocean (from 1 to 2 hours depending on the traffic...), then the road leaves the coast and climbs up to "La plaine des palmistes", last city to be crossed. Afterwards turn left to the volcano, the road goes through a forest and reaches a beautiful viewpoint at about 2000 meters.

OVERVIEW

The "Piton de la Fournaise" is the highest active volcano in the small french island called "La R�union". The island of "La R�union" is located 800 km to the east of Madagascar, close to another very touristic island called "Mauritius", which is an independant country. La R�union has almost the shape of a circle, with a diameter close to 100 km. The island comes from the activity of a volcano, whose remains created the 3 cirques of Cilaos, Mafate and Salazie, with the "Piton des Neiges" approximately located in the central cross of these 3 cirques. Now the volcano moved to the east, which gave the "Piton de la Fournaise" (2630 meters), currently one of the most active volcanos in the world. The whole island offers a wide range of landscapes, lagoons or black rocks on the coast, active volcano or impressive cirques inside. It is said to look like some hawa�an islands. Thanks to the very rainy weather (10 meters of rain each year in some areas), the erosion gave amazing landscapes, with very high cliffs and canyons, covered with an ever-green forest, even on the almost vertical slopes...