Mount Pelée

An amazing landscape:
In the upper part of the volcano, temperatures can drop below 10°C, while rainfall can be around 10 meters of water per year. Because of the important differences in altitude, the peléenne vegetation, which takes root on a volcanic ground, is layered. On the seaside, the vegetation is relatively dry, sparse with meadows composed of tall grasses that climb up the gentle slopes on the Caribbean side. Banana fields and small isolated forests follow one another. On the other wilder slopes, there is a richer vegetation composed of large trees. Once past a certain altitude, these large trees give way to ferns and other high mountain plants, difficult routes for a unique point of view.

Two routes lead to the summit, whose crater is also surrounded by paths:
The hiking offered is rough because of a very steep gradient, even extreme in some places. The ascent begins in a warm and very sunny climate, and ends in a cold, windy and almost always hazy environment. The difficulty of the paths is also due to the fact that, in long sloping passages, the ascent is made on stony heaps. During the ascent of the crater, the route is climbing. Since there is no food at the summit, after the first refuge, accessible by road, the hike is completely autonomous. Besides the pleasure of climbing a world famous volcano, the interest of these hikes lies mainly in the views over the whole island and the astonishing summit landscapes.

A burning past: where does the mountain get its name from?
During the landing of the French colonists on September 15, 1635, the volcano had just experienced an eruption that led to the installation of a dome in the summit crater. Vegetation has been destroyed on much of the flanks of the volcano and throughout the summit area, hence the name Pelée (bare) Mountain, which the first inhabitants attributed to it.
1792: ground eruption
1851-1852 with peak activity on August 5th 1851: groundwater eruption
1902-1905 with the major eruption of May 8th 1902: pelaean eruption
1929 -1932 with peak activity on October 18th 1929: magmatic eruption

The complete destruction of Saint-Pierre in 1902:
On May 8, 1902, a fiery cloud from the summit of the volcano completely destroyed the town of Saint-Pierre, killing about 29,000 people. There were two survivors. The most infamous, Louis-Auguste Cyparis, was a prisoner saved by the thickness of the walls of his dungeon. Léon Compère-Léandre was a shoemaker on the outskirts of the town. Before the eruption, the city was the commercial capital of Martinique and was then nicknamed " the Little Paris of the Antilles ".

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