I tackled the coolest volcano on earth. Ol Doinyo Lengai perches on the edge of Tanzania‘s Rift Valley. The name in Masaai means the “home of God.” It's the only volcano in the world exuding snowy natrocarbonatite, a highly fluid lava at a mere 950 degrees Fahrenheit (510 C) — half the temperature of the molten basalt ejected by all other active volcanoes.

My reason for climbing Ol Doinyo Lengai wasn’t because it might just melt off my shoe instead of a whole foot. I climbed it because it was the only active volcano in Tanzania and way off the battered tourist track, in the boondocks almost equidistant from its famous neighbors: Mount Kilimanjaro, Ngorongoro Crater and Serengeti National Parks. Ol Doinyo Lengai erupts sporadically, sending small streams of gray lava down the crater rim and spitting hot ash high into the air. This “frigid” volcano sits on the southern edge of the flamingo-breeding central for East Africa — shallow, pink and enormous Lake Natron that stretches to the Kenyan border. Imagine 100,000 flamingoes filling a lake extending 34 by 15 miles (56 by 24 km).

This group of young Masaai girls are all adorned in traditional dress, including the symbolic black clothing representative of recent circumcision.

From Arusha, the nearest town, it took a full day of bouncing on dusty roads through Masaai Land past ostrich, zebra, giraffe and the occasional unseen lion to get near Ol Doinyo Lengai. Onlookers sprouted spears and arrows, mostly wearing scarlet and red plaid and adorned with ivory hair combs and a menagerie of earrings — and these were just the guys!

The ladies easily out-pierced First World youngsters, sporting etched cheeks, copious waterfalls of beaded earrings with 10 appliances cascading from each ear with little silver disks on the ends, countless bracelets, medallions and necklaces and dressed in bright pink, orange, red or blue, except those ominously dressed in black. Black is worn only by recently circumcised adolescents, male and female alike. Though circumcision is banned by the Tanzanian government, it’s still widely practiced among the Masaai because no one is available to enforce the law.

I spent the evening taking pictures of smiling waifs with spools the size of corncobs pushed through lower ears and bolts munster-like through the tops because they too would someday soon be fashionably ear-ringed in cascades of colorful beads. The little ones tended snowy goats with suckling kids inside the thorn-tree strewn perimeter of the family boma (a mud-covered hut). Their elders supervised herds of cattle, representing the ultimate in Masaai prestige and wealth. They were tough as leather cows with every rib showing.

I sat in on a command-decision pow-wow held by the local Masaai chief. They settled which acreage of land would be held in reserve for cattle grazing during the coming dry season. The meeting adjourned with nothing to do but quaff a beer in contemplation of reaching the top of Ol Doinyo Lengai, one of the steepest climbs on earth. Its walls jut 2,000 meters (6,600 feet; the summit peak is approximately 9,680 feet/2,950 m) straight up.

Cool Ol Doinyo Lengai sits two degrees south of the equator, which is to say it's hot. The modus operandi for climbing is to begin shortly after midnight, arrive atop at dawn, meander inside the crater, and then scoot back down before evaporating in the blazing African sun. It's an exceedingly good idea, but not for the reason given.