| Rock
climbing in Corsica The island of Corsica
has a stunning alpine landscape with peaks over 2,000m that
dramatically fall away into the sea. This landscape means
there is an abundance of beautiful bolted rock to climb, from
coarse weathered granite rock, to sandstone or limestone rock.
There is climbing all over the island, from single pitch routes
to multi-pitch routes up to 300m long, plus many bouldering
areas. Corsica is claimed to have more unclimbed rock than
anywhere else in Europe - a truly impressive statement. The
rock climbing main areas within Corsica are described below:
(1) Rock climbing around Bastia and Cap Corse.
Here the sports climbing ranges from sea cliffs through to
inland crags up to 50m long, all on bolted limestone rock.
(2) Rock climbing around Isula Rossa in the Balagne
region. High in mountains are a series of isolated
buttresses that offer mainly bolted single pitch routes on
granite rock.
(3) Rock climbing around Corti in central Corsica.
The heart of Corsican climbing is definitely at the Gorges
de la Restonica. This valley stretches for nearly
10Km out of Corti, with crags both low lying and high up in
the mountains giving single and multi-pitch routes. Here are
100's of sports routes on bolted granite rock offering a good
mixture of climbing styles from; big slabs; technical vertical
walls with cracks and corners; to overhangs and roofs. There
is also a great range of grades from F4 up to F8b, with a
good quantity of routes in the F5's, F6's & F7's. The
shear quantity of rock here, also means there is great potential
for developing new routes.
Around Capuralinu (only 20 minutes from Corti)
there are a series of limestone bolted crags. Here the rock
climbing is mainly single pitch, with the majority of the
grades from F6b upwards.
(4) Rock climbing around Aiacciu. At Gozzi
there is perfect balance of mountains and the cliffs,
with a great diversity of climbing styles. The red granite
is fully bolted with a mixture of single-pitch routes to multi-pitch
routes up to 300m long - the longest bolted routes on the
island. There are other granite crags around this area, all
of which are bolted giving both single and multi-pitch routes
(up to 5 pitches long).
(5) Rock climbing in southern Corsica. Here
there is a mixture of limestone and granite rock. The limestone
crags tend to be at a lower altitude and are single pitch.
The granite crags are concentrated around Bavella,
which is high up in the mountains. Here there are single and
multi-pitch (up to 3 pitches long) bolted routes.
The best months to go rock climbing in Corsica are from spring
to early June and then September until the end of autumn.
In main summer months of July and August will be just too
hot and very busy. |
