Articles - Sport climbing in Corsica

CORSICA

The Mediterranean, is a sea of many islands, which harbour landscapes of widely various character and ecology, from the lush gorges of Crete and the secret coves of the Dalmatian archipelago to the desolate limestone walls of Gibraltar. Dominating the western quarter of this huge lagoon, which the Romans called ‘the sea in the middle of the earth’ are the two large islands of Sardinia and Corsica. Despite Sardinia’s magnificent coast and relaxed Italian culture, I suspect Corsica best deserves the title: ‘the most diverse and spectacular island in the Mediterranean’. 

Take your pick

There can be few places in the world where a dramatic alpine landscape lies within a half-hour drive from beaches with sea warm enough to swim in. Indeed, Corsica may be the only place in the world where it would be quite feasible to climb an ice-fall, then a multi-pitch rock route on a big mountain crag, then go sport climbing, before finishing off the day with a bit of deep water soloing and bouldering on the coast!

After just one week’s climbing, in which I visited the island’s major sport climbing and bouldering areas and had a look at a number of more obscure crags, I came back very impressed with both the quality of the climbing across the grades and the unusual experience of enjoying ultra-classic European routes in the solitude of pristine alpine woodlands high above thundering rivers.

How to get there

Since there are currently no direct scheduled flights from the UK to Corsica itself, it makes sense to take advantage of the cheap flights from the UK to Sardinia and then make the short crossing from St. Teresa di Gallura in northern Sardinia to Bonifacio in southern Corsica. If arriving, as we did, from the south then it is logical to make the major crags of Col de Bavella and Mont Gozzi first on your itinerary.

Col de Bavella

Col de Bavella is the showpiece of all Corsica’s sport climbing, having the finest collection of F5 and F6 grade routes on the island, and possibly on European granite! The crag is essentially a closely-packed collection of buttresses and slabs nestling in the south-east facing bowl of the highest motorable mountain pass in the Corse du Sud region. At an altitude of 1300 metres it’s definitely not a cliff for poor weather. Most of the routes are only a fifteen minute walk from the road, yet when the mist blows in off the towering monoliths of Les Aiguilles de Bavella they can swiftly take on the flavour – if not the seriousness – of a big alpine wall. Clear days in spring and autumn are the best time to climb here, and when the sun finally appears the location of the climbing here could not be more idyllic, overlooking the wide sweep of the wooded Criviscia valley. If the visibility is good the blue sheen of the Golfe d’Adjaccio glimmers on the horizon to the north west, an odd reminder that you are actually in the middle of an island!

The first three climbing sectors encountered, after the short walk through the pines, are perfect for a gentle warm-up or just to get the flavour of Corsican granite, all being well to the right side of vertical and between F4 and F6b. Just around the corner from Filetta (the first sector of these three) are the slightly steeper and more challenging routes of the Campanella and Paterla Nera. The immaculate fluted orange wall on the right hand side of Campanella provides eight routes from F5b to F6c+ which are some of the best at this grade on Corsican granite. Further uphill, the big, steep slabs of Sector Murzella and the atmospheric L’Oriu offer the longest pitches on the crag (up to 40 metres) and some of its best climbing. Downhill again, and just around the corner from these first three sectors, are the relatively small (about twelve routes in total) but highly contrasting areas of Prugola and Levant, the former offering short but extremely rewarding routes (F4+ – F6b) which climb strong features reminiscent of heavily weathered gritstone; the latter providing somewhat sterner stuff in the form of half a dozen short steep climbs up to F7a+.

Explore a little

The sport climbs at Col de Bavella described in Maurizio Oviglia’s guide are really just a small element of the big picture of climbing in this mountainous part of southern Corsica, and those in search of serious alpine rock climbing adventure will head to the huge slabs of Teghie Lisce, Punta Lunarda, and the magnificent pillar of Punta di un Corbu. This is the location of Le Dos d’Elephant, a 280 metre F6c+ that is probably one of the finest alpine rock routes of its kind in Europe. These spectacular cliffs lie just a few miles down the valley from Col de Bavella. Other mountain cliffs in Corsica harbour routes of a similar quality and stature, such as the remote Pont des 7 Lacs, Pain de Sucre du Capitello and Pointe de la Touffe, all of which are found near the headwaters of the Restonica river, on the western side of Monte Rotondo, the island’s second highest peak at 2622m.

Monte Gozzi

Heading north west from Col de Bavella towards the coast the first major town  heading north is Ajaccio, the unlikely birthplace of Napoleon Bonaparte. To the visiting climber, however, the granite walls of Monte Gozzi which loom over the Golfe d’Ajaccio will probably be of more interest than the town’s connection with one of Europe’s most ambitious and notorious militarists. Monte Gozzi offers some of the best sport climbing in Corsica between F6a and F7a, and its relatively low altitude and proximity to the sea means that climbing here will be pleasant when the more mountainous areas are well above cloud base. Conversely its southerly aspect combined with the 50 minute approach definitely mean it should be avoided in hot weather. On the subject of the approach, the path described in Oviglia’s guide and on other topos no longer exists and has been replaced by a newer one which starts from an obvious stile a few hundred metres left of the old gate defining the start of the original approach. You could save a lot of time by checking the exact location of this new path before climbing here, either from local climbers or at the climbing shop in Ajaccio.

Gorges de la Restonica

Heading north up the N193 towards Corte from Ajaccio, the picturesque Gorges de Richiusa near the town of Boccognano would make a convenient stop off for a day or two en route to the much more impressive Gorges de la Restonica near Corte, which is one of the most spectacular and rewarding places to go sport climbing in Corsica. The ‘gorge’ is in reality more of a deep alpine valley, with towering granite buttresses on both sides that become larger and more impressive the higher you go, and it makes up for its lack of quantity of routes by their sheer quality.

There are three sport climbing sectors developed so far, unimaginatively named Première Ecole, Deuxième Ecole, and Troisième Ecole. All three are found either next to or just above the small road that winds up the gorge, and most of the walls are either south east, south, or south west facing. 
Premiere Ecole is predictably the first area encountered when driving up the valley, and has just over forty routes from F4+ to F7a+, mostly on slabs of between 10 and 20 metres; an ideal introduction to the distinctive, positive style of the granite here, defined by usually angular features and cracks.

A couple of kilometres further up, Deuxieme Ecole had the biggest collection of routes (around sixty) and enjoys a stunning view of the valley high above a sharp bend in the river. Virtually all the routes here are worth at least 2 stars in even the most sceptical guidebook writer’s appraisal, and to describe all of the arch-classics here would take up the rest of this article! Don’t miss the immaculate F6b+ arête of A Hundred Years of Solitude (100 Ans de Solitude), the extraordinary flutings of the 35m F6a La Banane (it is not difficult to spot which feature the name refers to), and the delightful slanting crackline of Miroir Brise (F6c+), one of the very first sport routes in Restonica.

About 5 kilometres further up the valley, beyond the Tuani campsite, the final sector of Troisieme Ecole is unmistakable, comprising of a series of impending buttresses looming directly above the road, and looking out across the lower slopes of Monte Rotondo and some of the finest alpine scenery in Corsica.

The best five routes in Restonica, and arguably the best sport routes in Corsica, are found on the first wall of gorgeous orange granite overhanging the road. The finest of these routes are found on either end of the wall and at rather different grades: the wall’s easiest and probably its best climb is Bon Anniversaire, a remarkable 30 metre F6c. In contrast to the elegant steep bridging and bulbous holds of this route is the searing thin crack of its hardest line, Reportage Exclusif, a 25 metre F8a that is a granite version of Millstone’s London Wall – only a bit harder!

From granite to limestone

To paraphrase Python, if you feel the need for something completely different after all this cranking on granite edges and standing on precarious smears, it can be found just a short drive north on the road from Corte. In the northern third of Corsica limestone predominates, and only 25 minutes from the alpine granite of Restonica a whale-back ridge of limestone rises above the tiny village of Caporalino, and has around eighty routes from F4+ to F7c to choose from, and they’re mostly between F5c and F6c+. The limestone here is very good, and many of the routes follow lines of pockets and incipient cracks reminiscent of the style of climbing on High Tor and Beeston Tor in the Peak District. The more adventurous multi-pitch routes on the big wall at the end of sector Alto are home to a pair of eagles, and so are subject to a nesting restriction from March to July.

Other limestone crags in this region worth mentioning are those of Francardo, the next village north of Caporalino, although the short approach to these cliffs is made difficult by intractable paths through thick macchia. And beyond Ponte Leccia, the crags of Pietralba are home to a collection of superb short routes, although at present they are sadly out of bounds to climbers due to an access dispute. There are a number of other, minor crags in Corsica that offer good sport climbing, such as the 15 metre granite wall above a shingle beach near the town of Porto on the west coast, and a group of crags close to the town of Bastia in the northernmost part of the island.

If you do end up travelling to Corsica by ferry from Sardinia, then it is definitely worth visiting Punta di Capineru, a small rocky cape only a twenty minute drive from Bonifacio, and home to a collection of beautiful granite boulders on which over eighty problems have been recorded. Climbing here is best in the early morning and late evening, as its coastal location means the ideal cool conditions for granite bouldering are unusual. On the subject of bouldering, the Restonica valley also has excellent yet only marginally developed possibilities, with just a handful of high-quality problems established to date on a jumble of large boulders in the woods before Troisieme Ecole. A few days’ exploring around here with a couple of pads and a selection of good brushes would certainly unearth numerous outstanding problems.

The possibilities for climbing in Corsica are so extensive and various that it is impossible to list them all in the text of just a single feature: even Maurizio Oviglia’s recent guide only scratches the surface of a few established crags! With enough time and good summer conditions, the opportunities for doing new routes on the high mountain crags are virtually unlimited. And whatever your thing in climbing, be it leisurely bolt-clipping, grade eight redpointing, wilderness bouldering, exploratory deep water soloing, or indeed full-fat alpinism - Corsica will not disappoint.

When to go?

Undoubtedly the best times to visit are May and June and September and October. July and August will be too hot for all but the highest crags and the island becomes crowded with holidaymakers in high summer. From November to late April the weather is unreliable and in the mountains heavy snowfall is common, although good climbing conditions may be found on the coast and on other low-altitude crags throughout the winter.

Where can I stay?

It is never that difficult to find a good campsite or hotel in Corsica, as the island’s economy virtually relies on tourism. For Col de Bavella, there is an excellent campsite, Camping La Rivière, 2 kilometres from Zonza on the road to Quenza. There are several places to stay in Zonza itself. For Monte Gozzi, there are a few campsites on the coast road around the Golfe de la Lisce about a twenty minute drive away, or hotels in Ajaccio. For Restonica, there are two good campsites in Corte and another one in the valley itself. Don’t be optimistic about wild camping in Corsica, as camping sauvage interdit signs abound, and most places in the national parks are policed by rangers.

Which guide do I buy?

Arrampicate Sportive in Corsica by Maurizio Oviglia (£16) is available in an English version from cordee.co.uk Also, the excellent Swedish website coronn.com have a similar topo guide with added details of some of the mountain routes you can download for 5 euros, along with about twenty other European crag topos.

If you enjoyed this article then don't miss the whole range of other sport climbing destinations both overseas and in the UK, featured on this site. Plus training advice to help you get the most out of your trip.

For the latest information on climbing courses, holidays, insurance and gear retailers go to the Climber Marketplace.