Corsica: Mountain Climbing

With 27 crags, over 600 rock climbing routes, 80 bouldering problems and 30 multi pitch rock climbing routes you will not be short of locations to climb your way around Corsica’s beautiful and diverse landscape. 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. Rock climbing around Bastia and Cap Corse offers a range from sea cliffs through to inland crags up to 50m long. Rock climbing around Isula Rossa in the Balagne region will present you with high mountains and a series of isolated buttresses that offer mainly bolted single pitch routes on granite rock. In Corti you will find yourself in the heart of Corsican climbing with 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 routes on bolted granite rock offering a good mixture of climbing styles. There is 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 in Corsica means there is great potential for developing new routes. There is a perfect balance of mountains and cliffs at Gozzi. The red granite here is fully bolted with a mixture of single-pitch routes to multi-pitch routes up to 300m long. These are 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. In the south you will find 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. The best months to go rock climbing in Corsica are from spring to early June and then September until the end of autumn. The hot summer months of July and August will be too hot and very busy.