After last weeks post all about Corsica we thought we would tell you about the activities to fill your day with. The only things we found to do was swim in the sea and climb on the boulders along the west coast of Corsica.
But there is so much climbing that doesn’t appear on any other websites that we thought we would share this with you in this separate post.
Here are what we found of the local climbing scene. We looked on the UKC and Climbing away websites for climbing in Corsica. There does seem to be A LOT! So if you are looking for somewhere to go for a climbing holiday it may be just for you. Most of the climbing seems to be in the middle of the island, there are some big routes both sport and trad. For us though, being limited to public transport and no car, we stuck to bouldering on sea cliffs/rocks/boulders. With that said this is what we found.
Climbing/Bouldering –
Spuna, Lumio.
This was a bit of a walk from where we were staying along dusty, dirt roads to the headland to the west of us. According to Climbing Away it said that the bouldering was limited to where the car park was and the small watch tower, overlooking the sea. When we were walking along the roads, we found hundreds of boulders, untouched and unclimbed. With a bit of cleaning and some maintenance they would be perfect. A number of these were shaped like odd things too.
At the bottom of the road there is a derelict building around which is a small area that is perfectly climbable – we did have pictures but Ash killed his phone so the pictures died with it. We pretty much scrambled around along the sea boulders until we reached the watch tower and car park. Where there is a really nice beach area to swim amongst the rocks and to destroy phones!
Algajola Beach
If you walk the entire length of Algajola Beach from the village, (through the nudist section) you will eventually get to the rocky headland. Here are a lot of nice boulders perfect for an afternoon bouldering. Having walked the whole way from San Ambroggio it was a long trek, but actually worth it. The rock is granite with deposits of copper running through it, so it often has red colors to it. We found some overhang caves, a lot of steep slabs and a selection of great crake routes. There is no map of the rocks to share, so it’s just a case of finding something you like the look of and trying it, making sure to be careful and if you are climbing without a crash mat to make sure you’re not going to fall off and bounce into the sea.
This is one of our finds, it didn’t show up on any website until now maybe? On the beach of San Ambroggio are a few boulders, most are only a couple of metres high and only have a few short routes to play on, but if you start sitting on the sand and climb the eliminate route they are a bit of fun. But there is one big boulder near the marina that is worth a visit if you are in the area. Being as it is only one big boulder it seems that no one has of yet listed Marine de San Ambroggio on the UKC site, so we have taken on the task and listed the crag on the site and are currently awaiting it going live, in the meantime here are our routes.
Starting on the left (standing with your back to the sea), there are four routes along this face.
The right side is a slab with four routes. The face (facing the sea) has a direct route up the arete.
Climbing Moss Direct V4.
(We had to name it, didn’t we?!) The start is the reason for the high grade, the top half (climbing the spike) isn’t so hard. really.
The back of the rock is covered in Ivy vines and needs to be cleared and cleaned before any routes could be worked out. So we leave that for you to add.
Well there you go, something to do around Calvi if this rocks your boat – there is always yachting though- if you find yourselves stuck like us in the NW corner of the island without transport. We will update you when we get the green light from the UKC about our listing of San Ambriggio, but you can and should check out the site for all climbing crags if you are heading off to the sun this holiday season.
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Climbing Moss 