[TR] Sardinia - Cala Gonone- Many 9/9/2005

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Climb: Sardinia - Cala Gonone-Many

 

Date of Climb: 9/9/2005

 

Trip Report:

On september 9th I got married and we went to Sardinia and London for our honeymoon. We spent 11 days in sardinia and had an all around awesome time. The island is basically a giant crag. There is granite, basalt, and limestone all over the place. Being a honeymoon, climbing was not the main focus of our stay, but we did manage to squeeze some climbing in on a few days. This island is gorgeous. We stayed in Cala Gonone which must be one of the most perfect places for a climbing and beach holiday. These are the crags within a couple kilometers(or meters in some cases) of town:

 

Cala Fuili, this gorge actually has about a dozen crags in it, this is just one of the walls.

 

 

 

Bidderscotai: Awesome climbing in a giant cave right next to the sea the crag actually extends quite far on either side of the cave as well.

 

 

Budinetto, awesome slabby ampitheater

 

 

La Poltrona, an even better slabby limestone crag. Awesome technical climbing, some routes with move actually above bolts

 

 

Cala Luna - supposedly awesome hard sport climbing, although we only went to the beach. This crag is typically accessed by boat cruise, although one could hike in to save money.

 

Aigulle Goloritze, supposedly one of the finest outings in all of Italy. I definitely would have loved to have climbed, but at least it makes a good excuse to go back. A gorgeous formation with obligaory 5.10 on its easiest routes.

 

Hotel Supramonte in Goruppa, we went for a hike to this 400m gorge and were lucky enough to see some people working on this route. Supposedly the hardest long route in Italy as of 2002. 4 pitches harder than 8a up to 8b+. Had seen only 6 ascents as of the guidebook printing.

 

Now for pictures of us enjoying the rock

 

Sam at Bidderscotai

 

Me at La Poltrona

 

Sam at La Poltrona

 

 

Me again at la poltrona

 

Sam on a nice arete at Cala Fuili

 

 

Me on a route put up by Lynn Hill at Cala Fuili. An austrian told me she did the FA unroped. Pretty crazy considering it is 6b. The bolts are spaced far enough to make it a exciting. There is also an awesome view out to the see to your left as you climb.

 

 

One of the most fun climbs all trip. Awesome moves on perfect limestone.

 

Climbing on our first day at Cala Fuili. These climbs were way overbolted, but still pretty fun.

 

Me goofing around on a perfect polished limestone handcrack in the Goruppa gorge. All that sport climbing had me in hand jam withdrawl so it was nice to feed the habit for a few minutes.

 

Overall, the Cala Gonone area offers excellent limestone sportclimbing on slabby, vertical, and overhung routes at all sorts of grades. If anybody is looking to mix a family vacation or romantic trip with some climing, this place is hard to beat. The Cala Gonone area is only a small fraction of the climbing available all over the island, but for us it was perfect.

 

Gear Notes:

15 draws

60m+ rope (we had 70m)

 

Approach Notes:

Fly and fly some more. Tickets from the UK can be less than $100 RT, so with a cheap ticket to London, this isnt even that expensive of a place to get to. The island has plenty of camping. After august, renting a flat also becomes an affordable and realistic option. We saw a couple people just living out of vans for a few weeks, although they were mostly mainland eurpeans who took the ferry over.

[olyclimber]

Sweet! I've seen that spire in couple of magazine and at least on video.

[magellan]

Awesome TR, thanks for posting from 'elsewhere'.

[forrest_m]

ps, congrats on getting married

[TrogdortheBurninator]

Thanks.

 

If anyone else is planning on heading over there ever, www.rockfax.com puts out a nice select guide for ~$10. We also bought the local guide when we were over there. Way more routes, but hardly ever necessary aside from the great pictures and interesting reading.

[matt_warfield]

Thanks for the TR. It looks cool over there and a good multipurpose destination. Better keep that one in the memory banks.

[sweatinoutliquor]

Way to get married and go climbing on the honeymoon!

[goatboy]

I wanted to go to Sardinia for my honeymoon but my lovely wife demonstrated to me that I married the right woman by suggesting we go ice climbing in Ouray instead . . . . which we did!

 

Anyway, it looks great and maybe we'll go there for our anniversary sometime!

 

Thanks for the pictures...