I don’t know about you, but I always feel a little thrill when I fly to climb in warm areas. Maybe it’s the thought of the magnificent orange limestone dotted with numerous stalactite formations? Maybe it’s those beautiful long, sometimes over 30m roads? Beautiful views, the sound of the sea behind you… Or the sun on your neck with the knowledge that in Poland at that time it is snowing and sleet, and spring cannot break through the leaden clouds. I do not know. Probably a little bit of everything. And the Italian San Vito Lo Capo has it all, where it is easier to hear Polish against the wall than Italian… There I set off with my group for this year’s first “west” trip.
The plan was relatively simple. A week of climbing from morning to evening with one rest day, on as many different routes as possible to climb before the season. If possible, raise the level of difficulty in terms of your personal best, take a test after the winter spent on the panel or finally to gain independence and gain experience. There were 7 people flying with me, with very different levels of skills and, in a sense, expectations for this trip. Czarek and Mateusz from Lublin, Agnieszka and Maksymilian from Warsaw, Marcin from Opole and Wojtek and Dawid from Nowy Sącz. After dealing with the morning flight, formalities with the car and apartments, we drove to the rocks, to the first sector from the shore, Torre Isulidda. Despite being tired, we managed to get acquainted with the rock and get used to a completely different style of climbing than ours. The first cats over the fences, as they say, we ended the day with a great Italian pizza in a small family restaurant nearby.
Over the next few days, we fought on countless stretches of the main wall, constantly raising our valuations, polishing our shortcomings and working not only on our belay but also on our team skills. After all, most of the team hadn’t climbed with each other in the rock before, and they were divided by me a bit top-down, divided into teams adjusted to the level of difficulty and expectations, as much as possible, of course. Roads in the White wall, Zoo, Grotta Cala Mancina and nearby areas were targeted. And speaking of loot, it’s worth writing a few words about Maximilian’s fight on the Toyo 17, 6c road. The road leads through a beautiful, slightly overhanging terrain between a row of smaller and smaller ridges, which is very conducive to technical climbing on the feet. A 25-meter set of boulders, where after each one you have to be able to position yourself to find a rest. All in all, the first 6c that Maks interceded in on this trip and believe me, it was a fight until the very end. A path made by force of will on the way out, to the complete slaughter of the muscles. Wedges, heel hooks, high inserts, rests in odd positions. Screams and cries of battle, tears of despair and tears of victory… Everything was there and we tore our throats cheering hard. I can confidently say that spiritually we have all made this journey with him. Beautiful flash. Paid for with a total roll, and a banana of a satisfied smile on his face. Of course, the wall as well as the whole sector offers much more nice climbing. Mateusz found out about it when he recorded a top on Banana Biologica 7a+. The road is beautiful, long, after good grips in a moderate overhang, offering really original movements. An undoubted classic and a well-deserved strawberry in the guidebook.
Due to the wide range of difficulties and expectations of the group members, I had to make a small organizational experiment and plan the climb with the group divided into two parts, each of which had a rest day at a different time. Some of us were resting and gathering strength before visiting the heavily overhanging sector of the Crown of Aragon, others were riding hard in the vertical formations of the main wall. The time has finally come to visit the Crown of Aragon with Wojtek, Maks and Mateusz. We’ve had a lot of luck with that. Anyone who has tried to climb there knows how much the sun burns there. That day we had good, albeit cloudy weather, so we were able to work there all day without getting tired of the temperatures. Beautiful, overhanging climbing in a rich dripstone cover appealed to everyone. As part of this day, we managed to perform on such classics as: All Cats Are Black At Night 7b+, Troppo Ducci 7a with extension for 7b or Training Segreto for 6c+. The culmination of the day was a beautiful Chiapotte 6c, made together with Wojtek, running in the middle of the wall. Unfortunately, the March days are shorter, and certainly cooler in the evenings, which prevented Mateusz from finalizing the “All Cats” and the rest of the team felt cold and excessive fatigue.
The next day we opened with castling again, the boys after Aragon rested, and I with the rest of the group attacked the Bunker sector with its adjoining areas. However, there was not even a trace of the evening chill, in the middle of the day the sun mercilessly chased us towards the trees, so we climbed in sectors, closer to the El Bahira campsite. We added another portion of roads and sectors from Portella della Vacche to Giardino dell Eden, where I found my nemesis that day.
Generally, when it comes to trips of this type, I climb rather for a group, either “flashing” patents or hanging or collecting equipment from the road. I always devote the first days of the trip to pulling forward the least experienced members of the group so that they become independent in tying, belaying and retrieving the equipment. I try to be a coach and guardian throughout the whole trip, so that everyone comes back more experienced and better as a climber as much as possible. In a sense, it is also more well-groomed, and certainly climbed to the maximum. When the team is independent enough, I climb with the group. This is to show what the process of working out more difficult roads looks like. As an example, I usually choose something nice that I do from the beginning to the end, very often explaining step by step “what and how”. It is important to me that my pupils see the whole process of working out such a road and that it is difficult enough not to run on it, that it requires technique and allows them to observe the work on the road in practice. How to position yourself for rest, how to overcome certain formations, or finally to let yourself be belayed in a situation when you need to quickly release the rope because the leader moves at a faster pace. It is also often an opportunity for a kind of lecture on various technical topics. On such roads, I try to choose something nice, or an axis that the members of my group want to attack with flash in order to help them in guiding. Sometimes these are just nice and interesting roads that are simply hard to resist. That’s how I came across the aforementioned nemesis in the form of the Enforico 7b+/c road ending with a big overhang. Unfortunately, the crux move turned out to be quite injury-prone. A monopoint behind the back with a very deepened torsion technique turned out to be lethal for the knee. Despite the damaged knee, we managed to finish the route with a sight and at the same time collect the group’s equipment from the neighboring road.
The next day we all decided to get away from the main wall and its surroundings for a while. We went to a secluded spot, with an easy approach to my injury; Rocca di Cerriolo.
The rock, with the characteristic shape of an overturned anvil, greeted us with a riot of colors: orange limestone, green cacti and bush, blue sea on the horizon. The first impression, however, faded a bit against the wall. Unfortunately, as it turned out, this year there were a lot of bee nests, a lot of pigeons flying everywhere and a lot of bushes. But still, there was something for everyone. A few of the routes turned out to be particularly nice, and with the entertaining approach of the team that day, everyone was attacking the sixes in the central part of the wall again and again. Two routes deserved to miss that day: Ginger 6a and Cannolo Scomposto 6b. Both were proof that it’s not necessarily just a high number that puts an ear-to-ear smile on a climber’s face. Another stage of the struggle and again the diversification of the group. This time, in a different part of the main wall, Wojtek, Dawid and Mateusz were closing the roads they had dug up at the beginning of the trip, in the sector next to the Cala Mancina grotto. The rest, under my watchful eye, attacked the targets next to the Pinet’s cave in the Centrale sector. In the afternoon we joined forces and we all climbed together in the mentioned spot next to it, as well as inside the Pineta grotto. And the grotto, a wonderful place. A large one with beautiful roads, full of shade and coolness on hot days. With a short approach from the car, it can be an excellent target, especially since it contains the entire spectrum of difficulty, from easy to around 8a. This time we attacked the easier positions on the right side of the campsite, looking for a rest after the sunny morning hours, where we climbed the wall closer to the campsite. The Grotto di Cavallo, which is more spacious than it, is unfortunately a more logistically demanding destination, you have to overcome almost half of the wall from the side of Cala Mancina. However, both of them are worth a visit as they offer very interesting climbing. We ended another busy day with a farewell pizza and ended our week-long stay on the island on this optimistic note. In the morning we went to the airport, returned the cars and were already sitting on the plane to Polish. Of some of the passages of our team on this trip;
Wojtek: Banana Biologica 7a+ rp, Alfa Romeo 7a+ flash, Troppo Ducci 7a rp
David: Tu mi turbi 7a rp, The Riddle 7a rp, Muni 6c flash
Marcin: Canna Biologica 6a+ os, Car Wreck 6a flash, Natali 6a+ flash
Agnes; Natalie 6a+ rp, Deception 5b flash, Noel 5c flash, Foxy 5b os
Maximilian: Toyo 17 6c flash, Ciao Ossi 6b os, Tanti Auguri Daniele 6b flash
Czarek: The Last Move 6b pax, Straight Edge 6a pax,
Mateusz: The Riddle 7a flash, Banana Biologica 7a+rp
Jarek: Enforico 7b+/c os, All Cats Are Black At Night 7b+ os, Bliltzkrieg 7b+ os
