Richard Felderer introduces the new crag Cengia Giradili at the foot of famous Punta Giradili close to Baunei in Sardinia. 24 new routes from 5b to 8b in a spectacularly beautiful setting.
In 2012 I travelled across Sardinia with James Pearson and Caroline Ciavaldini to film the movie Hyknusa with Pietro Porro and as we neared Punta Giradili we dreamingly looked at the long crag which runs parallel to the base of the mountain along its approach path. We uttered the ritual phrase "It would be great to climb some routes here", a sentence which no doubt dozens and dozens of climbers have said before and after us. But then, as everyone else, we darted down to climb the beautiful, exposed and panoramic routes on Punta Giradili. A crag like this is, truth be told, far too big and ambitious for a "continental climber" who has limited days of holiday in Sardinia!
As things turned out I moved to Sardinia, right there in fact, to run a Bed & Breakfast, and this gives me a lot of free time in low season. On my rest days I started to travel the width and breadth of the entire area to get a feel for it, and during these trips I discovered a number of new climbing areas suitable for various "games", such as trad climbing, multi-pitch climbing and single pitch cragging. I helped bolt some new crags, some friends and I established two new trad climbing sectors, we’ve started some long multi-pitches, so on and so forth. At the same time I became a member of the legendary Ragni di Lecco mountaineering club, with the implicit promise of somehow helping the club’s projects.
One of these is called "La pietra del Sud", Southern Rock, which rotates around the Ragni di Lecco bolting new crags in Southern Italy and Sardinia. And seeing that there’s plenty of rock in Ogliastra... I suggested to the club president Fabio Palma to stop by this gear and check it out for himself. I sent him some photos of my reccies, we discussed things on the phone and a short while later the club approved the project. Bolts and belay chains were bought and works started.
Actually, on the first day I didn’t have a clue where to start! I chose an area a bit further away from the car (20 minutes) but certainly extremely impressive and began bolting the most imposing and obvious line, which I’d later call Pumping Iron, in honor of my secret love for body building, or perhaps because getting through the overhang… is a full body pump!
It was really hard work (at this point serious new routers will have a smug smile), abseiling in from the top was out of the question and, even it had been possible, perhaps it would have been even worse seeing that the cliff overhung so much! With the help of some skyhooks, a helping hand from Elena and some extreme skyhooking from Passini we managed to place the first belay! The project began to take shape. In the meantime, in addition to tireless Passini, some of my new local friends joined the group, namely Cristian, Francesco and Roberto, and it was thanks to them that some more "human" sectors were bolted closer to the car park. This is how, slowly but surely, the first five sectors began to be developed. I say the first five, because there is really so much rock that several more will be bolted… in due time! We’re not grease lighting at establishing new routes, but nevertheless we managed to bolt, clean and brush 22 pitches during a dozen days of back-breaking work.
The easy routes are obviously on slabs or full of holds, but having said that they’re technical and required some meticulous cleaning and gardening. The pitches graded 8a or harder were massacring and finding someone willing to belay you for hours while you drill and curse away hanging off an insecure skyhook… wasn’t to be taken for granted! The climbs graded 7a/b were... absolutely perfect, we just needed to place the bolt and the route was ready to be climbed! Hopefully we’ll find more like them! Jokes aside, we got the ball rolling: a handful of routes from 5a to 8b have been freed, various other climbs still await their first ascent and more will be added in the future. The rock is always fantastic, at times exciting even, with pitches up goutte d’eau, extremely weathered slabs and steep tufa overhangs.
The work was polished off by the trio comprised of Andrea Ratti, Marco Zanone and Luca Passini, who were faced with the "difficult" task of trying their luck on the most demanding climbs. Their performances may seem boring, seeing that nowadays most news reports deal with 9a or harder. But for us, the bunch of enthusiastic locals, watching them free these grade 8 routes in just a few goes, or onsight even, was awesome. And not without curses and spectacular falls, as sometimes happens on virgin rock where inevitably some holds break off. All in all it was great fun and I’ll slowly continue to bolt some new climbs. This is only the beginning!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jnec2memdwM&t=60s
Introduzione
La falesia è in uno dei luoghi più belli che abbia mai trovato per scalare. Si domina Pedra Longa e il mare ai limiti della parete di Punta Giradili, tra luci e colori che non stufano mai.
Il cantiere è tutt’ora in lavorazione, e i settori esplorati sono per ora 5. Il potenziale è notevole ma già oggi si può scalare senza annoiarsi.
Il primo si chiama “Sette gambe” a ricordare il simbolo dei Ragni di Lecco, che hanno contribuito allo sviluppo di quest’area con buona parte del materiale e con due viaggi per venire qui a lavorare alla chiodatura.
Il settore per adesso offre solo un tiro, ma c’è potenziale per altri.
A seguire c’è il settore Le Terrazze, con una scelta di tiri da 5 al 7b. Roccia bellissima, tiri tutti da scalare quelli a destra, corti e intensi quelli di sinistra.
Proseguendo per cengette verso mare troviamo “Gocce nell’oceano”, con 5 tiri dal 5b al 7b. Tutti sui 20 mt, verticali e sempre su roccia super. Appena a destra c’è spazio per altre 4 o 5 linee di strapiombo su prese piccole e buchi. Per via della sua forma, rimane spesso caldo.
Girando l’angolo si arriva al settore “Ultra”, che è in lavorazione, troverete gli aggiornamenti sul sito dei Ragni o su quello del BB The Lemon House, altro sponsor della chiodatura.
Ancora avanti di 5 minuti trovate il settore “Alieni”, quello per chi di pompa ne ha veramente. I tiri sono tutti strapiombanti o molto strapiombanti. La roccia è molto bella, a canne e concrezioni con qualche rara tacca. Il livello richiesto è l’8. Per adesso ci sono 5 tiri, tre liberati dal 7c all’8b, due ancora da liberare.
For all sport active people visiting this area, we recommend to contact The Lemon House:
The Lemon House is our Guesthouse in Ogliastra on the east coast of Sardinia from which we provide bed & breakfast accommodation and specialist support for climbing, road cycling, mountain biking, walking and kayaking. It takes 15 minutes to walk to the sea, and 10 minutes by car to the nearest climbing. We named the house after the lemon tree in front of the house with produces fruit all year round in our mild climate. If all this activity seems too tiring and you just fancy chilling out and going to the beach, you’re equally welcome!
http://www.lemonhouse.eu/
