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Of Corsica we're hiking

May 2018 - April 2024
An open-ended adventure by Merry & Leo Read more
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  • Of Corsica we're hiking
    Day 2

    Ready and excited :)

    May 19, 2018 in France ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    After the longest trip for Leo to get to Corsica (cancelled flights + sleeping in 3 airports + bad rerouting), we're finally together and all prepared for our hike!

    We ran some last errands yesterday and are now ready for our bus to take us south for the trailhead of our 2 week journey across Corsica.

    Off we go!    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    Day 2

    Making a full day of a half day

    May 19, 2018 in France ⋅ ☁️ 12 °C

    Our journey begins today with a 3 hour bus ride south. It's crazy to think we'll be going on foot for days to make the same distance, slowly heading back north in the wilderness. Around noon we arrive in Conca, a small town on the foot of Corsica's southern mountains. We start our hike here, our backpacks filled with supplies for the next 14 days and our heads full of adventures to be had together.

    The downside of starting in the early afternoon is the extreme heat, it feels like we don't even need to be moving to start sweating right away :) The rocky trail starts in a young and bright green forest. After a few hours of uphill, there is a rock gap to walk through (picture 3), and we both agree it's like a rock gate into a new world - from here, we're secluded from street and city noises and surrounded by only rock, nature and the mountains. Just what we were looking for! :)

    We follow the white-red trail markings (picture 2) along small waterfalls and swimming holes and then lots more uphill all the way to our first camp spot with views all the way to the ocean. Because of the late start, we get there just in time to set up the tent before dark. Since we're exhausted and it's dark anyways, we decide to eat dinner inside the tent and pass out right after.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
    Day 3

    Just kidding :)

    May 20, 2018 in France ⋅ 🌙 10 °C

    After the early night, we got up at 5:30am and were rewarded with a gorgeous sunrise over the hills in the distance. For breakfast, we have different flavors of oatmeal / cereal / nut mixes in hot water that we eat throughout the morning from small water bottles. It gives us energy til we start lunch snacks in the afternoon.

    Our hike today was super fun! We chose an "alpine variante" of the GR20, which goes up a steep rocky climb and then along the side of big rock faces (we got excited to see a few climbers on those walls beside our trail). One section had a fixed chain to help hikers stay safe on a steep slab of granite. It was definitely an adventure and the joke of the day was Leo saying "it should be all downhill from here" and then the trail continuing uphill and Mareike laughing "just kidding". After a few times, any uphill was commented with a celebratory "just kidding" :)

    Another cool thing we saw on the way were giant trains of caterpillars, one of them over 10 meters long. We saw several on the forest floor, looking like snakes from a distance.

    Just before our next camp spot, we had a tricky river crossing with a slippery boulder that you could step on and pray or do one bigger jump to avoid the slippery one altogether. I (Mareike) wasn't quite feeling up to it with a still recovering ankle and so after trying to be stubborn and finding another way on my own, Leo went over twice with both packs and then I could easily do the jump with no weight on my back. It was a great reminder that we're great as a team and that we need to think as a team in order to make the most of our life together.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    Day 4

    Hiking with our heads in the clouds

    May 21, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Our second morning and we're starting to recognize the same hikers going north on the GR20 at the same time - there's two french guys who usually pass us at some point in the day, an older German couple who have done the trek many times but who decided not to carry their own food anymore like they used to, and 3 Ukrainians our age that we chatted with a bit.

    Again today, we choose an "alpine route" that goes over the summit of Monte Incudine (2134m) instead of the regular GR20 along a valley trail. The day starts steeeeep, with an easy snow patch to cross and then after the summit in the early morning, we follow the ridgeline on a pretty easy, steady downhill trail into a lovely valley of streams, meadows and forests. We saw the coolest salamanders!

    We also are introduced to ridgeline fogs that make route finding more challenging as well as Corsica's rains, which can be short and easy or long and heavy, but should never be underestimated. We made exactly that mistake and didn't take the rain seriously in the valley. "It'll end any minute"... but it never did. We got SO wet! The last 2 hours to our campsite followed another ridgeline with steep dropoffs on either side and we had to negotiate a few easy climbing sections (made more difficult with large heavy packs) along the way. In the rain or fog (they switched back and forth), we needed to be completely focused and eventually made it safely. We had several more laughing about our "this must have been the last of the uphill" moments and kept in good spirits. We were so glad to be in a dry tent, dry clothes and eating our hot dinner inside the tent (again ;) ) as the rain continued throughout the night.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    11
    Day 5

    The rain just won't stop

    May 22, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 11 °C

    Sunshine! We feel it on the tent in the morning and get to work quickly to dry our stuff in the sun :) As we start the day, we talk to our fellow hikers - all the groups are unsure what to do. Everyone got soaked to the bones, a few hikers much more than us. We decide to give our stuff a good dry and then do a half day, as others start heading out. BUT we still play by nature's rules and so our half day for drying is cut awefully short by the next rain clouds - so we run and pack everything as quickly as possible. Around 10am, we start with a steep uphill and then a nice easy downhill into the forest.

    For our half day camp spot, we had read about an old hikers hut in our guide books, an abandoned refugio in the middle of the forest. It lays a bit off route and we get to play the trail finding game again, but manage to find old trail markings one by one. I will admit, we are both a bit creeped out the deeper we go into the unknown forest. We get there about 20 minutes away from the GR20 and start to look around. It's an old vacation hut that's barely been used in the last few years but otherwise in good shape. There are pots above a stove in the kitchen, beds and a fireplace in the other room. It looks like the mice have taken over here and we decided to dry our stuff off the clothes lines but sleep outside in the tent.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    1
    Day 6

    Playing the GR20 game

    May 23, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 12 °C

    Feeling rested and -more importantly- dry, we start the day in sunshine! A nice change ;) spoiler: it doesn't stay dry all day though :D

    Our trail begins steep out of the forest and back on the rocky ridge line. The views from these ridges are so stunning and change from left to right and back. The fog still does its best to hide views here and there, but we get good peaks down the valleys and over more rocky mountain tops again and again. What a beautiful place we get to explore together!

    The fog keeps us playing another game, what we simply call "the GR20 game". Our trail mostly stays on the highest point of the mountain ridges and it's often mind blowing to see the rocky faces in front of you and to think there is a trail to go up them somewhere. The game is simple :)
    - the fog clears and you see a high, steep, rocky mountain ahead
    - you try to guess if the GR20 trail will go right over top it
    - the answer is usually yes :)

    Compared to the last few days, we start seeing more and more hikers on the trail, a few larger guided groups as well. At one section, we get to our first longer crossing over snow, which we do carefully and safely. One of the guides tries to steer his group above the snow and ends up in a much worse place, having his hikers go over a much steeper snow patch and a tricky downhill, just to join our snow trail in the end anyways.

    Of course, it wouldn't be a day of hiking in Corsica if it didn't end in more fog and rain though :) By now we've learnt and are much better at staying dry in our rain layers though! We follow the beautiful trail down into another forest and enjoy all the spring flowers of the season. We camp at a refugio in the middle of the forest and enjoy the rest of the day with other hikers and planning for the next day. Leo met two French hikers, one of which had fallen into a spiky bush and who had tens of splinters all over his hands. With his headlamp handy, he got to be surgery assistant for about half an hour or so. We both decide to be careful which bushes to fall into in the future ;)    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    Day 7

    Route finding a must

    May 24, 2018 in France ⋅ ☀️ 15 °C

    Waking up with out the sound of rain on the tent gives us hope, and when we stick our heads out for a peak and see blue sky we look to each other and say "we're clear for our summit bid". We kick it into high gear to leave camp as quickly as possible, our goal for the day is another alpine variant over the top of the South's highest peak, Monte Renoso.

    As we walk out of camp Mareike mentions a trail that will save us an hour getting to our approach. We quickly agree this is the best option and vear from the GR20, climbing the forested hills from rock cairn to rock cairn in route to the i'Pozzi bivouac.

    From the base of the approach we keep a close eye on the skies around us, we both know that thunderstorms end our journey to the top. We use our ice axes and crampons to reach the first saddle and pull out the map and GPS to confirm and discuss our route. From here we find the trail to not be much more difficult than other parts of our journey. We are able to reach the summit with only a couple short climbing sections and celebrate the top of Monte Renoso with sugary dragon tongue candy.

    Mareike brings up another variation to our trail down that would save us a day on the trail and keep us out of the valley. It's a ridge trail that connects into another trail that is supposed to be fun for kids, in the end we both highly doubted people take their kids here.

    There's not enough space to tell the story of the next 6 hours of our journey. It's a story to share over a hot meal or a cold beer with friends and family. We became stronger yet as a team as we negotiated thick fog, trails that seemed to end in cliffs, trails that were nonexistent, looming rock towers and snowfields that would play hide and seek and numerous up and down climbs through the granite. In the end we felt like we had the best adventure yet and truly used all of our mountain knowledge along the way. We also couldn't have been happier to get off our feet and lie down after a 12 hour day.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    Day 8

    Rest day turned last day

    May 25, 2018 in France ⋅ ☀️ 17 °C

    Today's goal was mostly to investigate how to best continue our journey. We head on a short one hour hike to Vizzavona, where the southern part of the GR20 ends and the northern higher altitude part starts.

    Besides finding a big lunch at a local restaurant, we also find Emile, the local "wise old man" when it comes to mountaineering in this area. We go over maps of the upcoming hikes and he shows us all the potential hazards (=mostly snow on steep parts of the trail as well as snow slides due to all the late snow they got this year).

    The result: most of the days (including tomorrow's) are still covered in too much snow on dangerously steep slopes too continue. And we decide to come back for the North half of the trail another year, instead of going around all the fun and most scenic parts of this trail now. And the alternative isn't bad: 2 weeks of climbing the mountains we've already fallen in love with :)    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
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    Day 10

    Clanca Murata - T6 route

    May 27, 2018 in France ⋅ ⛅ 21 °C

    After being forced into a seaside resort for the night due to a big rally car race around the Northern peninsula of Corsica, we spent the day in Bastia trying to figure out the most economical way to Bavella for climbing.

    Since buses don't make there way there until July and camping is a 10 minute drive away, we rented a car for 14€ a day. And yes, the car runs.

    In Bavella we took to the hills and spent a couple hours route finding our way up Clanca Murata. With no large packs today we were able to do some more intensive scramble climbing to the top.

    It was another great experience in route finding. There weren't any markers this time but we came across some old climbing bolts so we felt like we did a great job reading the rock.    Read more

  • Of Corsica we're hiking
    Day 14

    Leo's pretend project

    May 31, 2018 in France ⋅ 🌙 17 °C

    We like to talk about having a project climb. Basically a climb that's one level above what you think you can climb and will take numerous attempts to complete. When we arrived in Bavella to climb we were 5b climbers (according to the French system). 5b is one of many climbing grades given to each route so you know whether you have a fighting chance to climb a route.

    While flipping through the guidebook in camp Leo saw a picture of a beautiful looking 5c route. "This should be our project". Mareike agreed that the route looked amazing and it was set, we had a project. This meant we would spend some time attempting the route, trying to reach the top figuring out the moves.

    The climb was a beautiful dihedral that had a couple slices running up the gut creating flakes to use as hands or foot jams. When we looked at the bottom of the climb the start was a great bouldery start (gymnastic type moves to get up). From there it was up a face and then you gain the final crack.

    As far as a project goes, well we both completed the climb first try. The start was a blast to figure out and took a series of about 5 moves to gain maybe a meter. Then after the first face, there was a large block to climb around/on top of using some holds underneath the block. At the top of the final crack we both agreed that after the last piece of protection you had to commit and make the final moves to the anchor.

    We've never felt so excited to finish a climb before. Both of us let out yells of excitement upon reaching the top. It might not have been a project, but we both agreed it was the funnest climb of the trip yet.    Read more

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