UKC

Hi,

Has anybody had any experience climbing around San Vito lo Capo?

It looks like a promising destination for my club's international trip.

We'll be a group of about 20, most of us climbing 5s and low 6s. We're also trying to avoid having to hire a car (student budgets and all that

Any tips/advice/general local knowledge/recommendations etc would be greatly appreciated! Even if that means suggesting somewhere completely different Thanks!

Hi Sasha

Just come back from a week there where we are working on a new Rockfax guide due out at the end of next year.

It is a great place although difficult without a car but not impossible. You won't see some of the best crags without one and I don't know how you would get from the airport - could be a bus but certainly no trains and it is 1.5 hours by car. You could conceivably hire fewer cars than the full team need and do a bit of ferrying. 

The biggest area is the long line of cliffs above the El Bahira camping area and further to the north - Scogliera Di Salinella. This has easily enough for everyone for a week, is mostly reachable on foot from the campsite, and the campsite offers you the cheapest accommodation option as well I suspect - https://www.elbahira.it/eng/
There is a supermarket on the campsite but it is not open in the climbing season (Oct to March) so a car is needed to get into the big supermarket in the town.

Probably the best climbing though is on the bigger crags away from the campsite area. These are close enough to be very quick trips by car but probably a bit too far to walk. The UKC logbooks are fully up to date so you can check them out. 

Scogliera Di Salinella - El Bah... - click on the crags around there on the map.

Overall it is a super area and well worth considering. Take your swimming kit for dips in the sea which is next to the campsite.

Alan

My old climbing club did this exact trip - 22 people and a range of grades. It was fantastic! Lovely place, amazing climbing, clear blue sea. Definitely recommend cars though... Enjoy! 

Hi. We did exactly this, but probably 6 or 7 years ago now. Used an airport transfer service for the two of us from Palermo. It wasn't that expensive and would probably be cheaper for a bigger group.

We were there for a week, and there was plenty of climbing for us to go at without a car. Stayed in a cheap apartment in town.

best Mediterranian climbing spot for grades below 6b that I have been to!

Hi, not sure when you are going - but Kalymnos is the best destination without a car - lots of quality crags in reach either walking or by passenger ferry, also good bus service. Cheap accommodation and eating out etc. Cheap flights to Kos. Sicily is also great but I think a car would be essential, plus more expensive for accommodation and drinks etc. 

Dorine

I’m there now. Get the ClimbAdvisor app for the best up to date topos and route info. Agree with Alan James on the crag he mentions.

Thanks for such a detailed reply, Alan, really appreciated! There's some accomodation in the Calamancina area that we've been looking at as well as the campsite, hoping that if the walk is nice enough we won't mind a couple hour's trek to crags.

The idea is to find somewhere that can be manageable carless, and then see if we can figure out a rental as a bonus.

Shame that the new guides won't be out in time for our trip!

Thanks again,

Sasha

 I did to look at Kalymnos as it looks like a dream, but admittedly the travelling once there seemed quite complicated/long/expensive ... how did you make your way to Kalymnos?

Thanks!

Hi Jamie, do you remember what airport transfer service in particular you used? No worries if not, just scraping for recommendations in thehope it will make the trip smoother if we do go  

Excellent news, much needed.

What's wrong with Sicily-Rock?

Ok so the travel to Kalymnos is indeed long and slightly complicated but it's definitely worth it.  The climbing, food, scenery and friendly vibe are all incredible. 

To get there I fly to Kos, Taxi to Mastahari (15 mins, available right outside the airport), ferry to Pothia (main town on Kalymnos), Taxi to Mirties (15 mins, they'll be waiting at the harbour).  Yes it's got a lot of steps, and transfers but they're all super easy and waiting for you right where you need to be so can't really go wrong.

Whilst you're there, lot and lots of crags are accessible by walking, howver to get the best out of the island I'd reccomend hiring a scooter, at least for some of the days.  They're widely available in Mirties, at around 12 Euros a day.

If you want to go somewhere that really doesn't involve car rental have you thought about Geyikbayırı?  I understand the JoSiTo campsite is in walking distance from loads of crags.  Never been myself but it looks amazing.

Probably nowt but I had trouble sourcing an English version of it when I was looking into going to Sicily earlier this year.  Might have been reprinted by now?

I tend to buy locally published guides, but where the local guide is difficult to find, outdated or poorly translated it's a bit difficult.

Latest 2017? version seems available now (with excellent English translation!).

The latest (7th) edition went to the printers on Thursday so probably out next week (it's printed locally). The 6th edition is available direct as will be the new one from Gebro Verlag.

There is of course a bus service but it's to Trapani as that is the provincial capital, you get the bus from the airport to Trapani then another to San Vito, it works but it's a pain!

The campsite do transfers. They also do shopping/,restaurant runs into the town though whether they do when you are there I don't know. Or bikes/e-bikes etc are readily available. To the town is 30mins on foot mostly flat going.

All the crags are walkable, depends on you! I'm lazy so never walked to the further ones  but all the rest.

Ah well guess I didn't look hard enough?!

Geyikbayiri is probably a better option if fixated on not using hire cars. I stayed at Kezban's Guesthouse a few years ago which is next to JoSiTo and they did an airport transfer. Climbing was excellent and there was enough to do for me without climbing harder than 6a (there is a lot of amazing looking stuff at harder grades too).

Otherwise I would recommend going to Costa Blanca and using Laracars which are a fair bit cheaper than the hire cars in Sicily.

Thanks.

Daimon Beail has been working on this one for a number of years and it looks excellent. We are in touch with Danny Arena who runs the climbing shop/bar in the town and runs the bolt fund - he does a lot of rebolting work. We will be working with him with regard to helping directly with bolt funding and also publicising how visitors can help. With it being a seaside area the bolting issue is much more significant and they are now looking at using titanium bolts (from Sheffield!) which we saw Danny placing while we were there.

https://www.climbingspotfactory.com/en/article/carmela.malomo/first-titan-b...

The Rockfax will also include the best crags around Palermo.

There are three other guidebooks available to the area - a Vertical Life book from 2013, an all-Sicily book from 2015, and the 'Sicily Rock' book which is produced by a couple of German guys and is updated regularly.

Alan

The UKC logbooks don't look very up to date. There are a few starred routes, and a dearth of comments, Al..

John C

They are very up-to-date in terms of routes listed - that is what I mean by 'up-to-date'.

Stars and comments follow once a consensus and popularity are established.

Alan

If anyone is curious about what Alan means by "the bolting issue is much more significant" he is referring to something called "Stress Corrosion Cracking" which is explained (in a massively hammed up way) here:

https://www.theuiaa.org/documents/safety/UIAA-WARNING-ABOUT-CLIMBING-ANCHOR...

Areas where this has cropped up as an issue are shown here:

https://www.theuiaa.org/mountaineering/identifying-the-worlds-corrosion-loc...

I organised the annual SunRock meet here for the Rucksack Club about 4 years ago. Great destination! You can pick up a load of beta on the crags and logistics here:

https://rockaroundtheworld.co.uk/category/italy/sicily/

Specifically regarding hire cars, I got a deal for well under a hundred quid and I'd be surprised if you can manage airport transfers for less. PM me if you want any specific advice  

Cheers, Dom 

Thanks Al.

JC