UKC

I'm considering planning a climbing trip to Sardinia for this coming September/October and could do with a few tips from people that have been before.

Where have people stayed? I'm likely to be with a group of about ten people so it would be good if we could stay in the same place/close proximity. Also where is it best to be based to get a really good taste of what the island has to offer? None of us really boulder/trad climb but some multi-pitch would be nice. Also I've noticed there doesn't seem to be a guidebook covering the whole island. Which one(s) would people recommend?

Cheers for the help! 

My partner and I went last year and it was absolutely great so I do go!

We moved around a bit, stayed in Igleseas (Air BnB), The Lemon House (say hi to Ricky for us), and then it rained so we abandoned our plans to head to the north and stayed in Cagliari for a few days.

Igleseas was good, not touristy at all and there's loads of climbing around, but also Ulassai or Cala Gannone would be great places to base yourselves for a bit too.  Remember Sardinia is a massive island so if you're staying in the South a day trip to the North is an epic journey so you may want to move about a bit (depending on how long you're there for).

Pietra di Luna (http://www.climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/Sardinia-Rock-Climbing-Guidebo...) covers most of the island, but some places in not much detail, and has some misleading/vague/poor translation.  If you're climbing at Ulassai there's another little book I'd reccomend for there  (https://www.climbingulassai.com/guidebook-2/) as the main book doesn't cover it in much detail.

There's also a separate trad and Multi pitch book http://www.climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/Sardinia-Trad-and-Multi-Pitch-... but we didn't buy it so no idea how good it is.  There are some (but limited) multi pitch routes in the other book

A word on the routes - some of the older crags are pretty undergraded, so if you see that that the FA was in the 80's expect it to feel much harder than the advertised grade.  Also some of the crags have routes that are sport/trad so the guidebook will sometimes say something like "nuts useful" so avoid these like the plague if you're not into trad.

Great trip though, will certainly go back!

Edit: Let me know if there's anything else you need to ask, we had to work a lot of it out last year so am happy to help!

Thank you for all that info! That's answered all my questions for now but will probably end up messaging you again. 

Cheers

Anyone got any recommendations for routes upto 7c+? Ideally shady

We are staying in cala ganome so local to there would be ideal. 

We were in Sardinia over Easter, there are lots of climbing opportunities of all kind.

I can't help with accommodations because I was there with my family and we had only small house rented.

For climbing we tried the canyon in Ulassai, which as described is a large area with 150 routes in nice Dolomite, closely bolted. Because of the canyon nature I think it is quite shady in the summer. Tehre are some climber specific B&Bs in the town of Ulassai but not much else.

We also climbed near Baunei at the cost, in granite. This was at the Pedro Longa area, there are several crags directly next to the street and multi-pitch climbing is possible at the Pedro Longa itself in a stunning environment. 

For guides we used the "climbing maps" of Ogliastra which has a map on the one side and the topos n the other. We also used the 2018 released Jerzu guide for all the crags in Ulassai, Jerzu and surrounding area. For the coastal area we climbed there would also be a just released Baunei climbing guide, which is useful if you want to do the multipitches. It was available in a local shop in Santa Maria Navarese.

For Cala Gonone there exist several guides including one at the vertical Life app. I didn't use any of them though.

This website is very helpful:

https://www.climbingsardinia.com/all-climbing-areas-in-sardinia/

As a general advise consider that all driving except on the major highways takesd place on windy mountain roads. The roads are usually in very good condition just steep, narrow and lots of curves. Average speed maybe 50 kph, so don't plan on driving long distances.

The big thing I remember about roads in Sardinia is that they tend to put a signpost to a destination at any turn-off which could possibly get you there, even if it means driving along 20 miles of windy backroads in and out of villages where you could have just stayed on the main road, turned off half a mile from the place you were heading for and gone straight there.

Using satnav / a phone / a decent road map is a good idea, basically.

Yes to this, don't just rely on the direction from the guidebook as they're super misleading and you're likely to get lost  (I have a story about this involving a dirt road, a very steep hill, a horse and a group of kids who emerged out of the forest)...

Also quite a few of the crags involve quite long drives on really quite rough, steep and narrow dirt roads so you'll start questioning if you've gone wrong if you're not 100% on where you're going...

There's also topos for new routes online, some nice looking multipitches in the southwest. We stayed at the Lemon house which was good, but I don't know if you'll fit all of you in. Ulassai canyon has shade, as do bits of Jerzu and the crag on the way down to Pedra Longa. We went at end of May and it got too hot to climb hard in the heat of the day in the sun, so we climbed in the morning or after tea and went for a swim in the afternoons.   Driving anywhere takes ages and makes people carsick if you press on.

That crag on the way down to Pedra Longa is decent.  Some monster juggy crack climbs there, loads of fun!