Sicily is the logical and aesthetic end-point for an Italian climbing road trip. Not only is it the obvious objective, perched at the farthest extremity of the peninsula (a good 2,000 miles drive from home!) but it’s also chock full of climbing. By far the best known area, at least to Brits, is centred around the seaside resort of San Vito Lo Capo, near the north western tip of the island. Also handy for Palermo airport if you don’t fancy the drive, which was why we’d arranged to meet Jim and Ruth there.

There’s an absolute tonne of rock in the vicinity, with cliffs up to 400m towering above town, and scattered towers and outcrops, but it’s Scogliera di Salinella that’s the main attraction. Imagine a crag the length of Stanage (that’s over 4km for those who don’t know Stanage!), but composed of white, grey and orange limestone, up to 60m high in places. Now perch it set back from the sea by a hundred metres or so (close enough for the sound and scent of a seacliff but without the tiresome tides and abseiling). Finally, sprinkle liberally with blue skies and sunshine, park a climber-friendly campsite at one end. Carlsberg don’t do crags, but…

With around a thousand routes, there’s plenty to go at, and we explored most of the major sectors over the course of a couple of weeks, as well as visiting some of the neighbouring crags (see the next post for these). Rather than confuse you with our random wanderings, or bore you with a day-by-day account, here’s a run down of some of the primo spots and most memorable routes, working from north to south down the cliff. You can’t do justice to 4km of crag in one blog post, so this Part 1 gets us from the North to the Campsite…

North – the northern end of the cliffs is accessed through the town and along a muddy track to a series of parking spots. How far you drive, rather than walk, depends on how much rain there’s been, how lucky you are feeling and whether you’ve taken out excess cover on your hire car. We didn’t witness it first hand, but some Canadians were regailing us with tales of a row of bogged-down Fiat 500s following rains in the week before we arrived. Somewhat smuggly, we were able to drive all the way to The Zoo sector…

The routes are surprisingly upright for the grade, as the in situ teams of locals were demonstrating.

Some recommended routes were the charmingly named Beautiful Hamster, 5a, Natalie, 6a+, Patrik, 6c, Alicia Right, 6a (with Jim showing how it’s done – below:

The adjacent Grotta di Cala Mancina contains the stunning Toyo 17, 6c, a huge traddy pilgrimage through successive holes linked by gnarly cracks…

… and a wilting finale.

Centre – the middle of the crag can either be accessed from above through a notch in the escarpment (look out for the red letterbox near the Conad supermarket) or from the campsite (the drive only saves a few hundred metres flat walk along the beach).

The farthest / most northerly of the sectors is Karsten Oelze Memorial Wall which has a small number of really impressive, long routes. An 80m would be ideal though we got away with a 60m, some jiggery pokery, and of course a knot in the end of the rope.

Ferryman is a stupendous 40m 6b

… with a superb crack splitting the upper headwall.

Helen caught the Golden Hour for her ascent of Happy Cleaning, a superb 35m 5c

… just before the sun set…

The next sector in sequence is Fakiros Wall, another tall sector, tucked out of sight from the campsite and much more tranquil than the Bunker for the sake of another 100m.

Toasty on the day we visited, and I ended up as a sweaty and sulky mess on Mate, 6c. Helen fared much better on Ciao Cesko, 6a

The impressive tall, leaning Bunker sector is clearly visible from the campsite – here’s a sunset shot including a parapent:

It’s no less impressive on closer inspection. Dall’Alba al Tramonto is a huge 50m voyage up the full height of the crag, starting up a 30m 6b+ with a really tough, and slightly baffling move, where the route splits out left. This is topped off with a 20m 6c up an obvious orange streak (less travelled, so harder to read but less polished) for a 6c+ tick if you make it in a oner. Epic!

Here I am halfway through the top pitch…

Further left the crag is slightly lower, with plenty of recommended routes including La Piccola, 6a, Red Arete, 5c and Happy Otzis, 6a…

Zodiac Wall is a bit further south / nearer the campsite. Here’s Ruth on Uranus, 5b

… and Jim on Libra, 5b

Further right again is Cafeteria, with the prize for prickliest route of the trip going to Cafe Elaborato, 6c

Here’s the view back towards the campsite from the central access notch. Plenty more climbing to be had there…

Campsite – the crags immediately above Camping El Bahira are literally a stone’s throw from some of the tent pitches. You could almost belay from your pit!

They’re not quite so impressive as some of those either side, being shorter and a bit more discontinuous, but you can’t fault the convenience. Soundcheck is the left/north-most of these, which we visited on the afternoon of our arrival for a quick YECTOYD. The namesake 6c features a really stiff pull through a roof (easier once you’ve worked out what you are going for).

Here’s Helen on Be Quiet, 6a

That’s a good point to break our north-south traverse of Scogliera Di Salinella – just in time for a sundowner on the beach.

… and an arty shot through a rocky hole.

Tune back for the next installment as we head South.