10. Ziroman

Bouldering in Sicily

During these past few years bouldering in Sicily has been experiencing a moment of great interest and evolution, in spite of it being less popular compared to sports climbing, the boulders of Bosco Scorace have become very popular in Italy and beyond, and for many enthusiasts of this discipline Sicily is becoming a very popular destination. Historically bouldering was an activity carried out by very few climbers and always in small areas which were never very busy. One of the island’s first sites was discovered during the nineties by Antonio Nastri who set up a few problems on limestone boulders along the coast of Barcarella in Palermo, a beautiful place, shaded by pine trees and right on the sea, but quickly forgotten. On the other side of Sicily, exactly at Cava D’Ispica, Giorgio Iurao during the early 2000s had set up a few lines on the boulders of Parco Forza, and during the same period even on the Etneo basalt a few lines ran up in the area of Linguaglossa. These spots represented a small timid attempt of attempting this practice, but they have stayed isolated realities which are rarely used. Bouldering on the island saw a significative impulse when in 2008 the duo of Czech climbers (Ján Smolen and Lukas Cermak) created the Golden Block spot near Taormina, involving a few of the local climbers among these Jonathan Bonaventura who successively developed the area creating the spots of Leto Block (Letojanni- ME) and Fiumedinisi (Fiumedinisi-ME). During the same period the Mountain Guide Massimo Faletti cleaned and set up problems in the spot Poillina Block (near the town of Pollina) in the Park of Madonie. Successively, Stefano Anile and Davide Scornavacca, developed (with the contribution of other local climbers) the spot of Bronte Block (Bronte, CT). Bronte Block represented a first important turning point for bouldering in Sicily because it is one of the first spots of a certain size, cleaned and visited frequently. But the spot which has become the island’s most popular, attracting the best boulderers is Bosco Scorace in the province of Trapani. The woods of il Bosco are beautiful, they offers loads of boulders of all sizes consisting of excellent sand stone which is ideal for climbing. The work of cleaning and fixing the boulders was done mainly thanks to Davide Catalano, Emanuele Vigani and Alessandro Pagani. They

Giorgia Borsani, Il sordo 6c - Bosco Scorace (© M. Cappuccio)