Corsica climbing, new Bavella multi-pitch by Arnaud Petit & Co

The red Aiguilles de Bavella granite needles are home to some of Corsica’s most prized multi-pitch rock climbs, with routes like Jeef (7b, 400m) and Delicatessen (8b, 120m) hailed as being among the most beautiful of their grade in Europe. Both of these happened to be first ascended by Arnaud Petit in 1992, the former with his brother François Petit, the latter with Stéphane Husson.

Since then Arnaud had returned to the French island on numerous occasions in his continuous search for new terrain. His latest addition tackles the obvious gap between Jeef and another ultra-classic, Le Dos de l’éléphant on Punta di U Corbu. The bolted multi-pitch climb was established ground-up with Jean-Claude Razel, Manoël Couprie, Laurent Auguste and Emmanuel Faber, and provides 6 pitches of class climbing. La danse de Ganesh starts 15m to the right of Jeef and crosses this at the first belay; the pitches check in as follows: 6b, 6b, 7c, 6c+, 7a+, 8a (3 points of aid at the start).

Petit stated "the route is fairly demanding and although not as extreme as Delicatessen or Octogenese, it will nevertheless provide some pleasant climbing - and no doubt some painful feet!"