Our objective was to complete the GR20 - a long, high level mountain walk in Corsica - in 7 days, about half the "guidebook" time. We're putting together this blog to record practical details and experiences, and provide some advice to others who might also want to walk the route in a similar style.
We had heard a lot about the GR20 prior to the trip, mainly about it's reputation as one of the toughest and most beautiful long-distance treks in Europe. Having now walked it, I think both of us would agree with that assessment: it is a fantastic route which, despite the large number of trekkers it sees every year, remains wild and remote. We would recommend it to anyone with mountain walking experience.
We trekked over seven days from Friday 9th to Thursday 15th September 2011. Our philosophy was to travel as light as possible and move quickly, completing 2-3 stages in little more than the guidebook time for one stage. This was achievable by carrying 20-25 liter rucksacks, weighing about 4 kilos fully-laden (excluding food and water). We chose to sleep and eat in huts, thus avoiding having to carry camping equipment and excessive amounts of food. We stocked up on day food at various points along the route. This might be a bit more costly, but we found that travelling light and fast added enormously to the enjoyment of the overall experience. If you choose to take a tent and camping equipment you will probably have to adjust the schedule and advice that we provide here.
It's probably worth briefly going through our backgrounds and mentioning how we prepared for the trek, so that you are better placed to plan challenging yet realistic goals. We both have backgrounds in rock climbing and cycling. Tom is an avid skier and Steve is heavily involved in adventure racing and mountain running. Both of us have sedentary day jobs! Tom prepared for the trip by running off-road a few times a week. Generally, we found that most of the days provided solid exercise but were completed without extreme exertion. Steve's background in mountain running obviously set him up strongly for the route and he had little trouble with fatigue, but experienced a couple of ankle twists which could have been more serious. Tom found some of the climbs more taxing and developed some knee strain by the end of the fourth day from the harsh descents, resulting in some pain for the remainder of the trip. This might have been avoided with a rest day mid-route.
In this blog, you'll find general pages about our route, the kit we took, as well as some tips. The page for each day has our GPS track mapped out on a Google Earth widget, along with some photos and a description. We recorded our progress using a small GPS tracking device which we charged using a small solar panel. Note that the device lost signal at the end of Day 1 - the reason for the profiles for the first two days not being linked. There are also some errors in the position of the track at other locations where, presumably, the terrain again obstructed a clear line-of-sight to enough satellites for an accurate fix.
 |
Altitude profile for the GR20
|
