• Haut Ascu – Tighjettu
• July 2023

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Feeling as refreshed as we could be we were up and away and back on the trail with no real thoughts of ‘the escape route’ and no mention of our route being closed. Although we had only spent two nights in the tent previously it felt like more and believe you me we are so used to camping and roughing it.

Infact today let’s talk about camping here on the GR20.  I feel I need to be honest and as realistic with this description as I possibly can be and not gloss over the situation.  Camping spaces here are not ideal, infact they are far from it.  We are pitching our tent on hard and rocky ground every night, struggling to get your pegs in the ground or actually struggling to fit your tent in a space and ours is a small 2-person tent.  No one in the refuges care whether you get a spot or not.  Now considering we are paying approximately 14 Euros a night for hiking with our own tent.  I wouldn’t have an issue with this if we got a spot.  We also reserved all our spaces and paid upfront before arriving.  If you don’t and you show up, they simply double the cost which is ridiculous.  Therefore you have no real freedom to continue walking should you feel you want to, your kind of stuck.  You could loose your money however in that refuge and pay double at the next refuge but that actually really annoys me as I personally feel its just about making money to these guys and they actually do not care.  In the ‘campsites’ and I use that term loosely as most are nowhere near designed liked campsites there is noise at night, noise in the morning.  Camp mates don’t seem to care if your sleeping, it’s a case of each person to their own kind of attitude here,  if I’m up at 4am then so is everyone else.  No hiking etiquette at all which I find disappointing.  There is also a big no to wild camping on the GR20, which for us would have been the best option, quieter and certainly more hygienic!  We even sometimes have cows and horses in with us roaming around and doing their business on our doorstep.

So back to the hike.  This walk proved to be long and technical and took us across the highest point of the GR20.  Depending on the harshness of the winter, this point can stay snowed in through to June.

The start of the walk was relatively easy.  I say easy but compared to the rest it’s the only way I can describe it.  As we get to the middle the elevaion increases with some scrambling. 

We continue up and then as we get nearer the top we begin to encounter steep scrambling sections, blocs, slabs and a few chains.  We reach a top but not THE top to find its getting steeper. 

This goes on for ages until we reach the top but again not THE ACTUAL TOP.  Here we take a break, catch our breath and take in the views before heading upwards again.  

The final sections terrain turns to steep scrambling then steep scree, just when you think you’ve got no more in the legs there’s even more to go…every single day goes on like this. It’s very slow going and tough.  We eventually reach the actual top.

From the highpoint ‘Point des Eboulis’ you can branch off and do Monte Cinto, the highest summit on the Island at 2706m.

From here we then cross the ridge and start to traverse the mountain making our way to Bocca Crucetta. Again our surroundings are stunning.  Some of the scrambling here is quite sketchy but fun.

Then finally we have a long long steep descent down the valley as per usual which takes forever and brings us out just below Tighjettu refuge.

This had been a massive day on the hill with over 8 hours of really strenuous hiking, scrambling and climbing. 

Just when you think it should be all over with, the GR20 hits you with another 3 hours of full on craziness to try and push you over the edge.  Aswell as the physicality of the hike it really does test your mental strength.  I guess that’s why they call it the toughest trek in Europe.

We reach the campsite and although it has stunning views, some of the spots are literally hanging of the mountain.  Not too sure how much health and safety is taken into account here but it certainly is an eye opener. 

We find a spot way down the mountain and it’s literally a hike back up to the ‘toilets’ and the ‘showers’.  There was therefore no visit to a toilet or shower due to the hike up.  In addition there was only two toilets here for the whole campsite and it was not the cleanest (I will discuss these later).  The hiking is hard, but the campsites I feel are harder.  There is no respite here.  In fact I would go as far to say that when we hiked to Everest Base Camp in Nepal, a 3rd world country conditions were better.  And I could 100% say their hospitality was so much better in the way they treated and looked after each other and their guests – very ironic all things considering.

So we try our best to settle down for the night and catch 1 or 2 hours of sleep to get us through another 8 or so hours of full on hiking tomorrow.

Hope you enjoyed the video above ☝