Trek Corsica's GR20 Trail

 

Lace up your hiking boots to pierce the unforgiving granite heart of Corsica. Tramp rugged trails across shepherds' pastures, past high alpine lakes and through pine-scented forests on the route lauded as Europe's toughest trek and France's grandest Rondonnee.

Distance: 170KM
Location: Corsica, France
Ideal Time Commitment: 12 to 16 Days
Best Time of Year: June to Mid-July, Mid-September to Mid-October

•  Catching your breath at the summit of 2706m-high Monte Cinto- then gasping at the breathtaking panoramic vistas across northern Corsica.
• Drinking in the sunset at the Refuge d'Ortu di u Piobbu after your first day's hike, before tuckering into hearty soupe corse.
• Tackling the chains and ladders leading across the vertigo-inducing Cirque de la Solitude.
• Admiring the exquisite glacial lakes of Capitellu  and Melu from the path descending from high-level pass Breche de Capitellu- the trail's highest point.
• Watching climbers- and perhaps a mouflon- haul themselves up the crags of the Aiguilles de Bavella.

Corsica's iconic Grande Randonnee (meaning, literally, "Great Walk") was pioneered 40 years ago, the brainchild pf alpinist Michel Fabrikant. As the Coriscan name Fri li Monti suggests, the rail leads hikers across- and in many cases over- the mountainous interior of this rugged Mediterranean island, stretching 170km between the northern village of Calenzana and Conca, the southern trailhead.
As it's often seen as Europe's toughest long-distance trek, completing all 16 stages of the GR20 is considered a badge of honour for hardcore hikers. But it's also a chance to penetrate deep into the island's remote uplands, accessing the natural and cultural treasures that seem most inaccessible.
The payoff though, is immense. The Park Naturel Regional de Corse, created in 1972 to coincide with the opening of the GR20 trail that weaves through its higher reaches, protects areas of stupendous beauty- alpine lakes, forests of chestnut and oak, stands of Laricio pine and unique Coriscan scrub called the maquis- among which lammergeier and osprey soar above wild boar, Coriscan mouflan and, of course, intrepid trekkers.