PUGLIA Rock 

For an area like Puglia, which is certainly not famous for its mountains, the ten years that separate us from the last edition may seem like a short period of time with few significant innovations. This is not the case, and this becomes immediately clear when choosing to dedicate this edition exclusively to climbing in Puglia, thus reducing the spatial extent of the previous A Sud guides (Versante Sud, 2006).

If you’re wondering where the news is, you’ll have to look for the most important ones at sea! In recent years, Puglia has become an important tourist destination also for Deep Water Solo along its magnificent cliffs. But even in the most classic rocks, sport climbing follows the trend in the rest of Italy, and even here, where the few existing mountains are replaced by the numerous gorges that we call gorges, there are a lot of new routes.

Some projects have become routes, and many sections have taken on significant dimensions, so that you can climb for several days and try out different routes again and again. New jobs have been discovered and some have yet to be exploited. Finally, some cliffs whose anchorages were damaged, especially those on the Gargano, were refitted and provided with new routes. With the contribution of the “Books For Bolts” project by Rocciaeresina and the Fasi Pulgiesi companies from San Giovanni Rotondo to Santa Maria di Leuca, the playground has grown in quantity and quality of offer.

In Puglia you will find a small rock paradise where you can have fun, always with particular attention to safety, respect for nature and those who live and work in the area.

Graziano Montel, born in 1971, moved tons of Apulian rock, creating and consolidating a reality that is still in constant evolution today. As a Federal Instructor and Tracker (FASI), after thirty years of activity, he continues to be the point of reference in the region, always equipping new rocks, renovating old ones, discovering boulders and devoting himself to tracking and indoor teaching. Whether rock, resin or Rock&resin, his passion for the vertical is insatiable and all-encompassing, open to the rapid changes our discipline has experienced in recent years. When you hear the sound of a drill on a rock in Puglia, you can be sure that Graziano is there and something new is being created!