canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Fosso di Galantina

Fosso di Galantina is among the main streams going down Monti Sabini to river Tevere. It flows in a really fascinating area, with rupestrian hermitages lost in mediterranean bush. The almost abandoned medieval village of Roccantica looks at Galantina from above.

Galantina canyon shows two different faces, depending on water conditions. It is worth descending Galantina when it's dry, hiking and scrambling its white rocks surrounded by the silence. But, of course, it's better when clear pale-green water fills the pools, and cascades rumble down sparkling into potholes ...

I remember ...

The countryside of Roccantica, a small village at the foot of Sabini Mounts, always fascinates me by its beauty. There's everything nice here: mediterranean woods, little mediaval villages and remains, the sweet sun, a fire-red sky at sunset, ancient paths sometimes dug in the rock ... Somewhere in the forest you may find a forgotten rupestrian hermitage, a cavern, a karst pit ... there are some canyons too! nice and mild like all the rest here.

Among the numerous excursions I did in Sabini Mounts there was the ones to explore Fosso di Galantina. The first was to verify it was really a canyon and to understand which access path was the best. The second time I had rope and gear. I was alone. I needed to place one bolt in a little dry cascade I didn't trust to downclimb. On the other cascades I anchored rope on trees. I didn't see anything making me think of a former descent made by someone else. It was 1996.

Months later I met Alberto Graia ... I had heard about him: a strong climber who had explored and bolted rock walls in the mountains north of Rome. The person I met was a keen on mountains, forests and landscapes. He had gone hiking through Tuscia and Sabina, moved by his will to see and know. I didn't feel astonished knowing that a guy like him had explored some canyons in northern Lazio, even Fosso di Galantina. That kind of man can! He had descended it with 3 partners in august 1991. No need to place a bolt, to leave a trace. But their exploration was destined to remain unknown unless someone else (like me) talk or write about it.

Years have passed, and Alberto never went to Galantina canyon again. Memory is confusing, but he did black-and-white photographs! You can see a few of them aside.
Nowadays Alberto goes on climbing, less than before because family and work leave him less free time than once.

Photographs in this website show ultralight ropes (6 mm ropes made of high tenacity fibers). Read multimedia book Ultralight ropes canyoning technique to learn how to use them.

Copyright © 2002- Michele Angileri. All rights reserved.