canyon exploring with Michele Angileri

Gole di Umbriatico: A Loscia

Hidden among the hills of Presila, not far from Crotone, Umbriatico village rises on a rocky hill surrounded by canyons. The tall sandstone walls all around make the like a natural fortress, a huge castle with moats 100 to 200 meters deep. The only road to Umbriatico can reach the village only by a bridge!
And it's difficult even to get near to the village, because of canyons and rocky walls that force the streets to winding paths. Moreover, landslides often interrupt the roads.
No wonder if only a few people live here: Nature made Umbriatico a hard but also awesome place.

The main Umbriatico canyon is on eastern side of the hill. It's called "Loscia", that means "Slit".

I remember ...

I passed by Umbriatico for the first time in 1991, while going to explore Fosso Cornicello. Anyone who passes by Umbriatico cannot fail to notice the canyons but, of course, cannot say if they are interesting canyoning routes.
To understand it, a couple of years later I did a reconnaissance, bottom-up, starting at the narrow called U Strittu. Wonderful environment, great scenery, but the kind of rock (tender sandstone) was not right for hosting an interesting canyoning route. So I went to other places searching for unknown canyons.

It was only years later that I realized the rock in upper Umbriatico valleys was not tender sandstone but tough gneiss, perfect for hosting narrows and cascades.
And in fact the interesting part was there, upstream.

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