Bruncu Nieddu

Overview

Bruncu Nieddu might be one of the lowest summits of the Supramonte Mountain Range of Sardinia / Sardegna but it is certainly one of the most impressive ones. It is part of the northern ridge of Supramonte, which consists of Bruncu Nieddu, Punta Cusidore, Punta sos Nidos and Punta Ortu Camminu. The mountain has an almost vertical northwest face, which drops from its summit for about 400m. Moreover it is host to a couple of the longest and most difficult climbing routes of the island.

The normal ascent to Bruncu Nieddu, though is much less impressive. It follows the Punta Cusidore normal ascent up Scala di Sovena (between Cusidore and sos Nidos) but then circles Cusidore on its southern side. You have to get into the saddle between the two summits (Cusidore and Nieddu) and then have to follow the Bruncu Nieddu western summit ridge.



Topo for climbing Bruncu Nieddu taken from "http://gomountain.procons.net/".

In climbing importance Bruncu Nieddu pales beside Punta Cusidore. There are - as said above - two long and difficult (6b+, 7b+) routes with an overall length of 270m both. Compare this with the six routes on Punta Cusidore, which almost reach a length of 400m. For those of you who understand Italian you can look at gomountain.procons.net. The topo above is linked to that page.



Interactive overview Map of Supramonte. The summits (and gorges) which have been submitted to SP are marked in red.

Getting There

Sardinia can be reached either by plane or by ferry. The main ports are Porto Torres and Olbia in the north and Arbatax and Cagliari in the south. Airports are at Alghero and Olbia in the north as well as (again) Arbatax and Cagliari in the south. For exploring the northeastern part of the island where most of the mountains are the best entry point is Olbia, which is where most flights go anyway.

Approaching the mountain from Olbia airport
Get on motorway SS 131 south in the direction of Siniscola / Nuoro. At the exit Lula / Dorgali get off and turn on SP38 south (again direction Dorgali). Shortly before you reach the town turn right on SP46, direction Oliena. Take this road up to a sign leading to the chapel of Nostra Signora di Monserrata. Here turn off left.

The following description is a little hard to understand on paper - nevertheless it is quite accurate. Follow the country road for 100m, then turn left. After another 600m turn right and head directly for Punta Cusidore. At an intersection the road turns left again and you follow it for another 600m. Here the asphalt ends and a gravel road takes you to a little fount. From here start to look for spaces to park your car. The road goes on for another 500m before the ascent trail (still a dirt road) starts climbing steeply upwards to the right.