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Guide updated on November 9, 2026

Cirque de la Solitude on the GR20: what to know in 2027

Why the Cirque de la Solitude is no longer part of the GR20, the replacement route via the Pointe des Éboulis, and what to know before stage 4.

Long regarded as the most famous section of the GR20, the Cirque de la Solitude has not been on the official route since 2015. Here is what happened and what awaits you today.

The June 2015 tragedy

On June 10, 2015, after a violent storm, a landslide in the cirque killed seven hikers and injured three others. The section, equipped with chains and ladders in a very steep gully, was closed.

The replacement route is now official

The diversion opened afterwards is now the official GR20 route, registered with the FFRandonnée. According to the Park’s description, it involves:

  1. about 45 minutes on the flat along the stream from Haut-Asco, as far as a footbridge;
  2. a climb of about 1,200 m over slabs, with two or three sections equipped with chains and plenty of scree;
  3. the Pointe des Éboulis (2,607 m), which has become the highest point of the GR20;
  4. a long ridge across boulder fields to the Bocca Crucetta, above Lac du Cintu;
  5. the descent to the Tighjettu refuge.

Allow about 8 hours. The FFRandonnée describes this route as “longer and higher” but “less technical”: closer to hiking than to mountaineering. The Park nevertheless considers it “very demanding, both physically and mentally”. See stage 4 in detail.

Can you still go through the cirque?

The sources contradict each other. In 2018, the FFRandonnée announced that the municipal ban had been lifted, while pointing out that the cirque had been neither restored nor re-waymarked (“at your own risk”). In 2026, the Park’s official page describes it as closed to the public by prefectoral and municipal order.

Our advice: the cirque is no longer part of the GR20, it is neither waymarked nor maintained, and the Park says access is prohibited. Follow the official route via the Pointe des Éboulis.

Bonus: Monte Cinto

The new route passes very close to Monte Cinto (2,706 m), the highest summit in Corsica, which you can climb in 1 hr 30 min to 2 hrs there and back from the Pointe des Éboulis when the weather is settled. See the ascent.

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