Rock climbing in Meteora

The rock climbing at Meteora consists of huge pinnacles and monasteries (like Montserrat in Spain), with some of these monasteries located on top of the pinnacles. The routes at Meteora are a mixture of sport and trad climbing, and they vary between single pitch and multi-pitch routes up to 285m long.

There is a considerable variation in the amount of fixed gear (bolts and some pegs) used on routes and, historically the ethic was to use as little as possible. Therefore, you can climb a well-bolted single pitch route, and then a more committing multi-pitch trad route, where you will need to place nuts and cams along with the occasional bolt or peg.

The main rock type is conglomerate that consists of a variety of pebbles and larger stones on a surface that looks like concrete. The style of the climbing is to either pull on the slippery pebble or crimp the concrete dish where it used to be. Climbing, on the majority of the routes, requires balance with technical delicate moves on slabby or vertical rock. Many of the routes are in the F5a to F6c+ grade range, though harder quality routes are also available.

There are 3 very different climbing guidebooks for Meteora that are all available from our shop.

1. The Meteora best of the Classics Guidebook describes 206 of the best multi-pitch routes, offering both trad and modern routes.
2. The Meteora Sport Climbing Guidebook describes the single pitch sport routes, as well as some bolted multi-pitch routes.
3. Meteora is included in the Rock around the World guidebook. In this guidebook it describes 22 multi-pitch routes at Meteora, ranging from 100m up to 250m long, with grades ranging from F5c to F6b+. Further information is then given about the style of climbing found at Meteora, what fixed gear generally exists, and a suggestion of what gear is required for climbing at Meteora.

Close to Meteora are the crags of Theopetra, Sarakina, Pyli and Mouzaki. These crags offer well-bolted sport climbing on good quality limestone rock, except Sarakina which is sandstone. The climbing is often steep including routes with tufas on clean rock. Theopetra is the largest of these crags with over 150 routes, of which the majority are single sport routes up to 35m long. There are also some multi-pitch routes here up to 165m long, some of which require trad gear.

The sport climbing routes at Meteora, Theopetra, Pyli, Mouzaki, and Sarakinaare described in the Meteora Sport Climbing Guidebook, which is available to buy from our shop.

At Rizoma there is a good bouldering area on sandstone rock. This area is reasonably well developed with approximately 100 problems, with most of the problems marked with numbers or arrows. There is a good range of grades here (Fb 2a to 7b+), though the more popular problems are in the Fb 5a to 6c+ range. A crash mat is advisable though most of the boulders are not that high, which makes the bouldering very enjoyable.

Meteora is located in the northern half of Greece, near the town of Trikala, with the closest main city being Larisa. The best time to visit the Meteora area for climbing is from autumn through to the spring, though it can be cold (and sometimes snow) in the winter.  The popular place for rock climbers to stay is the Vrachos campsite at Kastraki.

To get the most out of the rock climbing at Meteora (with it's unique atmosphere), it is advisable to take twin 50m ropes and trad gear such as nuts and cams. A single 70m rope and quickdraws are sufficient providing you are only looking to do single pitch sports routes.  There are just a few routes that require an 80m rope.