Rock climbing around Lake Como and Lecco
Lake Como is only 25 miles north of Milan and is situated in the pre-alpine zone, which offers some fantastic scenery. The majority of the rock climbing is situated on the east side of the lake around Lecco, with many buttresses overlooking the lake or situated in the peaks of the Grigne Massif that rise spectacularly from the lake. All of the climbing here is on white, compact limestone.
There is a great diversity of rock climbing to be found around Lake Como, with many single pitch sport routes through to long multi-pitch routes up to 600m long that require a mountaineering approach. However, there are many bolted multi-pitch sport routes between 100m to 300m long, and it is possible to be sport climbing at altitudes of over 1,700m. This area is huge with 100’s of crags and literally many 1000’s of routes. The mild weather, mitigated by Lake Como, and the abundance of limestone walls make this area one of the most popular climbing areas in northern Italy.
The photograph shows Lecco in the foreground, with the limestone peaks behind that offer the good quality sport climbing to be found at Lake Como.
Map of rock climbing areas around Lake Como and Lecco
What rock climbing guidebooks are available for Lake Como?
There are 2 definitive climbing guidebooks that cover the rock climbing around Lake Como and Lecco.
The Lario Rock Falesie Guidebook covers all the sport routes and bolted multi-pitch routes. It details 122 separate crags with many 1,000’s of routes across a wide range of grades.
The Lario Rock Pareti Guidebook details 77 crags and covers the long multi-pitch routes up to 600m long. These are either fully trad (requiring nuts and cams) or a mixture of trad with some bolts, and therefore have a more mountaineering aspect to them.
The Schweiz Plaisir Sud Guidebook Volume 1 also covers selected routes around Lake Como as well as other areas in northern Italy.
Buy these guidebooks for Lake Como from our shop.
Lake Como and Lecco rock climbing logistics
The best time of the year to visit Lake Como to go rock climbing is from late march to June, and September to October. In the summer it gets very hot and in the winter it gets lots of rain and even snow. Ideally for the sport routes a 70m single rope is required, though a 60m rope will be fine for a good percentage of the routes. For the long mountaineering style multi-pitch routes twin 50m or 60m ropes are required, along with trad gear (nuts and cams).
There are many options in getting to Lake Como from all over Europe, with airports at Bergamo (Orio al Serio International Airport), and 2 in Milan called Milano Linate and Milano Malpensa.
To the north of Lake Como is some of the best bouldering in northern Italy at places such as Val di Mello and Cimaganda.