Rock Climbing in Sicily

Rock climbing in Sicily offers everything from big wall multi-pitch rock climbing to single pitch sports routes, with the added bonus of visiting an island steeped thousands of years of civilization and culture. The rock climbing here offers a great sense of adventure and there is a warmth and hospitality from the islands population that is always willing to help tourists and foreigners. The rock climbing on Sicily is generally found along the northern and eastern coastlines, and can be broken down into 4 main areas:

1 – Trapani – San Vito Rock Climb Area

Near Trapani is one of the most famous seaside resorts of Sicily called San Vito Lo Capo. Along the coast on the west side of San Vito lo Capo is a great coastal cliff nearly 4km long, called Scogliera di Salinella. This cliff has over 800 high quality single pitch sport routes on a mixture of limestone and marble rock. The climbing is varied with tufas, holes, slabs, overhangs, caves and cracks across a wide range of grades (F3a to F9a). However most of these routes are in the easy to mid-grade range, with around half the routes graded at F6b+ and below.

Rising up from San Vito lo Capo is Monte Monaco and Pizzo Monaco, where there is a mixture of bolted and trad multi-pitch routes between 150m to 400m long as well as single-pitch sport routes. There are other crags around the San Vito area such as Macari, Castelluzzo, and Custonaci.

Apart from the very hot summer months, it is possible to climb at San Vito throughout the year, though the ideal time is from October to mid-May, as most of the crags face west. The San Vito Lo Capo area is perfect for combining a sun, sea and rock climbing holiday.

Map of the main rock climbing areas of Sicily

2 – Palermo Rock Climbing Area

Rising up within the city of Palermo is the mountain of Monte Pellegrino, and is the largest climbing area in Sicily. This mountain is over 600m high and extends from south to north for several kilometres, offering a continuous sequence of limestone walls exposed on every side. The majority of the climbing is on the west side of the mountain and in all there are 9 major crags, offering single pitch and multi-pitch routes up to 200m long. There are 100’s of sport routes here, as well as long classic routes, making it the most important rock climbing area in southern Italy. However there are still enormous possibilities for new routes and long stretches of the wall are still untouched.

To the north of Palermo and rising from the sea is Monte Gallo. It is an isolated mountain consisting of a number of different peaks, with some walls up to 300m high. The rugged nature of the mountain and its steep walls mean it has an Alpine feel to it, offering adventurous multi-pitch climbing. The vast majority of the routes require trad gear such as cam and nuts, though the belays usually have some sort of fixed gear. The climbing is mainly concentrated on the Monte Santa Margherita and Quota 280 (the triangle on Monte Galle) areas with routes between 100m and 300m long on good quality limestone rock. The Palermo multi-pitch climbing guidebook describes a selection of routes on Monte Gallo and is available to buy from our shop.

3 – Messina Rock Climbing Area

In the northeast side of Sicily the rock climbing around Messina consists of 11 separate limestone crag. Here there is a combination of sea cliffs and multi-pitch bolted routes up to 150m long. The largest crag is at Castelmola, near Taormina, which offers nearly 80 single pitch sport routes across a good selection of grades.

The Di Roccia di Sole - Crags is the only guidebook covering the sport climbing around Messina.

4 – Siracusa – Ragusa Rock Climbing Area

Siracusa is the 3rd largest climbing area in Sicily that is situated around the Monti Iblei plateau. The main climbing area is called Canicattini that has many canyons, up to 200m deep, offering over 400 routes across all grades on limestone rock. The style of climbing is mainly single-pitch sport routes, however, at Monti Climiti there are bolted routes up to 100m long with 9 different crags spread out on 3 sides of the mountain.

Ragusa represents another significant climbing area in Sicily. Again, the climbing is situated in canyons with Cava d’Ispica and Modica being the main climbing areas. There are 100’s of single-pitch sport routes across a wide range of grades on limestone rock.

The Di Roccia di Sole - Crags is the only guidebook covering the sport climbing around Siracusa and Ragusa.