Rock climbing at Berdorf, Luxembourg

The best place to go rock climbing in Luxembourg is at Berdorf, which is situated near the border with Germany, about 5km from the town of Echternach, and around 20km from Luxembourg-Ville. The climbing is on the sandstone crag of Wanterbaach just outside the village of Berdorf. The situation is very beautiful with the crag set within a forest.

The sandstone rock at Berdorf is very hard and compact characterised by technical climbing. There are a wide variety of climbing styles from powerful athletic routes to more fingery technical lines across a wide range of grades (F2 to F8c), though the majority of routes are in the F6a to F7c range. Many of the more difficult routes tend to have 1 or 2 hard moves that require a “bouldering” type sequence or a dyno move.

There are around 150 routes at Berdorf that are all single pitch. The routes vary in length from 5m to 36m long.

When to go. It is possible to climb throughout the year at Berdorf as the forest provides plenty of shade during the summer. Climbing only becomes unpleasant after a prolonged period of rain of up to 2 days.

What gear is required. All the routes are well bolted and it is advisable to take a 70m rope, though a 60m rope will be sufficient for the majority of the routes. For the longest routes around 16 quickdraws are required.

Guidebook. The current guidebook is called Climbing in Berdorf, which was published in June 2013. Buy the Climbing in Berdorf guidebook from our shop.

Accommodation. The village of Berdorf has several campsites and there are plenty of hotels. At Echternach there is a youth hostel and a climbing wall.

Another excellent rock climbing destination near Berdorf, is Freyr in Belgium, find out more...