Sport climbing in Malta and Gozo

The Maltese Islands of Malta and Gozo have grown into a respected sport climbing destination, with over 1,100 fully bolted sport routes. These routes are often in spectacular settings, providing high-quality limestone sport routes across a wide range of grades from F4’s to F8c+. There are many crags spread all over both islands from rugged sea cliffs, inland valleys, to caves and ridges. A highlight are the bolted sea cliffs that offer accessible yet adventurous sport routes.

There are over 600 routes on Malta across 13 established areas, and over 500 routes across 10 areas on Gozo. These crags offer both single pitch and multi-pitch routes, coupled with bouldering (mainly on Gozo); and many deep-water soloing (DWS) locations, ideal in the hot summer months!
Some of the best climbing areas on Malta are:

• Wied Babu and Red Wall, which has a good range of routes across all grades.
• Victoria Lines is a natural fault line offering a series of crags on excellent rock and easy access, with routes across a wide range of grades.
• Wied il-Ghasel is one of the most accessible and popular climbing venues in Malta, providing a multitude of routes at mostly accessible grades from F5’s to F7’s.
• Ghar Lapsi is a beautiful location on the coast offering both easy accessible routes from the coastal path and routes directly above the sea.

Malta has many excellent deep water soloing (DWS) venues, particularly Ghar Hasan. The best sport climbing area on Gozo is at Mgarr ix-Xini.

What rock climbing guidebooks are available for Malta and Gozo?

The only current guidebook available is called Sport Climbing in Malta and Gozo.  This guidebook covers 23 major climbing areas, and describes over 1,100 fully bolted sport routes, across a wide range of grades (F4’s to F8c+). All the routes are shown on colour photo topos, with route lengths and French grades.  Buy this guidebook from our shop.

When is the best time to climb on Malta and Gozo?

The islands of Malta and Gozo are the most southerly European country, which means they have become a classic winter sun destination.  Therefore it is possible to rock climb here throughout the year, with the ideal time to visit is from October through to May. The summer can be unpleasantly hot particularly on the south facing cliffs. However this is a good time to go deep water soloing instead!

Getting there

Flying to Malta is relatively very easy with regular scheduled flights and many charter flights from a large number of European cities to its modern international airport. For those who wish to travel overland, there is also a fast ferry service from Sicily. Getting around Malta is very easy providing you have a car and you can usually park within a 5 minute walk of the crag. There is no airport on Gozo, so the cheapest way to get there is via the car ferry from Chirkewwa (in Malta) to Mgarr in Gozo.

Accommodation

As Malta is a popular year round tourist destination there are plenty of options when it comes to accommodation. This ranges from plush 5 star hotels to self-catering apartments, which can be booked as part of a package or separately from your flight. There is also a campsite in the Mellieha area.