Rock Climbing in Sardinia

Sardinia has long been known as a great rock climbing destination with its wild and spectacular rocky interior and coastline. There are many established sport climbing crags across the island including the popular areas at Cala Gonone, Domusnovas, Isili, Ulassai and Jerzu. These sport climbing areas are mainly single pitch, though at Supramonte, situated between Dorgali and Oliena, there is a big wall rock climbing area with many bolted multi-pitch routes up to 400m long. Sardinia also offers some great granite bouldering around Nuoro, La Cerra near Olbia, and the capital Cagliari. With its abundance of quality routes, cheap flights, and great weather for rock climbing throughout the year, it is easy to understand why rock climbing holidays in Sardinia have always been popular.

The information detailed below concentrates on the various sport climbing (single and multi-pitch), bouldering and Deep Water Soloing (DWS) that is available in Sardinia.

The traditional area to go rock climbing in Sardinia is Cala Gonone, located within the Province of Nuoro.  Here there are plenty of single pitch bolted sports routes on good quality limestone rock. 

Supramonte is a mountainous area to south of Nuoro that offers superb big wall multi-pitch climbing in dramatic situations. There is also plenty of bouldering around Nuoro.

The main climbing is around Osilo, just to the east and south of Sassari, where there are several limestone crags, which offer good single pitch sport routes. To the west of Alghero, at Capo Caccia, there is some impressive sea cliff climbing on bolted limestone up to 70m long, as well as some Deep Water Soloing (DWS). 

Around Olbia there are a few sport climbing areas on limestone rock.  However, it is the bouldering at La Cerra, with its excellent rough reddish granite, that dominates the climbing scene in this area.

Isili is one of the most popular rock climbing areas in Sardinia, with over hundreds of single pitch sport routes. It is famous for its super-steep roof climbing on large pockets but there are easier routes as well. The area around Oristano has only recently been developed and hence there are limited climbing opportunities. To the northwest of Oristano there is a large granite Bouldering area, with other crags offering sports climbing on mainly dark basalt rock. 

Ogliastra, a new province, stretches from south of Cala Gonone to almost Quirra in the south. This area around Tortoli has seen the greatest development of new single pitch sport routes in Sardinia in the last few years. The development has taken place at Jerzu, Baunei, Ulassai, Osini, Villagrande, Seui, and Quirra, where there are well over 1,000 routes, from sea level to an altitude of 1,100m. The area also offers some of Sardinia's best multi-pitch sports routes, along the eastern coastline, as well as bouldering and DWS.

Concentrated around the town of Iglesias is one of Sardinia's largest rock climbing areas. This area is dominated by the rock climbing at Domusnovas, where there are over 500 routes alone! The rock climbing at Domusnovas is very varied with numerous slabs, walls and overhangs to choose from across all levels of difficulty. The rock climbing here is generally on excellent bolted limestone.

To the southeast of Cagliari (known as Sarrabus) there are several bouldering areas on excellent granite rock. The largest area is called Geremeas where there are over 100 recorded problems. However as always with bouldering there are a great many other problems waiting to be developed.

Sardinia is also a great place to go walking, trekking and mountain biking. Discover information about Walking in Sardinia and Mountain Biking in Sardinia.