Rock Climbing and Bouldering around Nuoro

The majority of rock climbers who visit the Nuoro province of Sardinia head straight for Cala Gonone. While Cala Gonone is at the heart of Sardinian rock climbing and is known as one of the top European rock climbing areas, there are many other excellent areas to go rock climbing around Nuoro.  These include the Supramonte Mountains that are situated between Dorgali and Oliena offering big wall, multi-pitch routes as well as single pitch sport routes. There are also a number of granite bouldering areas between Nuoro and Orani.

This information has been extracted from the various guidebooks that cover the rock climbing found around Nuoro. These include; Supramonte rock climbing guidebook; Bouldering in Sardinia Guidebook; and Sardinia – Trad and Multi-Pitch guidebook. Buy rock climbing guidebooks for Cala Gonone and Nuoro from our shop.

Around Oliena and Urzulei in the Supramonte Mountains there are some excellent single pitch sport climbing areas.  Near Oliena these include Monte Maccione and Valle di Lanaitto (5 major sectors), plus 2 crags near Urzulei called Serra Oseli and Genna Croce.  This wealth of single-pitch sport climbing is covered in the Supramonte rock climbing guidebook.

Cala Gonone has long been established as one of the main rock climbing areas in Sardinia and as such attracts many International visitors. Primarily the majority of the rock climbing here is single pitch sport routes, offering many different styles from slabs, steep walls and fierce overhangs on hard limestone rock. 

The area of Supramonte is situated between Dorgali and Oliena is an isolated limestone plateau that is indented with deep gorges and huge vertical walls. Therefore it is not surprising that Supramonte offers some of the best big wall, multi-pitch rock climbing on Sardinia. These routes are up to 600m long with many routes between 200m to 300m long on good quality limestone rock.

Though these routes tend to be bolted, they are often well spaced so it is advisable to bring some traditional protection such as nuts and cams, and due to the length of the routes to use duel ropes. By picking your crag appropriately it is possible to rock climb in Supramonte throughout the year. 

The comprehensive guidebook that covers these big wall routes in the Supramonte Mountains is called “Sardinia – Trad and Multi-Pitch Climbing Guidebook”, which is available to buy from our shop.

Between Nuoro and Orani there are several excellent bouldering areas, where the quality of the granite rock is superb though it is very rough with large crystals imbedded into it.  The 3 largest bouldering areas are Monte Ortobene, Ollolai, and Orotelli.

Monte Ortobene is the largest bouldering area in the Nuoro area with over 700 problems in a beautiful Mediterranean forest.  There is a great variety of bouldering to be found, from roofs, overhangs, vertical walls, slabs, cracks, and overhanging prows. At an altitude of 800m the best time to boulder at Monte Ortobene is from the autumn through to the spring.  Ollolai is at an altitude of 1,100m making it ideal to climb from spring right through the summer to the autumn.  Where as Orotelli is at a much lower altitude and offers ideal bouldering from the autumn through the winter to spring.

The "Bouldering in Sardinia Guidebook" covers all the bouldering at Monte Ortobene, Ollolai, and Orotelli, and is available to buy from our shop.