Rock Climbing in Slovakia

Slovakia, a country in heart of Europe, has long climbing history and offers an extraordinary rich and variety of climbing possibilities. The Slovak landscape is noted primarily for its mountainous nature, with the Carpathian Mountains extending across most of the northern half of the country. Among these mountain ranges are the high peaks of the Fatra-Tatra Area (including Tatra Mountains, Greater Fatra and Lesser Fatra), Slovak Ore Mountains, Slovak Central Mountains or Beskids.

Without any doubts, the largest rock climbing area in Slovakia is the Tatra Mountains (Vysoke Tatry), which are located in north of the country.   The High Tatras offers thousands of climbing routes across an area of over 600 square km.  In total there are around 500 peaks, with 29 of these over 2,000 m high. The highest of these is Gerlach peak at 2,655m high.  These peaks offer numerous opportunities for alpine mountaineering, long multi-pitch rock climbing routes and sport climbing with more than 1,500 routes.  The vast majority of multi-pitch routes require traditional equipment such as cams and nuts.  The type of rock found here is composed of sedimentary rocks such as limestone, dolomite, and sandstone.   There is also some excellent bouldering to be found in the Tatra Mountains, with around 200 doucumented problems, all on granite rock.

Beside the High Tatras there are more than 50 sport climbing areas in Slovakia. There are around 12 large, well-established sport crags that are generally very bolted, across different types of rock.

In Eastern Slovakia there are some beautiful limestone climbing areas such as Dreveník, Turniská, Tomášovský výhľad and especially Zádielska dolina which offers multi pitch routes up to 100m high. These crags are covered in the Eastern Slovakia Rock Climbing Guidebook that is available to buy from our shop. In total it covers 17 crags and over 1,200 routes across a wide range of grades. Find out more about sport climbing in eastern Slovakia around Kosica.

The western Carpathian mountain range is located close to Bratislava, the capitol of Slovakia located in the southwest part of the country. Near Bratislava there are some small crags with around 250 routes in total. To the north of Bratislava there are more hills and mountains, hiding plenty of climbing crags. The largest area is called Súľovské skaly that along with its neighboring crags count for around 1,000 routes.

In central and northern Slovakia there are other crags with various types of rock, from limestone to andesite (a type of volcanic rock). Some of the main crags in this area are Sitno, Kalamárka, Machnatô, Tupá skala, Jelenec, and Harmanecká jaskyňa.

This information has been provided by Peter Šimkanin who has written the Eastern Slovakia Rock Climbing Guidebook.