Climbing in the Cederberg Mountains

Situated 250km north of Cape Town the Cederberg Mountains offer World Class bouldering at Rocklands, along with excellent sport and trad climbing, all in a wild, rugged, and remote setting.

Rocklands is one of the best bouldering areas in the World, attracting climbers from all over the globe. The bouldering is located around the Pakhuis Pass, on striking red, grey and black sandstone boulders set against a blue sky - a truly magical place to climb.

The bouldering area is huge with an endless sea of high quality sandstone boulders of different shapes and sizes. Here, there are many 1,000’s of boulder problems across a wide range of grades. Often, the style of the bouldering resembles indoor climbing with steep walls and athletic moves. The vast majority of the developed boulders in Rocklands are below Fb7b with glorious juggy features, offering amenable grades through some unlikely terrain.

Apart from a few areas, the sport climbing found in the Cederberg Mountains are located mostly on smaller crags, buttresses, towers, and independent walls. Here the sandstone rock is generally more featured and weathered by millions of years of wind and rain and influenced by the early Ice Age and floods. This gives the rock its unique Cederberg feel – big jugs, rough nubbins, protruding gargoyles, thin crimps, rails, cracks, edges, and undercuts – all on good quality hard sandstone rock. There is everything from slabs to vertical walls, to very steep overhanging pump fests, and roofs.

The sport climbing areas are found throughout the Cederberg Mountain range from Rocklands in the north to Truitjieskraal in the south. There are over 430 sport routes from F4b to F9a (South African 13 to 36), with the bulk of the routes in the F5 to F7c (South African 16 to 28) grade range. There are over 65 sport climbing crags that face numerous directions so that the sun or shade can always be found. The Cederberg Rock Climbing Guidebook is the definitive guidebook covering all the sport climbing found throughout the whole of the Cederberg mountain range.

The trad climbing in the Cederberg Mountains tends to be in the more remote areas such as Krakadouw, Tafelberg and Wolfberg.

Access and Permits. As the area is in the Cederberg Wilderness area all climbers will require a permit to climb that varies from area to area. Details of how to obtain these permits and which ones are required can be found in the appropriate guidebook.

Best time to go. The best time to boulder at Rocklands and climb in the Cederberg Mountain is in the African spring (September to November) and autumn (March to May). The winter can also be good (May to September) though it will be quite cold and sometimes wet. The African summer is just too hot, though with an early start and some shaded crags it is usually possible to go sport climbing.

Accommodation and travel. The closest airport is at Cape Town and the drive to Rocklands will take about 3 hours. It is advisable to hire a car and drive to the Cederberg Mountains, as the bouldering and rock climbing is spread out over a wide area. There is a wide variety of accommodation options to choose from, including basic camping, self-catering cottages through to high end hotels. The Kliphuis camping area is located in the Pakhuis area and is a popular place for climbers to stay.

Cederberg climbing guidebooks. The Rocklands Bouldering guidebook is currently out of print. The Cederberg Rock Climbing Guidebook covers 436 sport routes across more than 65 crags, with routes from F4b to F9a (South African 13 to 36). Buy the Cederberg Rock Climbing Guidebook from our shop.