Rock Climbing in Spain

With perfect climbing conditions from autumn through to spring, Spain has become Europe's premier winter sun rock venue. There are many rock climbing areas within Spain, with many of the more popular and established crags located close to the main tourist areas and coastal cities.

The area around Costa Blanca typifies the superb rock climbing on perfect limestone rock that is found in many areas of Spain. There is everything from bolted routes a few minutes walk from the car, to multi pitch trad & bolted routes on the coast or in the mountains behind Benidorm.

El Chorro in the Southern area of Andalucia offers fantastic multi-pitch gorge rock climbing, along with good quality single pitch sport routes. Also within Andalucia there are other great rock climbing areas around Malaga and Granada.

To the north and west of Valencia there are numerous rock climbing areas including the excellent sport climbing found at Montanejos, Cuenca, and Chulilla.

The Balearic Islands of Mallorca, Ibiza, and Menorca are popular holiday locations with plenty of interesting climbing. Mallorca has for a long time been established as one of Europe’s premier rock climbing and sports climbing venues, with many excellent 1 & 2-pitch routes on limestone rock. Also in the last few years Mallorca has become a top European venue for Deep Water Soloing (DWS). Ibiza offers a wide range of rock climbing and sports climbing on sharp limestone rock. There are very few rocky outcrops in Ibiza, which means that the majority of the rock climbing is on sea cliffs and isolated coves. The rock climbing on Menorca is generally single pitch sport climbing located on sea cliffs, with many of the crags near the capital Mao.

The Canary Islands are also popular rock climbing venues, especially on Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and it also offers the most extensive and best rock climbing, sport climbing and bouldering of the area. Gran Canaria also has a good range of climbing with both sport climbing and traditional climbing widely available.

Barcelona and Catalunya are recognised as one of the finest sport climbing venues in Europe, with many top class venues. Choose from venues such as; Siurana and Margalef in the Sierra de Prades Mountains (in Costa Daurada); the towers of conglomerate mountain rock overlooking the ancient monastery at Montserrat; excellent limestone cliffs near Lleida such as Terradets; to mountain granite of Cavellers in the Pyrenees. In the foothills of the Pyrenees are many excellent limestone crags such as Sadernes, Montgrony, Rodellar and Riglos.

The premier bouldering venue in Spain is Albarracin, with its huge ancient sandstone blocks situated within a forest. There are a variety of problems to climb from quality slabs, amazing arêtes, overhanging walls on crimps and cracks, to huge roofs. For Alpine bouldering then in the Western Sierra de Gredos Mountains there is world class granite bouldering at Hoyamoros, La Dehesa and Valdesangil in central-western Spain.

Madrid - Not all of the rock climbing in Spain is situated near the coast, with 2 excellent rock climbing available just outside of Madrid. La Pedriza provides many excellent multi-pitch routes on long granite slabs, while Patones is an established limestone sport climbing areas with many steep routes.

In northern Spain, just south of Santander are the Picos de Europe, where there are many multi-pitch routes. Also south of Santander there are some bouldering areas with the largest being the sandstone area of Santa Gadea. There are also many limestone sport crags around the cities of Oviedo (near Gijon) and Leon, with routes to suit climbers of all abilities. Etxauri is the largest crag in the Basque area with over 800 routes, bit is only 1 of many excellent crags in this area.

Climb Europe stocks and sells many rock climbing, sport climbing and bouldering guidebooks for Spain. Look in our online shop for more information.