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Granada trip report

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shark:
Just back from an 11 day trip on the recommendation of local resident Samr in this thread👍🏻🙏🏻

Some topos for the area can be viewed here https://escaladagranada.es/blog-zonas-escuelas-escalada

There is a very new and very large guide out for the area available to order from here: https://climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/granada-sport-climbing-guidebook-topo.html

We based ourselves at Cogollos to the east of Granada in an Airbnb that was walking distance from the crags. There is also a similarly handy hostel there with shared dorms but we thought was pricey at 20€pppn for what was on offer but if travelling solo probably a good option.

The Guidebook. Unfortunately this was a bit shit with poor quality topo photos and key crag info and no starring system for routes. Other mistakes included wrong pitch lengths, wrong crag orientation etc.

AFAIK the main single pitch crags in the area are Cogollos, Cahorros, Peloria and Darro.

Cogollos de la Vega. Two main sectors are Campana and Goteron. Samr prefers the former we preferred the latter. Neither comes into the shade till mid afternoon. The routes were particularly good around 7b at Goteron. Steve Mac got shut down on the hard 8’s which were disappointingly manufactured and not with the shorter gentleman in mind. For most climbers a week at Cogollos would be well worthwhile.

Los Cahorras. 40mins/35km from Cogollos. A deep and shady gorge and a tourist spot. The best sector is Diabolica Izquierda a gently overhanging wall with about 20 routes from 6c+ to 8b. The walkway below the crag is very narrow ie 1-2m wide from top of wall bounding the river to the crag base. This makes it awkward for tourists to pass to say the least! Conditions were also humid when we went. Certainly worth going to but not at weekends!

Darro 35mins/48km from Cogollos. Rated5 star on 8a.nu and looked very promising in the guide. What wasn’t apparent was there is a massive noisy working quarry at the base which covers the crag in a thin film of dust. The walk in is not nice and easy to lose the path. We didn’t stay long.

Poloria. 30mins 45k from Cogollos. A cave and the hard crag of the area and of no interest to me. However, Steve was put off by the description by a local who said the routes were manufactured and polished and it was located by a motorway and smelt of goat shit. We didn’t go

The above wasn’t a perfect match for our team but fortunately other world class crags were available to us en route to and from Malaga airport such as Rosario (includes Chilam Balam cave) Archidona Cave and Loja. Also Reguchillo and the other Jaen crags were a potential option just over an hour’s drive to the North.

If you do go then a rest day visit to the Alhambra is highly recommended though pricey. Beware if driving through the city though as it is a nightmare of hard to spot bus lanes with cameras and pedestrian areas that google maps doesn’t recognise.

shark:
Re Chilam Balam cave and other Rosario crags this website is excellent but can be slow to load

https://www.cartowall.com/en/topo/chilam-balam

Topos also here: https://bernabefernandez.com/sector-chilam/

shark:
Re Loja from what it says in the new guide the main sector Zorreros’Baja is deequipped but the rest is in so still quite a lot to go at and it gets shade. It is also covered in the old Rockfax El Chorro guide.

steveri:
I’ve been to the Alhambra twice many years apart, agree it’s very impressive!

Paul B:
What was the weather like?

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