Map of the sport climbing areas in Gran Canaria

Rock climbing in Gran Canaria

The dormant volcanic mountain of Tamadaba (1949m high) dominates the rugged landscape of Gran Canaria. This volcano produced an abundance of volcanic rock creating everything from vertical cliffs to deep canyons. There are hundreds of traditional routes (requiring cams and nuts) more than 100m high at places such as Ayacata, over 750 sport routes, and numerous bouldering areas scattered across the island. The style of climbing ranges from sea cliff climbing to the nation park of Tamadaba at an altitude of well over 1000m, with plenty of routes across a wide range of grades.

Sports climbing areas in Gran Canaria
No	Crag	No of routes	Number of Routes in Grade Range
No	Crag	No of routes	4 to 5+	6a to 6b+	6c to 7a+	7b to 7c+	8a to 8c
1	Fataga	86	8	31	31	8	8
2	Ayagaures	40	1	8	19	10	2
3	Sorrueda	74	7	24	31	12	0
4	Candelilla	23	2	4	7	7	3
5	Salt del Perro	9	0	0	4	1	4
6	Roque Nublo	14	3	7	2	2	0
7	Tamadaba	238	30	89	68	42	9
8	Guiniguada	15	5	5	4	1	0
9	Costa Ayala	15	5	4	6	0	0
10	Cueva de Arucas	2	0	0	1	1	0
11	Barranco de Banaderos	9	2	5	1	1	0
12	Quintanilla	12	5	7	0	0	0
13	Barranco de Moya	64	8	33	16	7	0
14	Cenobio	26	0	7	5	8	6

The above information has been extracted from the Gran Canary Sport Climbing guidebook that can be bought from our shop.

Gran Canaria Logistics

Weather – The best time to visit Gran Canaria for rock climbing is from the autumn through to the spring. During this period the fresh trade winds bring pleasant warm sunshine with very little rain.

Getting to Gran Canaria – The only airport on the island is Las Palmas airport, which has many connecting flights to all over Europe. Find out more….

Guidebooks – The only current guidebook available covers the majority of the sports climbing available on the island, and is called Gran Canaria Sport Climbing Guide. This guidebook covers 14 different climbing areas, with over 750 routes across a wide range of grades. Buy this guidebook from our shop. There is currently no guidebook that covers the Trad routes on Gran Canaria. However in the centre of Ayacata there is a climbing café/bar where they have a book describing the routes in the centre of the island.

Gear required – For sport climbing at least a 60m rope though a 70m long rope is ideal, plus around 15 quickdraws. For Trad climbing twin ropes are recommended as many of the routes are multi-pitch, plus the usual cams and nuts.