R
ock climbing guidebooks
for Italy.
Buy from our shop.

 

The best places to go rock climbing in Italy

 

Map of Northern Italy Rock Climbing Areas
Map of Southern Italy Rock Climbing Areas
Rock climbing in
The Dolomites
Rock Climbing at Arco
Rock climbing around Lake Como & Lecco
Rock climbing at Finale Ligure
Rock Climbing around Genova & Liguria
Rock Climbing at Muzzerone
Rock Climbing in Sardinia
Rock Climbing in Sicily
Rock climbing in southern Italy
Rock Climbing in Trieste

Rock Climbing guidebooks for Italy

Sports climbing guidebook for Lake Como and Lecco

Buy the
Rock Climbing Guidebook
for Lake Como
and Lecco from
our shop.
 
 
Map of rock climbing areas around Lake Como and Lecco
Bouldering at Cimaganda Bouldering at Cimaganda

The best time of the year to visit Lake Como to go rock climbing is from late march to June, and September to October. In the summer it gets very hot and in the winter it gets lots of rain and even snow. Ideally for the sports routes a 70m single rope is required, though a 60m rope will be fine for a good percentage of the routes. For the long mountaineering style multi-pitch routes twin 50m ropes are required.

Milan is well serviced by the budget airlines such as RyanAir with flights from all over Europe. Along with plenty of accommodation this makes Lake Como a good cheap place to go rock climbing.

 
Rock climbing around Lake Como

Lake Como is only 25 miles north of Milan and is situated in the pre-alpine zone, which offers some fantastic scenery. The majority of the rock climbing is situated on the east side of the lake around Lecco, with many buttresses overlooking the lake or situated in the peaks that rise spectacularly from the lake. The type of rock found here is a white, compact granite rock.

There is a great diversity of rock climbing to be found around Lake Como, with 65 different crags to choose from and 1000's of routes at all grades. There are many single pitch sports routes through to long multi-pitch routes up to 500m long, which require a mountaineering approach. However there are many multi-pitch sports routes between 100m to 300m long, and it is possible to be sports climbing at altitudes of over 1,700m.

Lecco in the foreground, with the granite peaks behind that offer the good quality sports climbing to be found at Lake Como.

There is a guidebook with covers all the sports routes and multi-pitch routes around Lake Como called "Arrampicate Sportive E Moderne Fra Lecco E Como".
It details 65 separate crags with each crag having a good location map and clear topo's for each route. French grades are used throughout.
Buy this guidebook for Lake Como from our shop.
Sports climbing guidebook for Lake Como and Lecco
Bouldering in Cimaganda
The tiny village of Cimaganda is situated to the north of Lake Como, close to the border with Switzerland. Situated in the Alpine meadows is a wide bouldering area with some big boulders. There are plenty of problems from easy to Font 8a and some of them are included in the BlocHeart topo. However with a little bit of exploring and/or talking to the local rock climbers there are many more problems to find than detailed in the topo. The rock is very "gneiss", and the boulders along the riverbed are smooth and frictionless, which those in the meadows are course and have excellent friction. It is possible to boulder here during the summer as Cimaganda is relatively high and therefore cool, and the sun disappears off the boulders by 4pm even in high summer.
 
Accommodation for rock climbers in Europe | Rock climbing areas of Europe | European guidebook shop

All rights reserved. Copyright © Climb Europe, 2004-2008