El Chorro's Main Rock Climbing Areas

Further into the gorge it then opens out and therefore receives a lot more sun and is considerably less intimidating. Traditionally these areas have been accessed via a series of railway tunnels, though this is now illegal. To enforce this, guards patrol the tunnels and they will fine any climbers they catch. However, all of these areas can be accessed via the Camino Del Ray walkway, or a longer walk over the top. Detailed access information is clearly described in the new Rockfax guidebook for El Chorro. The majority of the rock climbing in this area of the gorge is single pitch though there are some multi-pitch routes as well, with a good range of grades from French 4 to 8c. This section of the gorge also includes; Makinodromo zone, which offers many high quality single pitch routes, mainly at 6b+ and above on steep overhangs and tufas; El Polvorin with its impressive steep wall and excellent routes in the 6th grade; and Los Cotos, which offers some excellent technical slab climbing at the lower to mid grades.

Other Crags
Towering above El Chorro village is a knife-edge ridge known as Las Frontales. This ridge starts within the village at the entrance to the gorge and then rises up above El Chorro. The climbing at Las Frontales is less intimidating than the gorge, and there are a good selection single and multi-pitch of climbs at all grades up to 150m long. At the top of this ridge is another excellent crag called Escalera Arabe, which has many excellent single pitch sports routes across all grades. There have also been a lot of new routes established in this area though there is still scope to add more. Las Encantadas is situated just outside the village of El Chorro with its superb long pitches though the majority of routes are in the higher grades.

Within an easy drive of El Chorro there are several other rock climbing areas that are well worth visiting. The whole area around Malaga and Marbella offers some excellent crags such as Desplomilandia, Turón, Archidona, Torcal de Antequera and Loja towards Granada.

For more information about getting to El Chorro, best time of year to go, what gear is required, and the best guidebook to buy visit our El Chorro logistics page. Climb Europe also has information about accommodation to rent at our El Chorro accommodation page.

The photo above shows the entrance of the El Chorro gorge with the decaying "Camino Del Ray" walkway.
This walkway marks the start or finish of some the routes found in the gorge.

This photograph appears in the El Chorro guidebook by Rockfax, which is available to buy from our shop.

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  of year to visit
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  guidebook to buy
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  get there?

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logistics page
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