Climbing to Margalef
Margalef has become one of the worlds best rock climbing destinations. Close proximity to the sectors, Mediterranean climate and its special conglomerate rock makes Margalef an excellent place to climb throughout the year.
Here you can find routes of all grades, from routes for beginners to hardest 9th grade routes.
During hot summer days you can enjoy climbing in the shade and during winter on sunny sectors just wearing a t-shirt.
Margalef has more than 1400 routes which means everyone will be happy.
OVER 20 YEARS OF CLIMBING IN MARGALEF WITH JORDI
Jordi Pou
Rock climbing in Margalef began in 1996 the day when I came here looking for a perfect place for rock climbing and refuge where I could escape from the town to live in a quite place surrounded with rock and projects…I was following my dream, and one day a newspaper had appeared in my hands with the map of Montsant, the next day I went there driving through the twisty roads, until I arrived in Margalef.
I drove towards the Pantano and then to Ermita, I just couldn’t believe that there weren’t any climbing routes established. It was a clean canvas.
I had started to bolt the routes and at the same time to renovate one house in the village Can Severet. At the beginnings of 1998 we opened the Refuge and the first 100 routes, Margalef as a climbing zone was born.
This is just a part of the history, a new and big Refuge was opened in 2012 and lots of development has taken place creating more than 1400 routes. A lot of people had to work to convert Margalef into big climbing zone, anonymous and famous persons, but one constant is the Refuge and people who are working there. We have made more than 60 % of all existing routes, the re-equipping of the routes and work closely with the Parque Natural authorities.
20 years have passed, those dreams came true, and now I have other projects because I never stop dreaming.
THE CLIMBING GUIDE IN MARGALEF
From the beginning one of the main tasks of the Refuge was to share the information about climbing in Margalef.
The first guidebook was a photocopy of a few sheets of paper with hand drawings. The climbing zone was growing together with the number of the guidebook pages and its quality.
During all those years the philosophy of the guidebook was always the same: the guidebook should be cheap and easy to update. Margalef was growing up very quickly and we didn’t want to make an expensive and high quality guidebook which just in few months would be out of the date. 20 years have passed with this philosophy and with this guidebook – the guidebook of Jordi Pou.
It was always a tradition to come to the Refuge and ask about new routes and to buy a new updated guidebook.
But time goes by and 1400 routes required a new format of the guidebook. Vicent Palau and Maya Ayupova are the authors of the new climbing guidebook of Margalef with photos and clear access description and other useful information, that offers you the best way to know the zones.
CLIMBING ZONES
In different climbing sectors of Margalef you can find enough projects for all your life.
