It was one of the first areas in Spain to see focussed bolting on a large scale due to climbers realising the potential for somewhere of high quality and ease of access. Since then it has seen even more expansion and become a go-to destination for international climbers to enjoy a relaxed sun soaked climbing holiday in a beautiful setting. In March of this year I was lucky enough to visit on a 10 day trip with my friends Mathilde and Matt.

El Chorro is located in Southern Spain near the Mediterranean coast, about one hours drive in land from Malaga. Flights from the UK are available from many of the larger airports. We flew from Manchester for around £85 per person return with an overhead bag included. I would always recommend selecting an overhead cabin bag for all your gear as you’ll always have it with you, imagine getting to your destination and all your climbing gear ends up lost in a hold luggage screw up…trip over before it’s began.

We hired a car, which cost £120 for 10 days, which was great and allowed us to get to some further crags and see some more sights on rest days, but this wasn’t entirely necessary as public transport links from Malaga to El Chorro are plentiful.

The most popular place to stay in Chorro is undoubtedly the Olive Branch, offering camping and bunkhouse accommodation aimed squarely at climbers. It is well priced and the vibe is very relaxed and friendly. The owners and volunteers are always on hand to offer assistance and beta, and the evening socials in the main lounge (often with guitar and bar games included) are a great way to meet new people and top off an active day.

Climbing partners are always as easy to come by as that just by asking around at the Branch or turning up at some of the more popular crags and seeing if someone wants a belay. Because of this the solo traveller can also be confident to get the most out of El Chorro, for example we made friends with a guy called Tommy, a Canadian who was travelling through Europe, and climbed with him for four days.

Now the logistics are out of the way, lets talk about the climbing. The bulk of the climbing is concentrated within 5-45 mins walk from the Olive Branch and all grades and styles of wall can be found at many of the crags but some do definitely lend themselves to people operating in the mid-high grades eg. Encantades. It’s also worth getting the opinion of a local or someone who’s been in the area for a while to get the lowdown on what the weather is likely to do the following day and some recommended crags to visit based on that, as we found the forecast to be fairly unreliable in the area.

As for what kind of climbing is on offer, most is single pitch between 20 and 40 metres putting some good air below your feet. As a result I would recommend at least a 70 meter rope to allow you to climb the majority of routes. All the rock is limestone and varies in nature from grey coloured rock containing lots of small holds and requiring a delicate balancey style, to orangey coloured rock which tends to be steeper, with more tufas and requiring a burlier approach.

We started at Serena on day one to ease in to it and work off the weariness of the previous days travelling and then the following day visited Upper Crag of the Arab steps for some longer routes which were good choices for our intro to the area.

There’s also some incredible adventurous multi pitch routes, all with good confidence inspiring bolting making for a good intro for anyone taking their first steps in to the technicalities of multi-pitching. This was the case for Matt, so after a couple days of easier confidence building climbing we had a go at Blue Line, a 12 pitch 5c which takes you all the way to the top of the hill and boasts big ledges, absorbing climbing and improving views with every pitch. 10/10 would recommend.

The highlights to my mind definitely came at the end of the trip however. To wrap up the trip, we spent the last few days at a crag called Desplomilandia.

Desplo’ is a 20 min drive from El Chorro and is by far and away in my opinion the best climbing we found whilst there in terms of the quality of the lines and the moves the rock enables. This was worth the car hire on its own. Every line of every grade covered improbable terrain and threw amazing holds at you over the whole length of the crag, allowing Mathilde and Tommy to tick off their first 6c flash on Captain Sardinia. To top it off it takes shade all day so offers a welcome respite and comfortable climbing conditions out of reach of the searing sun.

If this has got you psyched then go check out El Chorro for a cheap climbing trip to blow off the cobwebs and have a fun in the sun. Feel free to get in touch if you’d like more info, and also check out the El Chorro Bolting facebook group for help, beta and to give back to the local climbing community for yourself and others to visit and enjoy it in the future.

Notable Routes:

Mar de Nubes, 6b, Serena

La Enferma, 6a, Serena

Bladerunner, 6a, Escalara Arabe

Face of Flake, 6b, Escalara Arabe

El Arabe Perdido, 7a, Escalara Arabe

Blue Line, 5c, Escalara Arabe

Dos Tetas Tiran, 6b,  Escalara Arabe

Wifi, 6a+, Desplomilandia

Facilonga, 6a, Desplomilandia

Captain Sardinia, 6c, Desplomilandia

Party Men, 7a, Rinconcito

Happy climbing,

Dan