Barcelona - an overlooked winter destination

Climbers flying into Barcelona usually means it's winter season, and they’re heading to Siurana, Margalef, or other crags around Lleida, all within two hours from El Prat. But what’s less known internationally is that Barcelona itself has excellent climbing mainly up to 8b, spread across more than 60 crags with at least 40 routes each. The largest is Montserrat, home to several thousand routes and the steepest routes are found in Calders.

While Siurana, at 770m altitude, can see snow and freezing conditions, Barcelona’s January average hovers around 10°C. And if the weather really turns bad, Ski Andorra is just a 2h15 drive away from Barcelona or you can stay busy in the enormous Sharma gym, in three floors.

According to the Vertical-Life database, a handful of crags around Barcelona are quite popular, but during the weekdays, we had most of them to ourselves. The trade-off? Expect 30 minutes on busy highways instead of scenic walks around Siurana. Approaches are often 20–30 minutes, but once there, the settings are sometimes stunning.

Before GPS, finding these crags must have been quite the challenge! In the picture, one sector of Garraf, one of the best winter crags with one sector on a ledge just above the train tunnel. La Cascada, a sector to Vallirana, with just a 3 min approach is also a must for climbers going for 6a to 7b. It was mainly developed during the pandemic.

We also asked local Jose Agustí, Which are your other Top 5 winter crags/sectors?
The best sectors for winter season are Gelida in the sun from 10:30, Cova de l'Ocell sun till 14h, Grau dels Matxos and Grau del Sunyer some of them in the sun till 16h, Cèllecs all day sun, Falsia and Montbrú sun till 16h and all day sun... Cargolaire and Mirador de Calders all day sun...