Climbing in Rodellar

Why: Rodellar village is situated above the beautiful Muscan gorge in the Sierra de Guara National Park.  This limestone gorge is one of Europe’s famous climbing areas and provides plenty of steep hard routes.  The climbing style is powerful and athletic, with plenty of overhanging caves, arches, roofs,  tufas and pinnacles.   

Where: Rodellar is at the end of a long, windy, rural road leading up to the Pyrenees through beautiful olive groves and wheat fields with snow capped mountains in the background. Before you reach the Pyrenees you come to the end of the road with the small village of Rodellar nestled in the foothills. Just outside of the village, a giant gorge opens up and is filled with amazing caves, arches, spires and walls with the beautiful but chilly Mascun river flowing (or rather raging during our trip) at the bottom. The area is extremely popular for canyonists and we saw many French and Spanish with their wet suits and haul bags in the parking lot. You can fly into Barcelona, rent a car, and drive a few hours (2) west pretty easily.

When: Not May. Well, supposedly May can be good, but when we went in May, the rain never stopped and it was cold!Summer is too hot, so probably another good place to go from Sept - November.

Accommodations: We stayed in a bungalow at El Puente that was cheap and decent and close to the climbing. Two bedrooms, kitchen/living room and a full bathroom with shower.  Fina, the campground owner is the nicest lady ever and kept a warm fire going in the restaurant/bar/gear shop the whole time we were there. Our bungalow was a bit cold, so we lit a fire (our stove) every night to get a little warmth in the place as we huddled around in our down coats with wet socks and shoes! 

 

El Peunte (means bridge), right next to the campground

Where to Climb: We spent most of our time in Rodellar hiking and exploring, looking for dry climbing but in the end we did end up actually getting quite a bit of good climbing in and had some good weather, mostly at the El Camino wall. This wall is the closest approach from the trail, and is pretty decent for families with kids. Although, there is a drop off, and the hike in is not short. Other areas would be much harder for families with little ones (under the age of 5) and I'm not so sure I'd recommend it over all the other great, easier, family crags in Europe. 

El Camino Wall

The Landing/Drop off at El Camino

Another crag that stays dry - Las Ventanas

What to see in the Area - Rodellar is pretty remote. Not too many choices on places to stay, but endless hiking. We checked out a nearby town called Aragon that was beautiful and worth checking out. Barcelona is a must see city, so if you fly in, spend a few days there for sure.