Page Type Page Type: Mountain/Rock
Location Lat/Lon: 36.90410°N / 4.042°W
Activities Activities: Hiking
Seasons Season: Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter
Additional Information Elevation: 6774 ft / 2065 m
Sign the Climber's Log

Overview

This mountain could have been the highest of the Málaga province if its summit would have been in that province. Nevertheless, the huge vertex, at 2.065 m, is just in Granada province, being, in fact, the western most peak rising over the 2.000 m of the whole south Spain.

La Maroma belongs to a small range known as “Sierra de Tejeda”, that joins in the south east a second range called “Sierra de Almijara”. Both mountain ranges are part of a Natural Park that runs in a NW-SE orientation, working as a geological barrier between Málaga and Granada. There are other peaks in the area, like Navachica (1.834 m, the second highest mountain of Málaga after Torrecilla), Cerro del Lucero (1.771 m), Cerro de Albucar (1.752 m) and El Cielo (1.501 m). This impressive chain of limestone and marble rocks rises among deep and wild gullies over the busy south Spanish coast, few kilometres away from its heights.

The Natural Park offers some kind of protection to the pine tree forests that grow on its slopes, and to different sort of species that live in these mountains too: wild goats, eagles, falcons and goshawks, among others.

On a clear day, one can see from the top of La Maroma as far as Sierra de las Nieves and Sierra Blanca to the west, the whole Sierra Nevada to the east and even Africa at the opposite shore of the Mediterranean Sea.

Getting There

There are two main cities in the area: Málaga, approximately 40 km to the west, and Granada, at 50 km to the north east. Both cities have airport, but only Málaga offers international connections.

To reach the base of the mountain one can travel over the network of highways, national and secondary roads. This can be done with own vehicle or with a taxi. The main roads are:


  • From Granada: highway direction Motril (old N 323) until Salobreña. Then driving 25 km direction Almuñecar, but taking a deviation to the right (north) to the villages of Jayena, Fornes, Arenas del Rey and Alhama de Granada. The road passes next to the dam of Bermejales.

    You could also approach this mountain from the north coming from Granada, over the A-92 and take the exit to Alhama de Granada, from where you can drive further towards El Robledal, the start point of the northern route


  • From Málaga: drive over the A-7, the highway of the coast, direction Motril. Take the exit to Vélez-Málaga and follow the secondary road nr. A 352 for about 8 km till the deviation (right) to the A 335. It is an ascending road to Canillas de Aceituno, Alcaucín, Sedella and Salares.



Other approaches from different points of both provinces are possible too.

With the bus there are, at least, two known regular lines from Vélez-Málaga (south in Málaga province) and from Loja (north in Granada province).

Red Tape

La Maroma is part of a Natural Park since 1999. Permits are not necessary but just a common sense of conservationism and care of nature.

When To Climb

We are in south Spain and it can be quite warm in the summer, with temperatures around the 40 degrees Celsius in the warmer months of July and August. Therefore, climbing at this time of the year is not recommended.

Winter and spring is the best time for hikes on this Sierras: mild temperatures and relative stable weather. From December to February we can find a beautiful layer of snow on the top, and wind can be quite strong and chilling up there.

Routes Overview

There are different ways to walk up to the top of La Maroma:

  • From Canillas de Aceituno: The hardest of all the ascends to the mountain makes 1.500 m of height difference in, aproximately, 4 hours. This relative long approach of 5 km walks up over the south and west slopes.

  • From El Robledal: The northern walk up starts at this small place in the province of Granada. It has 8 and a half kilometers and it is much easier than from Canillas de Aceituno. This is the best option for warmer days.


Next to these two main ascends, there are many other variations. One can also combine La Maroma with a kind of traverse over the neighbouring peaks, many of which raise over the 1.500 metres. For more routes one can visit the Page of routes of the Natural Park of Sierra Tejeda, Almijara and Alhama (in Spanish).

Weather conditions

The meteorologic station of La Viñuela is few kilometers away from the summit of La Maroma, therefore, it is a perfect refetence of the weather in the area:

Meteo Málaga

It is in Spanish, English and German.


Children

Children

Children refers to the set of objects that logically fall under a given object. For example, the Aconcagua mountain page is a child of the 'Aconcagua Group' and the 'Seven Summits.' The Aconcagua mountain itself has many routes, photos, and trip reports as children.