El Chorro

Overview

El Chorro, in the heart of Andalusie's Málaga province, is the most international of the Spanish crags. Thousands of climbers of all around the world meet each year on this limestone walls to 'taste' the rock of the almost thousand different lines and routes. With its many sectors and areas spread along the landscape, it looks like a kind of 'amusement park' for the sport climber. One can choose to comfortably climb next to the car park during a spring afternoon in 'Albercones' sector, hike through a pine forest for about 45' to reach the 'Swiss Stair' (La Escalera Suiza) with views over the green Guadalorce valley, or even start a real and impressive Via Ferrata through the deep gorge of Gaitanes to reach, one hour later, the most hidden sectors of 'Cotos' or 'Makinódromo', where you are sure that only the most fanatics will be.

El Chorro is a big and complex climbing site, with many zones, areas and sector.

Areas and sectors of the crags

El Chorro climbing site has to be divided in two big zones:

-Zones with direct access from the village without having to do the 'Camino del Rey' via ferrata. Here we have:

Escalera Árabe (Escalera Árabe, Escalera Suiza & Serena)
Encantadas
Frontales (Bajas, Medias & Altas)
Placa/Wall de los Venenos

-Zones that require to do the 'Camino del Rey' ferrata to be able to climb. These are zones inside the gorge and at the walls directly above the water of the dam. Here there are:

In the first area of the gorge (the area where the vertical walls rise above the lake formed by the dam, the narrowest passages and the first walls after the narrowest part) there is...

Pasarela de los Venenos
África
Jauja
Verdonia
El Recodo
Los Tres Techos
Incógnita
Cotos (Altos, Medios & Bajos)
El Polvorín
Cerro Cristo/La Playa

Also deeper in the gorge (ferrata is needed) in an area called "Makinódromo" we have 4 sectors:

El Invento
Los Bloques
Los Tigres
Makinódromo

Then the gorge becomes narrow again (the known as 'second canyon'). In this area there are 4 other sectors:

Petit Desfiladero
La Acequia-Brasil
La Pasarela
Las Bañeras

Getting There

The train passes through but it does not stop there anymore! To reach the crag you will have to come with your own car or by bus.

BUS/PUBLIC TRANSPORT:

Departs from Málaga city


CAR/PRIVATE TRANSPORT:

- Coming from Málaga
- Coming from the north

Red Tape

Some of the sectors with many interesting routes and lines are deep in the Gorge of Gaitanes ('Desfiladero de los Gaitanes'). There used to be two ways to come into this deep and narrow gorge:

- El Camino Real: a small path, almost hundred meters above the river bed, constructed against and along the walls of the gorge, fixed to the rock with thick iron bars. Its poor bricks' structure did not stand the pass of the time and now it is falling apart. What it used to be a relatively safe way into the gorge and to the hidden crags inside it, has become a dangerous corridor with unsafe depths and risky passages. A thin cable and bolts secures the way, but the Camino del Rey has become a true Via Ferrata to the climbing spots

- The tunnels: a railway passes by El Chorro village and goes, by a network of tunnels, along the gorge. Sometimes the train appears in open air again to enter quickly the rock in the next tunnel. This railway had become in the past years the normal way for climbers and visitors to enter the gorge, instead of the dangerous Camino del Rey. This passages through the tunnels was quicker too. Since 2005 the railway has forbidden to walk through the tunnels and has placed private security at the entrance of the tunnels to avoid climbers to walk through them. This works and no one walks the gorge in through the tunnels. It is forbidden under heavy fines of, according to some, about 6.000,- euros!!

THEREFORE: take the 'Camino del Rey' to go to the climbing sectors in the gorge, and avoid the tunnels. The Camino del Rey has to be treated as an easy via ferrata (and climbing gear is necessary to walk on it).

Camping and Accomodation

There is a camping at the Village.

There are many accomodations (a short of 'bed & breakfast') and even an hotel in the surrondings.

People camp in the area out of the official Camping. But camping out of the given place (the official camping) is forbidden. The area is, in fact, a Natural Park.

There are plenty of places to park your van and pass the night.

Images

View El Chorro Image Gallery - 10 Images