Tenerife: a Climbing Guide

Tenerife: a Climbing Guide

Tenerife is a rad, rocky paradise for those who enjoy cliff-based activities such as climbing and bouldering. Although you’ll no doubt fly into the main airport – Tenerife South – we recommend hiring a car and getting out of there and into the glorious wilds as soon as you can. TopCar is one of the hire companies we’ve had good experience with in the past. You might like to mix this up with some mountain biking, too, in which case Cycling in Tenerife is a great choice, with a good range of bikes on offer, and this can be combined with your car hire, too, of course.

Accommodation

In terms of accommodation, there’s plenty on offer all over the island, but of particular interest to us is Tenerife Climbing House, where climbers from all over the world gather, using it as a shared base for their adventures. The House hosts an associated club, El Ocho Climbing School, where you can work on improving your abilities and pick up lots of practical techniques, including those necessary for climbing volcanic terrains – Tenerife is home to Mount Teide, Spain’s highest peak and the world’s third highest volcano – and their expert guides and instructors are members of Spanish Association of Mountain Guides in addition.

The continuous, year-round warm weather is another reason for Tenerife’s enduring popularity amongst the climbing community, with temperatures hovering between 20 and 30 degree celsius nearly all of the time. Whether you go it alone or in a group, we recommend heading out to:

Arico

This is the Mecca of rock climbing on the island. Its famous Arico crag offers more than two hundred and fifty single pitch sport climbing routes, across an expansive range of grades, and there are also plenty of opportunities for bouldering. Other crags in the area with similar single pitch sport routes include Tamadaya, Fantasma, El Hoyo and El Rio.

La Cañada del Capricho

Also known as Las Cañadas – is located within the epic landscape of Mount Teide National Park. It features sport routes as well as some trad lines. Its gathering of momentous overhangs and teetering slabs provide a richness of sun and shade, something for every sort of climber. It also offers a wide range of grade options.

Guaria

Here is where you’ll find the island’s third largest climbing area. It lies over on the west of the island. Here, you’ll discover a wealth of multi-pitch routes as well as Tenerife’s tallest crag. Its height ensures that there are a plethora of trad routes, too, and since the crag faces southwards you can be sure of sunshine here, making the very best of your trip out to this particular Canary Island sun spot.

Finally, don’t think you even need to pack your own crampons and kit, because you can certainly hire that gear out here on the island, too. Roxtore Climbing bills itself as a ‘one stop shop’ for all things climbing and bouldering, and can be found in the central crag zone of Arico, as only one example.