Oliana

Driving north on the C-14, just beyond the town of Oliana one passes through some of the most magnificent scenery in the whole of the Catalan pre-Pyrenees. Limestone walls up to 600m high tower above the road, home to numerous multi-pitch expeditions of a distinctly adventurous nature. However, being predominantly self-protected, with little in-situ gear, these fall beyond the scope of our sport-climbing guidebook. Instead, our selection features two of the zone’s well-established sport-sectors, plus a 'new kid on the block'. The first and foremost — the awesomely steep barrel-shaped wall of Contrafort de Rumbau can comfortably lay claim to being one of the 'hardest' crags on the planet. This is a phenomenally impressive piece of rock, where the major routes are up to 50m long and offer incredibly sustained climbing. The wall has a southeasterly orientation, which means that although sunny mid-winter mornings and early afternoons may provide perfect conditions, the climbing day will be rather short and, in fact, some of the most notable ascents have taken place during the long shady evenings of late spring and early summer. The recent development of some new 6s and 7s on walls to left of the main sector are a very welcome addition for those not quite operating at the top levels. Our second sector La Paret de l’Obaga Negra offers an excellent selection of low-to-middle grade climbs on rock which is never steeper than vertical. Although south-facing, the sun’s rays leave the crag around mid-afternoon, disappearing behind the giant walls on the western side of the gorge. In winter this means those wishing to make the most of the day will need to make an early start. The final sector in our selection is the recently equipped Sector Rams (Paret de La Cascada) which, although not big on quantity of routes at the present time, more than makes up for it in quality.