Granada! It’s so Moorish (boom boom...Kill me Now)
Long before I got back into climbing, I booked a holiday with the fam along with Andy & Elaine (from the Brecon Beacons fastpacking trip) and their children Esmé (9) & James (5 months). We booked an Airbnb to Otura at the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains near Granada in Spain. It turned out to be an absolute gold mine of amazing climbing routes and hiking. Kerching!
I bought a couple of local climbing guides (I’d particularly recommend the Andalusia - Guia de Escalada Deportiva (if you want it please click on the link and buy it so I get a bit of cash from Amazon too!) and spoke to a local guide called Nino from the amazing Club Cabraloca (the appropriately named crazy goat when translated - Seriously, if you want to climb in Granada hit him up, he’s an absolute legend and they do everything through canyoning, via ferrata to diving or caving). We chatted by email in the run up to the holiday - Nino doesn’t speak English so it was a great opportunity to practice my Spanish (I’m terrible at languages but I’ve been trying to relearn since before our last trip to Barcelona with Andy and Elaine - I’m rubbish but getting there).
Lads Lads Lads - From left to Right; Antonio (interpreter & dog owner extraordinaire), Andy, Yours Truly and Nino (Club Cabraloca and all round legend)
I explained to Nino that there would be 4 adults (who apart from Sammy, climb regularly indoors, along with me having done a bit of rock climbing as a kid), Lenora (age 7 - an absolute beast), Esmé (9 - who has done a bit of bouldering indoors), Autumn (3 - who has done a bit of bouldering indoors but mainly will be climbing for our entertainment *please don’t call social services) and James (4 months, who most likely won’t be up for climbing but we would see how he feels on the day).
We wanted to climbs somewhere (in order of importance) 1 - That was in the shade (It’s brutally hot in Granada in August), 2 - (that had grades between 4-7 in the same spot so that everyone could have a challenge) and 3 - My Spanish isn’t particularly good so would he have someone that spoke English (I’m happy ordering a few beers or chatting conversationally, but don’t want to die because of getting a verb mixed up). Nino was all over it and reassured me all would be taken care of.
For anyone that hasn’t been, I can’t recommend Granada enough. It’s a small city that isn’t very busy (coming from London that’s a massive plus), there’s very little traffic, you’re right on the foot of the Sierra Nevada mountain range (which has Mulhacen, the highest mountain in Western Europe outside the alps as well as the most Southern ski resort) and some ace beaches (the lesser known Costa Tropical) which don’t suffer the hordes of people and Brits that other coasts nearby do. Plus the Alhambra, Nasrid Palace & Generalife Gardens are truly spectacular.
The Nasrid Palace, presented to you by Big L
We spent a few days checking out the area, visiting the tourist spots, going to the beach, lounging around our pool and BBQing (with some drinking thrown in too), but also scoped out some climbing routes on a hike too. For those not in the know, Los Cahorros is a fantastic trail of rope bridges, rivers and stunning views through a gorge and mountainsides. It’s also famous for having some incredible climbing routes, so we had a good old hike around to check it out.
A hill at the start of Los Cahorros
It’s always a good idea to set off early when the days get so hot so we did most of our hiking in the morning to head home at around 2. The hike is really fun and family friendly with plenty of access to mountain run off water (I always bring my Sawyer Filter with me wherever I go where I might run out of water, despite the several litres of frozen water we had with us, as it’s ace just to fill up whenever you need. Super handy, very light, connects to a regular bottle and lasts forever. link on image below).
Los Cahorros only has about 300m of elevation across the hike so is family friendly whilst being hard enough work when Elaine was carrying James and I was mainly carrying Autumn.
Lunch in a nice little cave
Anyway...it’s really cool with a load of rope bridges, stunning scenery, great access to water, lots of shade & amazing climbing routes. Do it.
Next up on the list was hooking up with Nino. Unfortunately Antonio, Nino’s buddy and translator couldn’t make the Thursday so we rescheduled for Friday. No biggie, as we had a lazy day by the pool but come Friday we were all super hyped to get on some rock.
We met Nino in the Lidl car park near the main Decathlon (I love Decathlon) and had a good laugh about my obscene amount of emails I had sent Nino. He had been very patient and was just as nice in person as he was on email. His mate Antonio would be our translator as Nino’s English was similar to my Spanish, and Antonio came with the added bonus of his dog who was epic. She was a jet black Belgian shepherd and the kids were super hyped as they were missing Ripley (our Sproodle).
After a quick drive to Alfacar (there are loads of routes within a very short drive of Granada) we found our wall. After a pretty steep hike up the hill through some trees (I was a little worried about Elaine as she had James strapped to her chest, but she’s an absolute machine and didn’t seem phased at all) we got to a really nice and shady ledge below our climbing spot.
Autumn kicking back at basecamp (poser)
All the gear, all the ideas (Nino & Antonio, at least)
Sammy, checking out the photos, being stalked by the dog
After setting up, Nino asked who wanted to go first - before he’d even had the chance to finish the sentence, Lenora was up and putting on a harness whilst simultaneously saying ‘I will’ in a manner that suggested this wasn’t up for discussion. Within minutes, she had blasted her way up the first route (route 8 of el Sector del Esconchón in the Guia de Escalada en Alfacar Granada, if you’re interested) and cockily confirmed that it was easy.
Lenora (just turned 7) before ‘warming up on an easy route’ - her words not mine
Esmé and Autumn found it a bit trickier and only made it half way up, but Esmé doesn’t climb as much and Autumn is only 3. To give her credit, she got a good 8 metres up and it’s her first time climbing outdoors. We all had a good laugh when Autumn rolled over onto her back, hanging from the rope and started shouting “I can’t roll over! I can’t roll over!”. Please don’t call social services.
Like a beetle on it’s back (Autumn, 3 years old)
I normally belay with a Black Diamond ATC Guide (linked to Amazon) but Antonio got me on a Grigri+ for the first time and it felt a bit odd to use. Paying out the rope was a little more tricky but I appreciated the extra safety feature knowing that it auto locks if someone is belaying me and not paying attention (having 4 kids with us, that’s quite possible too). I’m still in two minds about which I prefer to use, but then redundancy is key in climbing and the GriGri definitely offers a greater level of safety.
Esmé getting involved
Sammy had a good old crack at the route and managed to top out, but freaked a bit when she saw the view. It’s a bit different to an indoor wall, when you’re already 1350m up, the 30m feels a lot higher.
Nino and Antonio started planning out the more challenging routes once they’d gauged our abilities on the warm up route. They put up a harder route (route 5) which Elaine and Andy promptly powered through, followed by me. It was a challenging route (a V+ in the local grades, which according to the guidebook and the UKC website which have a conversion chart shows the local grades being two lower than normal French grades, so this would have been a 6a+ apparently).
Andy!
Esmé having a crack at the second route with Andy on belay
Not one to be outdone, Lenora got tied in and had a shot at the harder route. I wasn’t sure how far up she’d get as it wasn’t particularly easy and she’s still only small. Of course, she flipped the beast mode switch and absolutely crushed it.
She never fails to amaze me. Big L went up the wall like a rat up a drain pipe & both our guides were super impressed by how brave she was. Putting in all those hours at YonderE17 and the Arch obviously paid off. Things were going really well until Lenora reached up into hold (in the side of the big rock in the picture above and got a nasty surprise.
Lenora topping out but getting a nasty surprise
There was a really spiky bush in the rock which Lenora put her hand right in to, so the pain combined with a sudden realisation that she was super high up freaked her out. She wanted to come down right away, but was pretty gripped so lost her concentration. Usually at the Reach and Castle climbing centres (which I think are about 15 metres) she loves abseiling down, with whoops of joy and wild/possibly real claims that she’s a ninja/special forces etc. Things were a bit different here, with the wall not being as flat as in a climbing centre what with overhangs and the risk of other spiky plants. It all got a bit much for her but we finally got her down. Nino was great and climbed over to her, got her to relax a bit and then things were fine.
Nino helping Lenora find her Zen
Meanwhile, Antonio had set up a much harder route (route 2 in the guide) along with changing the first easy route over a few metres into a similarly hard route (route 7). Elaine had a crack at the hardest route and despite having the background noise of a crying 5 month old baby James being held by Andy, a mildly hysteric Lenora, along with Autumn and Esmé arguing over who was more of a unicorn, managed to focus and get on with it.
Elaine, getting stuck in
After Elaine got down, the kids were getting a bit grumpy so I helped Elaine and Sammy get them all back to the comfort of the air con in the cars (and iPads) so that Andy and I could have a crack at the last routes before helping Nino and Antonio Pack up.
Where’s Wally? I’m on there somewhere (shots from the cars)
Me, topping out on route 2 - loads of fun & a bit of a challenge. Great shot by Andy
The view over Granada from Alfacar
All in all it was a great day. I thoroughly enjoyed the routes - the final two routes were the most challenging and in very different ways, but I think we could have pushed it up a grade looking back even. The view over Granada was spectacular and the size of the mountains is really humbling. To give context, Alfacar (a low to medium size mountain) from where we parked the car, was starting at around 1300m, which is roughly the height of Ben Nevis (the highest peak in the UK at 1345m) with the peak topping out at around 1400m.
I’d love to get back to the area again for more exploration - apparently Autumn is ideal as it’s still nice and warm, but not so punishingly hot. This opens up a number of walls that don’t have shade at the bottom, so that would be nice.
All in all, I can thoroughly recommend Granada and if you get the chance to go, make sure you hit up Nino at Club Cabraloca to save you lugging a ton of kit over whilst getting the benefit of a super experienced local guide.













