Rock climbing is a dangerous sport in which you can be seriously injured or even killed.
This wiki is intended only for the use of experienced climbers who have the necessary expertise, experience and judgement to ensure their own safety.
Whilst we have made a reasonable effort to ensure the accuracy of the information in this wiki, you make use of it entirely at your own risk. We are well aware that there are various errors in the descriptions and topos that we have scrounged from various sources. However, it is impossible for any one person to climb every one of these routes and check all the details. So, please regard this information as a guide only and exercise the necessary discretion.
The information in this guide will definitely change with time and is definitely NOT necessarily 100% accurate. These notes are simply an attempt to give you some idea of what to expect. It is up to YOU to determine the situation prevailing on each route you attempt and to exercise the necessary precautions.
South Africa offers some of the best climbing in the world. There are many different rock formations all with different features. Oudtshoorn crags are limestone with hanging stalactites and tufas. The Cederberg is compact sandstone with ledges that offer solid gear placements. There is great sport climbing in Montagu, a small Klein Karoo town, where it is almost always dry (except for when it floods). Waterval Boven is probably the most developed sport climbing area in the county with about 600 routes in a most beautiful setting. In the Free State, Mt Everest and Swinburne offer sport and trad climbing and awesome bouldering. The famous Wave Cave at Shongweni is just outside of Durban and has hard overhanging sport routes. You can do seaside cliff climbing at Morgan Bay. There is world class bouldering at Rocklands in the Cederberg, remote multi-pitch trad climbing at Magaliesberg and the Drakensberg Mountains. Ok, I could go on, but you get the point. The settings are beautiful and uncrowded by hoards of people. The small towns have a really nice laid-back country feel. The people are friendly and genuine. And the food, wine and atmosphere is always great!
A lot of climbing areas are on private land, so please be courteous to anybody you meet while in the area (it might be the landowner). Please don't litter. Only go to the toilet far away from the crag. Keep on the paths.
Loading map...
{"minzoom":false,"mappingservice":"googlemaps3","type":"TERRAIN","zoom":false,"types":["ROADMAP","SATELLITE","HYBRID","TERRAIN"],"geoservice":"google","maxzoom":false,"width":"auto","height":"500px","centre":false,"title":"","label":"","icon":"","visitedicon":"","lines":[],"polygons":[],"circles":[],"rectangles":[],"copycoords":false,"static":false,"wmsoverlay":"","layers":[],"controls":["pan","zoom","type","scale","streetview"],"zoomstyle":"DEFAULT","typestyle":"DEFAULT","autoinfowindows":false,"kml":[],"gkml":[],"fusiontables":[],"resizable":false,"tilt":0,"kmlrezoom":false,"poi":true,"imageoverlays":[],"markercluster":false,"searchmarkers":"","locations":[{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Category:Montagu\" title=\"Category:Montagu\"\u003ECategory:Montagu\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.784854,"lon":20.116596,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Oudtshoorn\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Oudtshoorn (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Oudtshoorn\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.371198,"lon":22.176535,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Category:Rocklands\" title=\"Category:Rocklands\"\u003ECategory:Rocklands\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Category:Rocklands\n","link":null,"lat":-32.14524,"lon":19.033785,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Harrismith\" title=\"Harrismith\"\u003EHarrismith\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Harrismith\n","link":null,"lat":-28.165111,"lon":29.18228,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Waterval_Boven\" title=\"Waterval Boven\"\u003EWaterval_Boven\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Waterval_Boven\n","link":null,"lat":-25.633014,"lon":30.333323,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Umgeni_Valley\" title=\"Umgeni Valley\"\u003EUmgeni_Valley\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Umgeni_Valley\n","link":null,"lat":-29.480103,"lon":30.233831,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Spitzkoppe_%26_Pontoks\" title=\"Spitzkoppe \u0026amp; Pontoks\"\u003ESpitzkoppe_\u0026amp;_Pontoks\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"Spitzkoppe_\u0026amp;_Pontoks\n","link":null,"lat":-21.835528,"lon":15.195966,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Cape_Town\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Cape Town (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Cape Town\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.94336,"lon":18.43895,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/wiki/Category:Tafelberg\" title=\"Category:Tafelberg\"\u003ECategory:Tafelberg\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-32.414168,"lon":19.207091,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Wolfberg\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Wolfberg (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Wolfberg\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-32.473745,"lon":19.275119,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Paarl\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Paarl (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Paarl\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.744683,"lon":18.942139,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Hellfire\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Hellfire (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Hellfire\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.730684,"lon":19.172482,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Yellowood_Amphitheatre\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Yellowood Amphitheatre (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Yellowood Amphitheatre\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-33.726731,"lon":19.208043,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""},{"text":"\u003Cp\u003E\u003Ca href=\"/w/index.php?title=Category:Kleinmond\u0026amp;action=edit\u0026amp;redlink=1\" class=\"new\" title=\"Category:Kleinmond (page does not exist)\"\u003ECategory:Kleinmond\u003C/a\u003E\n\u003C/p\u003E","title":"","link":null,"lat":-34.332309,"lon":18.996581,"alt":0,"address":"","icon":"","group":"","inlineLabel":"","visitedicon":""}]}