Guided days and on-the-rock coaching at some of the most famous sport crags on the planet — with someone who knows which wall is in condition this week, which routes deserve you, and how to help you climb them better than you arrived.
Here’s the quiet truth about these crags: the names you know from films and magazines are surrounded by hundreds of routes you’ve never heard of — and matching you to the right ones, on the right wall, in the right conditions, is most of what makes a brilliant day. That’s the guiding half.
The other half comes free with it: coaching, on the rock, all day, in exactly the dose you want. Not a training plan — a second pair of eyes that catches the heel you didn’t trust, the clipping stance you rushed past, the rest you didn’t see. Some clients want every route debriefed; some want a quiet belay and one good tip at the anchor. Both are the product. Every day out here is coached as much as you’d like it to be — because that’s the difference between hiring a guide and hiring someone to hold your rope.
Four famous names to start with — but they’re the start, not the list. Catalonia holds hundreds of sport crags, and knowing the brilliant ones that never make the films is half the job.
A canyon of pocketed conglomerate with over a thousand routes — home to some of the hardest climbs on Earth and, more usefully, hundreds of brilliant ones at every grade below. Pockets teach you to climb precisely; Margalef has endless patience for teaching.
The clifftop village, the film-famous walls, the technical limestone that made half the world’s best climbers better. If you learn to use your feet anywhere, you’ll learn it here.
Big, steep, blue-streaked walls built for endurance — long routes that ask you to keep moving and reward you for learning how. The crag climbers cross continents for.
The quiet one: orange limestone in a green gorge, friendlier angles, and the feeling of having found somewhere the crowds haven’t. The pick for mileage days and falling back in love with climbing.
Which crag — famous or gloriously not — on which day, at which time of year: that’s the judgement you’re hiring. Tell us your dates and your grade; we’ll tell you where we’re going.
Your guide, accident & rescue insurance, and the shared gear — ropes, quickdraws, the lot. Personal kit (helmet, harness, shoes, chalk bag) is yours to bring or rent for a small supplement; just send sizes.
The answer to “are you free for a few days at Siurana?” is nearly always an enthusiastic yes — the only way to find out is to ask.
We’ll usually meet at a café near the crag — plan, coffee, then climbing. No car? Pick-up can be arranged for a supplement; it never stops a day happening.
Year-round, honestly — between these crags there’s always somewhere in condition. That’s the local-knowledge part of the job.
One honest requirement: you already sport climb. Not well, necessarily — there’s no minimum grade here, and a 5 climber gets as good a day as a 7a climber — but you know how to tie in, belay, clip and lower. If those words are new, you want the sport course first (it’s two days, and it’s exactly this, taught properly). Indoor-only so far? Completely fine — the rock doesn’t care where you learned.
And the ceiling, because we’d rather you hear it from us: our coaching earns its keep up to about 7b. Charlie’s own hardest redpoint is 8a, and the honest maths of coaching is that it works best a few grades below your coach’s limit. If you’re projecting 8s, you don’t need us — you need a specialist coach, and we’ll happily point you at the local knowledge instead.
At some point, yes — that’s how a climbing day works. If you’ve never belayed a leader (or never belayed at all), we’ll teach you properly first and we’ll practise until it’s boring. Nobody has ever been sent home for honesty about their belaying.
No — the day is built around what you do. Happy on top-rope? That’s a full, brilliant day. Leading already? We’ll climb that way. Want to start leading, with someone watching who can coach the clips and the falls? That might be the most valuable day on this page. Tell us where you are and the format sorts itself.
It’s the normal case, not the exception. Sport crags are made for it: routes of every grade share the same sector, so nobody waits around and nobody gets dragged up something. The one requirement stands for everyone — you each know how to sport climb — and if some of you don’t, ask us about combining a day with a course.
Honestly? Often, yes — not by making you stronger (no one can do that in a day) but by fixing things you can’t see yourself doing: footwork, pacing, rests, tactics. Most climbers are leaving a couple of grades on the table through habits, not weakness. What a day won’t do is replace consistency — we’ll tell you what to practise, but the practising is yours.
Not at the moment — and we’d rather say that plainly than sell you a version of it. Coaching with us happens on the rock, in the moment, where we think it’s worth the most. If a structured programme is what you’re after, we’m the wrong tool and we’ll say so.
Free to cancel or move until 7 days out. Inside the week, the deposit stays — that’s when the day gets built: conditions watched, sectors picked, plans made around you. Weather’s the exception, as ever: sport crags dodge rain remarkably well around here, but if conditions genuinely kill the day, we move it or the deposit comes home. Nobody climbs wet limestone to honour a booking.
