Les Calanques is one of those destinations that everyone has dreamt of visiting.
This area offers picture-perfect, sun-lit, compact white limestone above the crystal blue waters of the French Mediterranean. Set between Cassis and Marseille, this 12-mile cliff band (with over 3000 routes) shoots shiny white buttresses above various inlets that offer a fantastic, albeit surreal, climbing adventure. This place is wild. Known for its long and committing traverses right above the vast sea, the Calanques necessitates technical footwork and a calm mind, plus some route-finding skills on the longer routes. The limestone here is rough and compact with diverse features, including cracks, slabs, caves, dihedrals, arêtes, and pinnacles. Les Calanques offers lots of extreme routes up overhanging walls and caves but also many moderate-grade sport routes on short faces plus long multi-pitch adventures up big walls such as the Grande Candelle.
As with most climbing areas in France, Les Calanques has a rich history that includes names like Gaston Rebuffat and Georges Livanos. The area was a playground for these motivated alpinists who put up numerous classic lines throughout the 1940s.
This Winter, Climb Mediterranean offers climbing camps and multi-pitch courses at Les Calanques in January.
Check our calendar for courses or contact me by email to suggest your own dates.
