There are some places everyone thinks of when they think sport climbing in the US – Yosemite in California, Red River Gorge in Kentucky, Red Rocks in Nevada.
I’m here to tell you that you should add Puerto Rico to your list.
There’s limestone for days: impressive karst formations rising right up from a gorgeous white sand beach, jagged blue cliffs jutting out of the jungle, and everything in between. When we hiked up to the highest point on the island, we looked out at the landscape to the north and spotted literally hundreds of sharp hills, all of them with potential one- or two-pitch routes on their sides. But that’s the key word—potential. Climbing here is not nearly as developed as it is in many places. There are hundreds of fun sport routes on the island, but there’s space for at least ten times that. Most of the crags we checked out are still being developed. This place is only going to get better.
So here’s your guide to Puerto Rico’s sport climbing scene as it exists in 2023. In a few years, I hope it’ll be even more robust. I can’t wait to check it out.
Starting with the most accessible climbing region, we have Nuevo Bayamon, which Mountain Project terms the main crag on the island. It’s maintained by the owners of Aventuras Tierra Adentro and supported by purchases of their guidebooks. That means the routes are mostly clean and the bolts are reliable!
Right in San Juan is a dense hiking and mountain-biking Parque Julio Enrique Monagas which is also dotted with hidden crags. We didn’t have time to explore this region as thoroughly as we wanted to, but we found some of the very fun rainy day climbing at El Pasillo, which is a narrow ravine that becomes a talus cave, and another at Ground Zero, which is a cave into which you descend via brief class-four trail. The limestone was a bit tricky (read: crumbly and wet) but the candle-wax style offered plenty of interesting handholds. There are routes from 5.8 to 5.12d, so no matter your climbing experience, you’ll find something fun. I wouldn’t recommend the 5.8s for your first outdoor lead as the experience of climbing in a dark cave with dripping water could be a little intimidating, but this place is so cool that it’s worth checking out in any other situation.
Follow the coast northwest from San Juan for about 45 minutes and you’ll find Roca Norte, which styles itself as an outdoor climbing gym. This is a gorgeous jungle setting in the backyard of some climbing guides and you pay $15 for a day pass ($35 for a month pass) to access their land. It’s well worth it—the routes are well marked and the approach is super short, and the vibe is just perfect. When you arrive in their backyard, there’s a picnic table and covered area for snacking and storing your gear, then hammocks amid the tropical flowers. You reach the climbs by descending a trail on either side of the yard, which leads to the two parallel cliffs. There are about 25 bolted routes here with the opportunity to set up a top rope (or the guides can do that for you), ranging from 5.6 to 5.12a. They’re generally short and the holds are bomber—lots of pockets throughout the limestone offer jugs and monos galore, and the oppositely-oriented cliffs mean you can usually find something in the shade no matter what time of day it is.
If you keep going, there are about 10 more routes that require a short class-four scramble hike into some caves. These routes, termed “Segunda Dimension” by the setters, are very short and feel like boulder problems. Back here, you can also camp in a few of the caves for the ultimate dirtbag PR climbing trip.
Ciales
Next up is the core climbing area we spotted from atop the mountain: Ciales, land of a thousand hills. There are only a few developed crags around here, but they are top tier. There’s even some multipitch routes! These crags were the only ones where we encountered any other climbers.
There are several options around here, but we loved Flying Coconut. Also on private land and supported by an easy $5 Venmo to @Eli-Helmuth, it has two cliffs, one single-pitch and one multipitch, and both are reached via a fun 15-minute jungle hike. The approach can be a bit scrambly/overgrown, especially in the dark, so bring your headlamp!
The rock is quite similar to Roca Norte, but the cliffs are twice as high. You’ll want to break out your longer rope here if you aim to have your pick of routes — we only brought a 60m rope and had to be super careful which routes we climbed. But even then, we had a lot of fun options ranging from 5.7 to 5.12c. This also felt like a very social crag where we made friends we met up with later on in our trip at another crag!
Note that the Herradura (single pitch) cliff gets morning direct sunlight, so we chose to arrive around noon. That still gave us almost seven hours until sunset, all in the shade, which was absolutely necessary on a 90-degree day!
Care for some deep water soloing?
Personally, it kind of freaks me out to jump off a cliff into the ocean, but if that’s your thing, this might be your place. All along the north coast are absolutely spectacular rocky beaches, and Cueva del Indio lets you climb them. These are technically sport routes with bolts, but my impression from asking around is that some people climb them unroped. Even if you’re not up for such risky climbing, still a gorgeous hike and beach!
If you drive another hour along the north coast from Cueva del Indio, you reach the west coast, where you end up in Aguadilla’s surfer paradise. Most people in the parking lot will be there to hit the beach, but if you’re here to climb, hike through the jungle. The sport routes can be tricky to find tucked in among the boulders (there are many, many bouldering routes here) and amount to highball boulders with a few bolts to keep you safe, but what they lack in length they more than make up for in ambiance. The coolest area is The Pit, which consists of a pile of building-sized boulders with jungle growing atop them, leaning against each other with the waves crashing beneath. Seriously, one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. And one of the scariest to climb! For some reason, stepping off a ledge into open air above the thundering waves is way scarier than climbing a regular cliff. Maybe it’s because the group we passed on the way in said they lost their shoes to the waves during one route!
We didn’t make it down to this part of the island, but we heard amazing things. Cerro las Tetas is completely different—it’s multipitch routes on basalt instead of limestone! It’s supposed to be gorgeous (everything is here) and ranges from 5.7 to 5.12b. Like Nuevo Bayamon, it’s supported by the guidebook published by Aventuras Tierra Adentro.
In conclusion
Bring your climbing gear when you come to the island! Aventuras Tierra Adentro and Roca Norte both support rentals and guided climbs even if you don’t have your own gear or any experience, but you’ll have much more fun if you can also strike out on your own. We loved chatting with locals and tourists alike at all the crags, and had fun getting to know some surfers at Surfers/Survival Beach. The owners of Roca Norte were also full of great suggestions about climbing on the island.
There’s more than enough to keep you busy here for a month of solid climbing. And hopefully in the future there will be even more!