According to The Crag, there are 158 climbing routes in Madeira with most of them being sport routes.  The two crags with the most routes are Ribeira Brava and Socorridos.  Both of those areas are near the southern coast of the island and in between Calheta, where we are staying, and Funchal which is the main city on the island.

Rock Climbing – Ribeiro Brava  

Ribeira Brava is a small coastal town in between two steep hillsides.  The buses stop here on their way back and forth along the coast from Funchal so it’s relatively easy to get to by bus.  There is a palm tree lined walkway near the shore and a rocky black sand beach in the bay which is protected by a large concrete break wall.  On the far left side of the beach is the crag.  The sun can be absolutely brutal when it hits the rock so it’s important to time your climb so that the wall is shaded.  The crag faces west so getting there in the morning is perfect and the sun at this time of year (August) does not strike the wall until around 2pm.  There are 20 routes on the cliff and all but 2 of them are sport routes.

We lead climbed the two 5c+ routes as well as the 6a and then we moved the anchor over and top roped two 6a+’s (Those grades are according to the French system and would correspond to the Yosemite Decimal System as 5.9’s, 5.10a, and 5.10b’s).  Wikipedia has a nice grade correlation chart here.   

I thought the routes were fun and challenging and the access is very easy from the town which is nice.  Unfortunately, the town does not well maintain the black rock beach there so there is trash and a rusty old football (soccer) goal laying around.  Even so, there are usually a few people sunning themselves in the beach area or bathing in the protected bay.    

Rock Climbing – Socorridos  

Socorridos is a bit more challenging to find since the crag is located off a small road that runs along a river and there is a large construction/quarry site at the base of the cliff.   It’s fairly easy to see the cliff which is behind the construction/quarry site.  There is an old levada that flows along the side of the cliff and several small ancient rock bridges built into the side of the cliff.  

We couldn’t find our way through the construction/quarry site so we walked up the road and then cut through the tiny terraced banana fields on very steep steps up to the levada.  Then we walked along the levada over to the ancient bridges and then down a narrow path to the base of the cliff.   

According to The Crag information for Socorridos there are 20 routes ranging from 5’s up to 7a+.  Unfortunately, there is no topo for the area though so it’s difficult to tell which routes are which.  We tried to choose easier routes but the first one we picked turned out to be very difficult and we had to down climb.  The next one started out fairly easy but then became much more challenging and overhung after the third clip.  However, we were both able to lead that route and found it interesting and challenging (photo of Bi above on the route).  The last route we lead was short and in a sort of large concave feature.  The area at the base of the cliff is good for belaying but Sydney ended up getting a ton of burs from the grasses and shrubs (much much more than usual) so be ready for that if you have a dog.   

On the way back, we found out that there is a narrow staircase to the left of the construction/ quarry site that you can take to the base of the cliff.  Next time, we will plan to take that up versus going the long way around on the road.