Legends
Sport Climbing
Fully equipped routes at Cabo da Roca are generally single-pitch.
While some multi-pitch routes include one or more fully equipped pitches, there are no fully equipped multi-pitch routes in the area.
In the topos provided, sport routes are indicated with a red line.
Traditional Climbing
Traditional routes are protected exclusively with removable gear. Climbers will not find fixed protection, except for occasional belay or lower-off anchors. Protection relies mainly on cams or micro-cams, with offset nuts often proving particularly useful. The use of pitons has fallen out of favour — they damage the rock, take time to place or remove, and when left in place (e.g., at belays) they quickly deteriorate due to the highly corrosive marine environment.
In the topos, traditional routes are shown with a green line.
Adventure Climbing
These are routes where protection alternates between fixed and removable gear—often within the same pitch.
This style can be found on both single-pitch and multi-pitch routes.
Depending on the first ascensionist’s interpretation of rock quality, level of exposure, and perceived risk, pitches may be:
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largely equipped, with just a few placements required, or
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mostly trad, with only a few fixed anchors at cruxes or high-risk sections.
This mixed-protection style is the predominant form of climbing at Cabo da Roca, commonly referred to locally as “escalada clássica”—a term likely imported from other European countries such as Spain or France, which heavily influenced Portuguese climbing.
In the topos:
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Adventure routes are shown with a green line, and
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Fixed anchor points along those routes are marked with a red asterisk.
Aid Climbing
On routes where it is difficult—or impossible—to safely free climb using removable gear alone, climbers rely on their equipment not only for protection but also for upward progress, using aiders and other devices to move up the wall.
At Cabo da Roca, pure aid climbing routes can be found only on Parede do Espinhaço, Parede das Tormentas, and Arribas Direitas. Some middle pitches of Espinhaço routes were originally climbed on aid and later freed (and can still be climbed either free or on aid today). Routes such as Cuba Livre (P3), Paralelismos, and Heróis da BD were opened and can only be climbed on aid.
There are approximately seven full aid routes at Cabo da Roca, in addition to many individual aid pitches that have since been freed.
In the topos:
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Aid pitches are shown with a yellow line.
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Routes that used to have aid pitches but have since been freed are now shown in green.
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For example, a pitch marked 6c (A1 / 6a+) means it can be climbed free at 6c, or aided at A1 with some mandatory 6a+ free climbing in between.
Bouldering
Bouldering consists of short lines (or problems), typically around 4–5 meters high, climbed without ropes, using crash pads as protection in case of a fall.
In the topos, boulder problems are shown with a blue line.
Ethics & Styles
Several climbing styles coexist on the cliffs of Cabo da Roca.
Although the first ascents of Ursa, Noiva, and the initial climbs at Cinzentos were carried out in a purely traditional style (without the use of fixed anchor points), Cabo da Roca evolved alongside the broader development of climbing in Portugal. As a result, the area now includes a mix of fully bolted routes, semi-equipped routes (with fixed anchors in exposed or unprotectable sections, according to the route developers), and the original traditional lines, which have no fixed anchors except at belays.
The earliest routes were opened without fixed anchors—not out of a deliberate commitment to clean-climbing ethics, but simply because there were no other options available at the time. Pitons were placed on lead and then removed by the second, as they were scarce and needed for the next pitch or for use on future routes.
With the advent of the Spit, and later battery-powered drills and expansion bolts, semi-equipped and fully equipped routes began to appear—following trends and influences brought from abroad, particularly from the French Alps and the cliffs of southern France.
More recent generations who came to climb the older routes made a conscious effort to free previously aided pitches, and, whenever possible, to climb without relying on existing fixed bolts or pegs (which in some cases even led to their removal). They have also added new lines in all styles—sport, traditional, adventure, and aid.
Bouldering arrived later to Cabo da Roca. Although Praia do Cavalo is a world-class bouldering sector, the overall area—despite its vast amount of rock—is not the most suitable venue for this discipline.