Climbing in Malta?

Anyone have experience climbing in Malta? Looking for routes up to 5.12ish sport and trad. What are the areas/ routes that shouldn't be missed?

I was there for a month last winter, and hit up all the climbing areas I could bike to from the fortified cities, which was where my ship was tied up. Spent a lot of time at Wied Babu, nice range of sport climbing. some of the seaside spots have some hard fun overhanging limestone cave stuff. The island of Gozo has epic sea cliffs. There's a good guidebook for sportclimbing which I'd reccomend picking up if you'll be around for a minute. The trad one was out of print when I was there, but you might be able to find it. The two local climbing clubs have F-book groups and events which can be nice for beta or finding partners, I forget which is more active, I joined both. Bolt replacement at seaside spots with titanium glue-ins seems to be underway, but I'd still keep an eye out for suspect fixed gear.

bump! just bought some plane tickets.

Can I get away with a 50m rope or should I bring a 70m? Worth it to bring trad gear?

You'd enjoy listening to Stevie Haston's interview on enormocast.com

I haven't climbed there yet, but we're going in April and one of our friends is from Malta.

Per my friend, he says it's still a bit of an unknown place to climb - guidebooks aren't well developed as it's not yet known as a climbing destination (though dirtbag cheap). There is a bit of all types of climbing - deep water soloing, sport and trad.

I have the sport guidebook, and a lot of it seems 5.10+. They guidebook website is decent - maltaclimbingguide.com/look…

BTW, the trad guidebook is out of print, but they say you can rent it when you get to Malta.

I used a 60m everywhere I went, which worked great. 50m would have been fine too for the majority of what I saw. Didn't make it to Gozo or a lot of other areas, though.

Was out climbing in Malta this past week. We hired a car to get around the wee island and climbed in five crags (two in Gozo). In the end, we wished we'd based ourselves in Gozo.

If you didn't know, the trad book is out of print and can only be hired. We met a guide and a couple Brits that had the book and had a look through for the areas we were climbing. In general the trad routes seemed to be PG-13, R, X, and even some of the bolted routes were sparsely protected (e.g., 17m in the guidebook but closer to 14m, 4 bolts).

Yeah, go with the 60m and enjoy!

My girlfriend and I are headed to Malta (and SIcilia) later this month - were planning to mostly climb in Gozo, maybe a little on the south Malta Cost (blue Grotto, red wall, ect). I few questions:

Any particular area suggestions or routes that shouldn't be missed (I climb up to 12a/7aish)?

Also, does anyone have beta on renting a car and/or using the buses to access the craigs? I'm also a little nervous about the car rental processes - there seems to be a lot of diceyness around how and who you book with, and trying to avoid hidden insurance/delivery/gas fees when you arrive. But I'm not sure you can easily get to the climbing without a car either.

Daniel, not sure if you've already left (guessing). For driving, do a car rental (and technically, you'd need an international license if you get in an accident and/or ticket but they'd probably let you rent it without one). Though to note, even having driven about in the narrow, windy streets of Boston, Malta driving is a whole 'nuther world. I can't get into my account with UKC to remember the climbs (we did go to Ghar Lapsi a couple times and enjoyed it (and defo check out Gozo, it 15 euros or so, and a neat little island). Check the UK climbing website for more info https://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/destinations/malta_and_gozo-7200

jlr climb - thanks, all your advice is spot on, but id did fun us after we'd already returned. Had a great trip non-the-less. lots of great climbing to be had there!