La Fuixarda: Barcelona’s urban climbing area loses half of its routes

In November 2009, heavy rains caused a section the cliff of La Fuxi to collapse. The city immediately closed street to remove the rubbles and determine if the rest of the cliff was stable.

The decision as subsequent actions have now been taken and it’s not good news at all for those how came to love la Fuxi: the Cliff is now off limits to climbing forever and its 50+ excellent routes have been rendered unclimbable with steel rods and heavy duty wire mesh.

The tunnel part remains open and there is not reason to think this will change. Some of the less popular routes on the cemented cliff, just outside of the tunnel were not covered with wire, but steel rods where driven in this section as well, making it unsafe to climb

La Fuixarda, a free access climbing area at the heart of Barcelona has always been regarded as a very special place for climbers. Having a space like this one in a major city is truly unique. The group of people who set out to develop and equip these lines did so voluntarily and through much hard work and dedication of resources. They turned the place into a giant playground enjoyed by thousands of people.

The area has always been a liability for the city, and many climbers suspect that the local administration had been looking for a pretext to shut it down for some times. Meshing the entire cliff does seem much more like an effort to keep climbers away that citizen protection. We can only hope that that tunnel will remain freely accessible for climbers, but there isn’t any real guarantee for this.

La Fuixarda: the world's Nº1 urban climbing area - a quick intro..

Also known as "La Fuxi", this is a fantastic climbing spot located within Barcelona's city limits. I've heard some people say that it is the largest free urban climbing area in the world. I don't know if this is true, it is not too hard to believe.

The place is excellent to train endurance and it can be handy if you're on a climbing trip and want to give yourself a quick shape-booster. In any case, its worth the detour, just to take a look at the place.

Located in Montjuic, the area offers bouldering, traverses and steep sport routes on a tunnel roof as well as about 40 well protected lines on vertical cliffs or projected cement. I true urban climbing style, the climbing wall is covered with graffiti and the rock routes have been heavily chipped. Despites being a dark eery tunnel, the sports and climber ambiance is king and the place is very safe. Everybody leaves his/her bags or bikes around and people look for each other. I once had guy return my wallet which had fallen from my pocket. He had looked at my ID and recognized me from the picture.

The climbing area is divided in two:

The Tunnel
On one side is an old tunnel about 50 meters long, crammed with holds up to the ceiling. Four very nice traverses run from end to end, two at ground level and 2 on steeper higher wall. The most popular you will recognize by the people cuing up to do it.

On the opposite side is another neat traverse, much crimpier with two cruxes and a very tough finish - harder but quite an elegant piece overall.

Above this last one is a great trav placed at a much steeper angle.

The Cliff
After the tunnel comes some 100 meters of cliffs. This is an old quarry of grainy yellow rock (volcanic tuff maybe?). A first section is covered in projected cement where climber have created all sorts of fantasist hods. This is followed by real rock, with some rather nice lines, but sadly almost all of them have "doctored" holds. All of the top end of the cliff is covered with projected cement as well, featured with a mix of plastic holds and drilled ones. This turns the climbs, which are in the 25 M vicinity, an interesting two phase ascent, with a rock section and a cement one.

Overall the protection is good, and much credit should be given to the climbing association of La Fuixarda and all the benevolent climbers who've put up the hangers. Routinely you will come across some very worn repel loops and a bit of vigilance is necessary.

Recently I went up there and there was a guy doing laps on the roof ropeless: