UKC

We happen to be close to la pedriza just north of Madrid and I was wondering if it’s a good place for family climbing for a day?

Also if it is, is it worth getting the rockfax app and the topo for it?

It's manageable but not ideal for family climbing. The approaches can be hard to find (depending on sector) and the bolting is quite sporting. Nearby Patones might be better for a family trip. 

Yeah I'd agree,  the climbing is great but bloody scary in places ! 

Absolutely stunning area though and there are some stunning treks on good paths throughout the park.  

Patones is lovely and as has been mentioned would be much better.  It's set in a lovely little gorge with a gentle river that flows up to a dam.  The climbing is lovely steeper pocketed limestone. 

We went there last year for 10 days,  spent 3 or 4 at la pedriza and bailed to patones for the rest as our slab bravery points had run out ! 

Big area and a few locations might be doable.

Placa del Canalla has sunny low angle slabbin'.  Fun spot.  Easy to get to.

Placa del Tranco has a route or two that might work.  70m rope might be best as the routes are fairly long.  Kind of a neat area.  

I'd recommend a day there.  Fun!

The area Valdemanco in the app has a few easy routes. Also there are some easy routes in La Patones that is covered in the guide. Like someone said a 70m rope helps.

It is a two hour drive or so but Chodes which is covered in another area of the app is also worth checking out.

You can check out the area for free at the moment on the app.

I think its perfectly okay if you prepare yourself and go to the right sector. 

Placa del Kanalla is an easy enough approach, in comparison to the rest of La Pedriza! Park up at the carpark at the end of the road in Manazares (El Tranco I think) and its about 10-15mins walk away. I can give proper directions if you send me a PM.

The grades are stiff and the style of climbing is run out, this sector is one of the friendliest (still expect it to be stiff and run out!). The climbing however is a memorable experience and a local family were climbing with their toddlers in this sector so I guess its all relative.   

Thanks for the replies everyone.

We've already been there now and we really enjoyed it. We did a bit of bouldering one day which was easy enough to find but we had to a bit of a walk up from the carpark because they close the road between 10am and 4pm which we hadn't realised.

We also climbing on one of the sectors but I can't remember the name. It was a bit further in than La Tortuga and opposite Canto de los Brezos. It only had a few routes but it was mostly in the shade, well bolted and it's so slow climbing with the kids we didn't need many routes anyway! The routes were really well bolted without run outs, I think we lucked out on our choice, a local guide was there with some beginner climbers so we obviously picked a good place for easy routes!

I got the Rock Fax App but struggled to find a crag using it as I couldn't get a map with the actual useful paths on it. This could well be due to my own incompetence!

In the end I borrowed a guide book from our Air BnB hosts who it turned out had written the bouldering guide to the area and that gave us more options and got us to a crag. Even then it was hard to find things, I spent an afternoon just myself scoping things out and finding the correct paths which was well worth it as it would have been a nightmare dragging the kids up mountain paths in the hot sun only to find out we weren't were we needed to be.

I really recommend the area, the scenery was great, we encountered wild ibex in the hills and the climbing was good!

Oh and you can get a coach all the way from London to Madrid and so don't have to feel guilty about flying. Twenty six hours (each way) on a coach with a teenager and a five year old, what's not to like!