Mix & technical climbing in Czech Republic

The Czech Republic is a land of sandstone rock towns. North and East Bohemia are among the most important sandstone areas in Central Europe – the Elbe Sandstones with the Tisá Walls, Bohemian Paradise with the Prachov and Hrubá Skála rocks, Kokořínsko, the Lusatian Mountains and the Broumov region with the Adršpach-Teplice Rocks, where more than 1,800 towers rise up to about 90 m. The climbing tradition is over a century old: at Prachov the Old Route on Mnich was climbed on 10 April 1907, and sport ascents at Tisá and Horní skály in the Lusatian Mountains date from the early 20th century. Sandstone comes with strict rules – no chalk or metal protection, only slings and knots between sparse rings, and climbing only on dry rock; many areas have seasonal closures for nesting birds.

Beyond sandstone, the country offers the limestone of the Bohemian and Moravian Karst (Srbsko, Holštejn), the phonolite and basalt of the Central Bohemian Uplands with legendary Bořeň, the granite and gneiss of the Ore Mountains, Jeseníky, Žďár Hills, Petrohrad and South Bohemia, the flysch sandstones of eastern Moravia, and sport climbing in quarries and river valleys around Prague, Brno and Plzeň. Climbing rules and current closures are managed by the Czech Mountaineering Association (ČHS) together with the nature conservation authorities; with a ČHS card, entry is free in some areas such as Adršpach.