Oaxaca Rock Climbing

There are three main climbing areas just to the east of Oaxaca City.

San Sebastián Tutla is the largest and closest with ~70 routes. It is easy to find on google maps and has an easy short approach. The best routes, by far, are more or less in the middle of the wall in a sector called el chuntaro. In January the sun comes around late morning and it is too hot by noon. Start early.

La Meca is just a little east of SST but the feel is very different. North facing, overhanging, has its own micro climate oak forest. Left side has nice blocky and crimpy warmup 5.10s which climbed well but all seemed sandbagged. Middle wall has 13s and 14s beyond my pay grade. Right side has awesome 12s with sharp pockets. Rock is rhyolite but style is very reminiscent of Lander limestone. Highly recommended. Trail from parking is easy to find and follow. Starts right at the very large cement building above the road you come in on.

Tlacochahuaya is another ten minutes east in the small town of San Jeronimo. Easy to find, park in big dusty lot next to soccer stadium. Mixed bag climbing here, not a ton of routes, the warmups were a little crumbly and dirty, some of the harder routes were high quality. Setting is pleasant and shady in the afternoon, crag faces east. Worth checking out for a half day, not as good as SST or La Meca.

If you have your own car in Oaxaca City climbing here is pretty convenient, without a car I imagine it would be a real pain to figure out with buses or taxis. Driving in Oaxaca is stress inducing. It is a pretty big city, the roads are in very bad shape, even compared with other parts of Mexico, traffic and congestion are terrible, and accidents and worker strikes blocking roads are common which makes it all even worse. You could conceivably car camp at SST, though it is a little trashy, (parking lot, not crag-the climbing area is nice and clean and taken care of) but best to day trip to other areas.