Oliver shows us his skills and the type of quality of rock face found in Madeira

Climbing on Madeira means climbing on different volcanic rocks and they are not often of good quality.

What the volcanoes left, like on many other islands of the same character,  is hardly the solid rock quality we are used to when speaking of   climbing areas like that on continental Europe.

The sea cliffs, although they form powerful precipices like Cabo Girão, are of very little use.

Their crumbly and rotten rock cake provides more for plants and lizards than for a climb.

Mostly, the solid rocks are isolated places of basalt pipes with difficult access across vegetation or very crumbly sediments, or, in higher altitudes, consist of small eroded ridges and rock towers on the top of  peaks, surrounded by vertical jungles and loose materials, across which one has to be very careful picking ones way to access the climbable opportunities.

An example of the type of rock that climbers can expect to find in Madeira.

There is no one single large area with a compact shield of quality rock that we can point to- there is mostly various little rock outcrops spread all over the island and the top of the main peaks.

A sheep trail helps the mountain climber along near "Boca do Buraco"