Is there any climbing in Jamaica?

The subject heading says it all. Will be in Montego Bay area for 10 days and had hoped to climb something...anything??

Thanks

Sorry if this is too late for your trip. I am currently in Jamaica for a couple weeks. I found some pretty awesome cliffs next to the ocean between falmouth and duncans that are totally climbable, they just need to be developed. I will post pictures when I get back to the states. Also i heard there is climbing up in cockpit country but the cliff when i started up that way looked real soft.

Hi Bobby! I'm heading to Jamaica in two weeks, to the Falmouth area — do you know where the cliffs were thereabouts? Any pics or GPS beta would be awesome! Thanks! :)

I'd like to see photos too. ;-)

Trish, I looked a map and the cliffs are probably facing mostly North. Thus, this time of year, they will be in the sun much of the day. Combined with the summer temps... HOT!

Of course, it's possible part of the cliffs face Easterly or westerly, in which case you'll have some shade part of the day.

The cliffs that I was looking at are really close to Falmouth. (approximate gps 18.487446, -77.595937) The simplest way to access them is to walk along the ocean from Falmouth. Really it was more of a bush whack. Honestly I accessed them from the beach at Duncans but that is a pretty long walk, but Falmouth is visible from the cliffs. I am including a couple pics but my phone ate most of my pictures from that excursion. In the far right corner of of of them you can just make out a cruise ship docked at Falmouth.

John is right they are north facing but there is a lot of shade so I don't think the heat should a deal breaker.
I am not a geologist but I believe the rock was limestone. My friend said that it reminded her of the climbing in Thailand. There where lots of pockets and some tuffas. There where some cracks as well. Since it is a tropical environment some of the rock is pretty dirty and overgrown. Overall though I thought that the rock was pretty solid and had a lot of potential, and the location is gorgeous.
If you do develop some routes please keep us updated.
Hopefully this info is helpful.

Bobby Hutton wrote: The simplest way to access them is to walk along the ocean from Falmouth. Really it was more of a bush whack.

Since they are not bolted you need to get to the top of the cliff in order to top-rope or develop them. From the photos, the tops are dense jungle. I've thrashed my way through jungle like that. It's horrific. The last time I did it, it took 90 minutes to go about 1200 feet.

Bobby Hutton wrote:John is right they are north facing but there is a lot of shade so I don't think the heat should a deal breaker.

I'd think that with the exception of early morning or late afternoon, they'd be in the sun all day near the solstice.

Bobby Hutton wrote:I am not a geologist but I believe the rock was limestone. My friend said that it reminded her of the climbing in Thailand. There where lots of pockets and some tuffas. There where some cracks as well. Since it is a tropical environment some of the rock is pretty dirty and overgrown. Overall though I thought that the rock was pretty solid and had a lot of potential, and the location is gorgeous. If you do develop some routes please keep us updated. Hopefully this info is helpful.

I'd be surprised if it wasn't limestone, but the tufas confirm it. Dirty and overgrown means it's less than vertical or broken. Good Caribbean limestone is clean, white rock.

There's a place near Negrille called Rick's Cafe that has some cliff jumping over overhanging limestone cliffs. The rock is about 35-40 high and looks to have some interesting deep water soloing opportunities. It's a very touristy place, but the cliffs seemed pretty extensive and went beyond the cafe.

That's awesome, thanks for the info everyone!

Chris, the DWS area looks interesting, too. I'll see if I can check them out and will report back. :)

The Cliffs, Negril

Thanks for sharing your expertise John. I am sure you are right on all counts. Though I believe there is definitely enough areas along that cliff line with clean solid rock to make it a solid climbing destination if someone took the time to develop it. Again all my good close up photos of the cliff got corrupted by my phone.
On the access side I am not sure how you would go about getting access or if it would even be an issue. There are definitely opportunities to partner with existing adventure tourism companies in the area. We did some swift water training with a local rafting company and they where very interested in expanding into guiding rock climbing trips if there where venues to go to.
Chris we spent some time over there near Negrille and I believe that Rick's cafe already has some kind of deep water soloing deal worked out. I didn't check it out because I am allergic to tourists and tourist traps, but regardless there is really fun cliff jumping all along in that area.

I know these comments are all from a long time ago but I’m posting this so that anyone looking up Jamaica climbing can see these climbs. I did four climbs (deep water solos) in the Negril area all close or in Rick’s cafe. The first climb is in Rick’s and it’s around v4/5 which can be very hard when you are wet and have no shoes or chalk.

The second climb is also in ricks cafe and it is to the left of the first on. This one is probably also around v4/5 but a touch easier than the first one. Here are some photos:
The other two climbs are under the Xtabi resort and next to the rock houses and I was even told that there was a James Bond movie filmed at this cliff. It is about thirty feet tall above the water. I accesed this area by boat and brought shoes and chalk, although you can go to the xtabi bar and down a staircase to an old bar where you can then swim to the the bottom of this climb without getting your hands wet if you’re careful. There are probably multiple climbs here but I only did two. The first one I did is an early exit to the harder climb and used as sort of a warm up. You start below the cliff climb up and get over the lip and trend left. Here are some photos.
The last climb I did was by far the hardest and it climbed out of this same cave.  You start same as the previous climb but you go left at the beginning and climb out of the cave. The crux move is from a jug you go to a gaston and then bump to a crimp gaston and come into the good one. It is probably around v6/8 and it’s super fun. Here are some photos:

UPDATE 2021!! We are developing several sport climbing crags so if you're interested in joining us, or simply visiting Jamaica and want to climb, contact us via intagram at @jamrockclimbing  :)

Ps.: The cave in the pictures above is not near Xtabi it is under the Pushcart restaurant and is called The Pirate's Cove.