Climbing is an exciting activity for both adults and children. Telemark offers rich climbing opportunities with great variety, ranging from indoor and outdoor climbing parks to rock climbing, traditional mountain climbing, bouldering, and ice climbing.
Commercial climbing options
Skien Leisure Park has both an indoor climbing wall and an outdoor climbing park with seven different courses of varying difficulty levels. Høyt Under Taket in Skien is a unique climbing center for all ages and skill levels. "Høyt & Lavt" climbing park in Bø offers a total of 137 different apparatuses in the forest.
Mountain and rock climbing
When it comes to mountain climbing, Nissedal has long been a favorite spot for “casual climbers.” Via Lara in Nissedal is one of the most popular long routes in the country.
You can also find several climbing areas in the Grenland region, such as Leerstrang, a versatile climbing area with options for most climbers. Ramberget in Skien is an easily accessible, family-friendly rock close to the city with sport routes of all difficulty levels. Teggdal in Valle on the Bamble coast offers beautiful traditional routes of easy and medium difficulty. You can also find some sport routes here. If you're looking for more challenging climbing routes, the climbing areas Blæsa and Svarttjenn are good choices.
Gygrestolen in Bø is one of the most popular areas for rock climbing, while Espedalen in Bø is one of the best sport climbing areas in Eastern Norway. Pornocrag, which is also near Bø, is a sport climbing area with overhang climbing of medium and hard difficulty. Another sport climbing area with a good selection of routes can be found at Hemmelighetsveggen in Ulefoss.
For children's climbing, the family-friendly climbing area Sundenuten is recommended. Here you’ll find great climbing routes suitable for children, multipitch, sport, traditional climbing, a lean-to shelter, and a firepit. It's also an excellent place to pitch a tent.
Climbing in via ferrata
Child-friendly climbing paths can be found both in Fyresdal and at Gautefall. The via ferrata at Gautefall is a pleasant route that offers both hiking and climbing. Via Ferrata Telemark, on the other hand, goes up Skrede Mountain in Fyresdal and is suitable for families and active children from around 6 years old.
Bouldering
Besides the bouldering below Hægefjell in Nissedal, Andre & Tredje etasje at Erikstein in Bø and the bouldering area in Gautefall offer the best bouldering in the county.
Ice climbing
Rjukan is considered the best place for ice climbing in Northern Europe. With over 192 frozen waterfalls and a particularly long and stable winter season, the conditions are highly sought after by climbers from all over the world.