Stavanger's three big climbing walls are run by sports and activity centres rather than clubs: the 17 m main wall in Vår Energi Arena Sørmarka, the new climbing hall at SiS Sportssenter on the university campus at Ullandhaug, and Playground at Forus, an action-sports park with a 21 m LED wall. All three have ropes, auto-belays and bouldering, and in October 2026 a day ticket cost NOK 160 to 190. Sandnes adds two smaller public walls, one of them free.
Photo: SiS Sportssenter
Vår Energi Arena Sørmarka, run by Folkehallene in an arena it shares with ice rinks and curling, has the city's biggest wall: 17 m high with about 1,000 m² of climbing. A newer 11 m course wall has six auto-belays and routes graded 4 to 7, aimed at children and beginners but open to everyone, and there's a low bouldering wall with hangboards and campus boards. Public climbing times for each wall are in the arena's online timetable.
SiS Sportssenter, the student welfare organisation's centre at Ullandhaug, has a new climbing hall that it calls one of Norway's largest and most modern, with rope walls up to 16 m, auto-belays, a bouldering area with a section for beginners, a children's room and a training room with fingerboards. It's open to everyone, not just students, the setters put up new routes every day, and a drop-in covers the gym too.
Playground, in the Tvedtsenteret at Forus, opened in 2024 as an indoor action park: skating, trampolines and a net park share 3,500 m² with a low bouldering zone, 20 auto-belays and a 21 m LED wall that Playground calls the region's tallest. There's a monthly Kilter Board league and, on Saturdays, a guided via ferrata high under the roof. One ticket covers everything, though climbers should expect noise from the skate park next door.
In Sandnes, about 15 km south of the centre, Vår Energi Arena Sandneshallen, another Folkehallene arena, has a smaller wall with six auto-belay lines and anchors for top-rope and lead. Climbers with a Brattkort can use it whenever the arena is staffed, on a NOK 160 day pass, and there are taster sessions for beginners. Sandnes kommune's climbing room in Bogafjellhallen is free: you book a slot in advance through the municipality's booking system, and it has nine roped lines up to 7.5 m and a bouldering area with a cave. Stavanger kommune's sports halls at Storhaug and Tastarustå also have long climbing walls, but the municipality lets them to clubs, schools and groups rather than opening them to drop-in visitors.
In October 2026 an adult day ticket cost NOK 160 at Sørmarka and Sandneshallen, NOK 189 at Playground and NOK 190 at SiS, where students paid NOK 120. Folkehallene's Folkekortet membership, which covers all of its activities, started at NOK 549 a month; Playground's rolling membership was NOK 549 a month; and SiS's climbing membership, which includes the gym, cost NOK 899 for a single month or NOK 699 a month over 12 months.
Bouldering needs no certificate. At Sørmarka you need a Brattkort to climb on the rope walls without an instructor, and SiS asks everyone using its auto-belays to take a free 30-minute safety course first. Playground says a Brattkort is needed only for lead climbing. All three run courses: Sørmarka's is a two-day, ten-hour course at NOK 1,590, Playground's weekend course starts at NOK 1,599, and SiS holds Brattkort tests on weekday evenings, with the federation's NOK 400 card fee on top.
Bratte Rogalands Venner (BRV), founded in 1980, is the region's climbing club. It doesn't have a hall of its own, but its members get a cheaper climbing membership at SiS, and the club runs activities at Sørmarka.
Bergen Klatreklubb even suggests Rogaland may be Norway's best bouldering region. Gloppedalsura, near Byrkjedal, is one of the largest screes in Scandinavia, a pile of house-sized blocks left by a landslide about 10,000 years ago, and it now has a via ferrata too. For rope climbing, Bersagel near Hommersåk in Sandnes is a sunny, west-facing crag with routes up to about 8b+, and the great cliff of Kjerag drops 984 m into Lysefjorden; it was first climbed in 1985, and the road there is closed in winter. Further south, Jøssingfjord in Sokndal is home to Profilveggen and its 8c+ trad route, Recovery Drink.
There's no competition in Stavanger itself on the 2026–27 calendar, but the regional Sør-Vest Cup has rounds at Haugalandsveggen in Haugesund on 17–18 October 2026 and at Stord on 14 November 2026. Haugaland Klatrelag's Ingrid Kindlihagen won the women's lead title at the 2026 national championships.
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