CaminantesVía de la Plata elevation profile
994.6 km and 11,724 m of ascent,between -2 m and 1,352 m. Measured from the route's own GPS track rather than copied from anywhere, which matters more than it should: almost every ascent figure published for these routes, including ours until August 2026, was an estimate nobody could source.
Metres up the side, kilometres along the bottom. Ticks are stage boundaries. Sampled every 100 m against SRTM 30m, smoothed over 500 m, climbs under 3 m discarded as noise.
Move across the profile to read any point, or drag to measure a stretch. With the keyboard: focus the profile, then arrow keys to move, shift for finer steps, Enter to start and end a measurement, Escape to clear. Each stage in the table below can also be measured directly.
What the profile shows
The Vía de la Plata climbs 11.8 m per kilometre on average, which makes it the third gentlest of the 10 routes measured here. A total on its own mostly measures how long a route is; per kilometre is what decides whether your days feel hilly.
The climbing is not spread evenly. The final third of the route carries 46% of the total ascent (26%, 28% and 46% across the three thirds), so pace yourself for that section rather than for the average.
The longest sustained climb runs from km 828 to km 843, gaining 489 m over 15.5 km, an average grade of 3.2%. The high point, 1,352 m, comes at km 761, 77% of the way in.
The hardest days
Ranked by climbing rather than distance, which is a different list and the one that decides how the evening feels.
- Day 45, O Curro to Santiago de Compostela — 710 m over 29.7 km
- Day 39, Laza to Maceda — 671 m over 31.3 km
- Day 41, Ourense to Cea — 656 m over 20.9 km
- Day 3, Castilblanco de los Arroyos to Almadén de la Plata — 475 m over 28.2 km
- Day 36, Chanos to A Gudiña — 432 m over 22 km
Every stage
| Day | From | To | km | Ascent | High point |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Seville | Torre de la Reina | 17.7 | 53 m | 24 m |
| 2 | Torre de la Reina | Castilblanco de los Arroyos | 20.8 | 361 m | 347 m |
| 3 | Castilblanco de los Arroyos | Almadén de la Plata | 28.2 | 475 m | 541 m |
| 4 | Almadén de la Plata | El Real de la Jara | 14 | 257 m | 522 m |
| 5 | El Real de la Jara | Monesterio | 20.1 | 351 m | 753 m |
| 6 | Monesterio | Fuente de Cantos | 20.3 | 142 m | 753 m |
| 7 | Fuente de Cantos | Zafra | 24.5 | 115 m | 595 m |
| 8 | Zafra | Villafranca de los Barros | 18.9 | 180 m | 607 m |
| 9 | Villafranca de los Barros | Almendralejo | 25.7 | 98 m | 428 m |
| 10 | Almendralejo | Mérida | 30.2 | 89 m | 343 m |
| 11 | Mérida | El Carrascalejo | 17.7 | 196 m | 304 m |
| 12 | El Carrascalejo | Alcuéscar | 22.1 | 269 m | 485 m |
| 13 | Alcuéscar | Aldea del Cano | 15.9 | 21 m | 470 m |
| 14 | Aldea del Cano | Cáceres | 22.5 | 183 m | 477 m |
| 15 | Cáceres | Casar de Cáceres | 13.5 | 123 m | 499 m |
| 16 | Casar de Cáceres | Cañaveral | 31.4 | 361 m | 400 m |
| 17 | Cañaveral | Galisteo | 27.6 | 339 m | 503 m |
| 18 | Galisteo | Oliva de Plasencia | 29.9 | 255 m | 429 m |
| 19 | Oliva de Plasencia | La Granja | 21.3 | 115 m | 434 m |
| 20 | La Granja | Baños de Montemayor | 16.9 | 326 m | 713 m |
| 21 | Baños de Montemayor | Peromingo | 19.6 | 360 m | 933 m |
| 22 | Peromingo | Casafranca | 17.1 | 297 m | 997 m |
| 23 | Casafranca | San Pedro de Rozados | 24.3 | 364 m | 1146 m |
| 24 | San Pedro de Rozados | Salamanca | 25.4 | 167 m | 986 m |
| 25 | Salamanca | Calzada de Valdunciel | 16 | 114 m | 844 m |
| 26 | Calzada de Valdunciel | El Cubo de Tierra del Vino | 20.2 | 132 m | 862 m |
| 27 | El Cubo de Tierra del Vino | Zamora | 31.2 | 94 m | 882 m |
| 28 | Zamora | Montamarta | 19.4 | 144 m | 727 m |
| 29 | Montamarta | Granja de Moreruela | 24 | 85 m | 729 m |
| 30 | Granja de Moreruela | Tábara | 21.1 | 186 m | 749 m |
| 31 | Tábara | Calzadilla de Tera | 23 | 223 m | 862 m |
| 32 | Calzadilla de Tera | Mombuey | 24.6 | 221 m | 895 m |
| 33 | Mombuey | Puebla de Sanabria | 31.7 | 345 m | 1010 m |
| 34 | Puebla de Sanabria | Padornelo | 21.7 | 414 m | 1226 m |
| 35 | Padornelo | Chanos | 15.3 | 291 m | 1352 m |
| 36 | Chanos | A Gudiña | 22 | 432 m | 1250 m |
| 37 | A Gudiña | Veiga de Nostre | 16 | 248 m | 1128 m |
| 38 | Veiga de Nostre | Laza | 20.4 | 202 m | 1046 m |
| 39 | Laza | Maceda | 31.3 | 671 m | 956 m |
| 40 | Maceda | Ourense | 25.4 | 96 m | 549 m |
| 41 | Ourense | Cea | 20.9 | 656 m | 576 m |
| 42 | Cea | A Hedreira | 15.4 | 417 m | 842 m |
| 43 | A Hedreira | Silleda | 29.2 | 384 m | 704 m |
| 44 | Silleda | O Curro | 15 | 160 m | 358 m |
| 45 | O Curro | Santiago de Compostela | 29.7 | 710 m | 369 m |
Stages are a suggested split, not a rule. Most people walk their own.
Where the numbers come from
The GPS track carries position but no height, so the altitude was measured rather than read off: 9,946 points along the route, one every 100 m, each looked up against the SRTM 30 m elevation dataset.
One check worth stating, because it is the difference between plausible and correct. Total ascent minus total descent comes to +235 m. The profile's own start and finish differ by +254 m, so the two agree to within 19 m over 994.6 km.
They do not match exactly, and the reason is the noise floor: climbs under 3 m are discarded as sensor jitter, which removes a little real height along with a lot of imaginary height. A tool claiming these two numbers agree perfectly would be hiding that.
Ascent depends on method. Sample more finely and you measure noise as climbing; smooth harder and you flatten real hills. Anyone quoting a single authoritative number for a route this long is hiding that choice, so the settings used here are stated above and you can compare like with like.
The Vía de la Plata page says 1000 km and this track measures 994.6 km, a difference of 0.5%. Both are right. The quoted distance is the conventional one every guide and waymarking sign uses; the measured one is the length of this particular GPS trace, and any two traces of the same route differ by roughly this much depending on which variant they take through each town. The ascent above is computed along the track shown here, so it belongs with 994.6 km rather than with the quoted figure.
Route facts, stages and the full description are on the Vía de la Plata route page. Every route's profile is on the tools page.
Compare with another route
All measured the same way, so the numbers are comparable. Ordered by total ascent, hardest first.
- Camino del Norte elevation profile — 14,641 m over 832.2 km
- Camino Francés elevation profile — 10,450 m over 768.4 km
- Camino Portugués elevation profile — 6,839 m over 605.5 km
- Camino Primitivo elevation profile — 6,776 m over 306.5 km
- Camino Invierno elevation profile — 4,948 m over 262.9 km
- Camino Mozárabe elevation profile — 4,617 m over 418 km
- Camino Lebaniego elevation profile — 2,134 m over 66.5 km
- Camino Inglés elevation profile — 1,802 m over 110.5 km
- Camino Finisterre elevation profile — 1,433 m over 84.2 km