Camino Francés elevation profile

768.6 km and 10,446 m of ascent, between 177 m and 1,505 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.

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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 Camino Francés climbs 13.6 m per kilometre on average, which makes it the fourth 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 first third of the route carries 45% of the total ascent (45%, 14% and 40% across the three thirds), so pace yourself for that section rather than for the average.

The longest sustained climb runs from km 0 to km 18, gaining 1,184 m over 18 km, an average grade of 6.6%. The high point, 1,505 m, comes at km 545, 71% 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 1, Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port to Orreaga / Roncesvalles : 1351 m over 25.9 km
Day 29, Trabadelo to La Laguna de Castilla : 616 m over 16.1 km
Day 33, Portomarín to Palas de Rei : 512 m over 24.9 km
Day 26, Santa Marina de Somoza to Molinaseca : 487 m over 27.4 km
Day 34, Palas de Rei to Arzúa : 455 m over 28.3 km

Every stage

Measured ascent for every stage of the Camino Francés
Day	From	To	km	Ascent	High point
1	Saint-Jean-Pied-de-Port	Orreaga / Roncesvalles	25.9	1351 m	1423 m
2	Orreaga / Roncesvalles	Zubiri	21.3	263 m	946 m
3	Zubiri	Pamplona / Iruña	20.2	187 m	566 m
4	Pamplona / Iruña	Puente la Reina / Gares	24.1	394 m	748 m
5	Puente la Reina / Gares	Estella-Lizarra	21.3	341 m	487 m
6	Estella-Lizarra	Los Arcos	20.5	339 m	707 m
7	Los Arcos	Logroño	27.8	342 m	573 m
8	Logroño	Nájera	29.3	376 m	658 m
9	Nájera	Santo Domingo de la Calzada	21.7	370 m	739 m
10	Santo Domingo de la Calzada	Fresneña	18.1	291 m	801 m
11	Fresneña	Villafranca Montes de Oca	16.1	241 m	958 m
12	Villafranca Montes de Oca	Atapuerca	18.2	245 m	1154 m
13	Atapuerca	Burgos	18.4	117 m	1070 m
14	Burgos	Hornillos del Camino	21.8	121 m	919 m
15	Hornillos del Camino	Villaquirán de la Puebla	16.4	153 m	936 m
16	Villaquirán de la Puebla	Boadilla del Camino	22.5	241 m	911 m
17	Boadilla del Camino	Carrión de los Condes	24.8	102 m	848 m
18	Carrión de los Condes	Población de Arroyo	22.4	94 m	902 m
19	Población de Arroyo	Sahagún	17.6	105 m	891 m
20	Sahagún	El Burgo Ranero	17.7	96 m	880 m
21	El Burgo Ranero	Mansilla de las Mulas	18.9	17 m	880 m
22	Mansilla de las Mulas	León	19	137 m	900 m
23	León	Villadangos del Páramo	20.2	156 m	919 m
24	Villadangos del Páramo	Astorga	27.6	152 m	915 m
25	Astorga	Santa Marina de Somoza	17.8	233 m	1078 m
26	Santa Marina de Somoza	Molinaseca	27.4	487 m	1505 m
27	Molinaseca	Camponaraya	16.8	89 m	606 m
28	Camponaraya	Trabadelo	23	289 m	577 m
29	Trabadelo	La Laguna de Castilla	16.1	616 m	1154 m
30	La Laguna de Castilla	Triacastela	23.2	371 m	1349 m
31	Triacastela	Sarria	18	274 m	884 m
32	Sarria	Portomarín	22	339 m	661 m
33	Portomarín	Palas de Rei	24.9	512 m	724 m
34	Palas de Rei	Arzúa	28.3	455 m	546 m
35	Arzúa	O Pedrouzo	19.9	280 m	414 m
36	O Pedrouzo	Santiago de Compostela	19.3	268 m	390 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: 7,686 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 +91 m. The profile's own start and finish differ by +92 m, so the two agree to within 1 m over 768.6 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.

Route facts, stages and the full description are on the Camino Francés route page. Every route's profile is on the elevation profiles page, and how the ten routes compare puts the totals side by side.

Compare with another route

All measured the same way, so the numbers are comparable. Ordered by total ascent, hardest first.

Camino del Norte : 14,663 m of ascent over 831.6 km
Vía de la Plata : 11,724 m of ascent over 994.6 km
Camino Primitivo : 6,777 m of ascent over 306.6 km
Camino Portugués : 6,519 m of ascent over 620.2 km
Camino Invierno : 4,941 m of ascent over 263.1 km
Camino Mozárabe : 4,452 m of ascent over 419 km
Camino Lebaniego : 2,134 m of ascent over 66.5 km
Camino Inglés : 1,802 m of ascent over 110.5 km
Camino Finisterre : 1,431 m of ascent over 85 km