Vía de la Plata elevation profile

994.6 km and 11,724 m of ascent, between 0 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.

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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 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 35, Puebla de Sanabria to Lubián : 538 m over 29.6 km
Day 39, Laza to Vilar de Barrio : 520 m over 19 km
Day 36, Lubián to A Gudiña : 502 m over 23.7 km
Day 46, O Curro to Cacheiras : 497 m over 21.9 km
Day 43, Cea to A Hedreira : 489 m over 15.4 km

Every stage

Measured ascent for every stage of the Vía de la Plata
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	Asturianos	16.1	165 m	939 m
34	Asturianos	Puebla de Sanabria	19.5	217 m	1010 m
35	Puebla de Sanabria	Lubián	29.6	538 m	1352 m
36	Lubián	A Gudiña	23.7	502 m	1250 m
37	A Gudiña	Veiga de Nostre	15.1	235 m	1105 m
38	Veiga de Nostre	Laza	19.4	239 m	1128 m
39	Laza	Vilar de Barrio	19	520 m	956 m
40	Vilar de Barrio	Xunqueira de Ambía	14	132 m	723 m
41	Xunqueira de Ambía	Ourense	23.2	140 m	549 m
42	Ourense	Cea	17.3	480 m	446 m
43	Cea	A Hedreira	15.4	489 m	829 m
44	A Hedreira	Silleda	29.2	418 m	842 m
45	Silleda	O Curro	15	145 m	494 m
46	O Curro	Cacheiras	21.9	497 m	369 m
47	Cacheiras	Santiago de Compostela	11.1	307 m	343 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.

Route facts, stages and the full description are on the Vía de la Plata 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
Camino Francés : 10,446 m of ascent over 768.6 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