Today, February 19th, Bombers de la Generalitat, together with the Obra Social de Sant Joan de Déu and the support of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, the Abbey of Montserrat and the Patronat of Montserrat Mountain, presented the 7th edition of the Vertical Montserrat race. The event, which took place in the Venerable Hall of the Monastery of Montserrat, was chaired by the general director of Prevention, Extinction of Fires and Rescues, Tamara Garcia de la Calle, accompanied by the butler of the Abbey of Montserrat and curator of the Millennium, Father Bernat Juliol, the president of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Carles Ruiz, the manager of the Montserrat Mountain Board, Xavier Aparicio, and the director of the Obra Social de Sant Joan de Déu, Juanjo Ortega.
The race, created in 2017 by the firefighters of the Generalitat and organized jointly with the Obra Social de Sant Joan de Déu, is part of the solidarity project Bombers amb Causa. It is one of the most demanding competitions in Spain and is included in the National Vertical Racing Circuit (CCV). In this edition of 2025 it presents an additional route coinciding with the celebration of the Millennium of Montserrat.
Participants in the Montserrat Vertical, which will be held on 24th May 2025, will have to climb the 2,180 steps that separate the lower station from the Santa Cova Funicular to the upper station of the Sant Joan Funicular (FGC) and overcome the 388 meters slope.
This year the race incorporates an important novelty, the Millennium category with 150 places. It is an exclusive route with a positive slope of 1,000 meters, in commemoration of the foundation of the monastery of Montserrat. You can register federated or amateur athletes, over 16 years old, accustomed to doing extreme routes. With a route of 4.5 km and 3,000 total steps, it begins at the Aeri de Montserrat bridge and ends at the Hermitage of Santa Magdalena. Includes the section of the Vertical Montserrat OPEN.
The objectives of the race, totally solidary, are to obtain funds to finance research projects in childhood diseases and social programs for care for children at risk of exclusion attended in the various centers of Sant Joan de Déu, in addition to promoting the inclusion of people with disabilities through sport.
Tamara Garcia de la Calle, who announced that she will collaborate with the race with a zero number, thanked “enormously” the involvement of all the organizations involved in the race, especially the firefighters men and the firefighters women who had the initiative to create the Bombers amb Causa project, “because they always think about how to help people”.
La Vertical has the support of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, Montserrat Abbey and Patronat of Montserrat Mountain, as well as the collaboration, among others, of Creu Roja de Catalunya, Bombers de Barcelona, Aeri de Montserrat and Federació d’Entitats Excursionistes de Catalunya (FEEC) and sponsorship of Inaccés and Airbox.
Carles Ruiz, president of Ferrocarrils de la Generalitat de Catalunya, spoke about this support, who highlighted “the importance of joint collaboration so that projects such as these are possible“. For Ruiz, Ferrocarrils has been present since the first edition of the Vertical “because this initiative connects with the values we have as a company. Apart from moving people, both in cities and in the mountains, we are very clear about our alliance with the territory and its people and all those initiatives that help people.”
Father Bernat also stressed that “the Vertical Montserrat involves a work and an exercise in overcoming. Go up some stairs in search of values. Some elements that define very well the spirit of what is behind it.” He also referred to the celebration of the Millennium “for which one of the areas of work that we wanted it to involve was solidarity. A job for everyone, for all the people who need help and that we are by their side. And the Vertical is an event that certainly includes this value.”
The Vertical Montserrat in 2024 was attended by 250 participants. It was run by 71 firefighters, among which, 37 (35 firefighters men and 2 firefighters women) were from Bombers de la Generalitat. The rest of the firefighters came from different teams: Bombers de Barcelona, Bombers de l’Aeroport, Bomberos del Ayuntamiento de Madrid, from Comunidad de Madrid, from Diputación de Zaragoza and from CPEIS Toledo. In the category Firefighters, they go up the 2,180 steps equipped with the intervention equipment, which weighs about 23 kg.
Encouraging inclusion remains important for the race. Therefore, Vertical Montserrat promotes the Inclusive category, aimed at people with physical, intellectual, auditory or visual disabilities. Likewise, it continues to bet on the Children’s category, in which kids between 8 and 15 years old can participate accompanied by an adult athlete. This category makes the lower section of the route, the 711 steps of the Santa Cova funicular. In addition, this year it will incorporate 5 inclusive places for children with disabilities.
The most supportive category is ‘We are a team’, aimed at people, companies, sports clubs and other organizations. It also comes with novelty in 2025 as it will be possible to participate with up to four representatives after having achieved a solidarity challenge of 500€. Last year 22 teams participated and this year the challenge is to exceed the figure and reach 30.
For Juanjo Ortega, director of the Obra Social de Sant Joan de Déu, this category helps to grow the solidarity dimension of the race thanks to the involvement of many actors who “create a link beyond social responsibility by making previous solidarity actions and mobilizing their environment.” He has especially thanked the “solidarity with a childhood that currently lives many vulnerabilities. From the child who is hospitalized to the one who suffers from a mental health disorder or lives a situation of social exclusion due to a migratory process or an unfavorable economic situation”.
The ambassador of the 2025 Vertical Montserrat is the Catalan journalist and co-director of the TV3 programme ‘La Selva’, Xavier Grasset i Foraster. During the presentation he confirmed his presence in the race on May 24th.
For the fourth consecutive year, La Xarxa+ will broadcast live on local televisions throughout Catalonia the Vertical Montserrat, which can also be followed with a giant screen installed in the Plaza del Monestir, where the bibs are collected and the awards ceremony takes place.
Registrations open on Thursday, 20th February, at 11.00 a.m.
For those people who want to collaborate but who cannot run the race, a ‘Number Zero’ has been enabled, to help carry out the projects of Sant Joan de Déu with children at risk, which will be operational until the day after the race.
From the creation of the solidarity project until last year, Bombers amb Causa has raised more than € 915,000 and has funded research grants for childhood diseases, and social projects related to childhood.