Rockclimbing in Mallorca January 2023

Original text is here

Just before the coming of the cyclone, we managed to complete a 10-day rockclimbing program in Mallorca.

The weather has been perfect since the beginning of February, we were lucky to be at the very peak of this unexpected winter gift of nature. For 10 days it rained only once, and that was not a heavy rain. It turned out to be 8 days of rockclimbing - not even because of the weather, but because of a too intense climbing schedule - we decided to climb without breaks every day and did not distribute our power sources correctly.

I don't have much rockclimbing experience in Mallorca in February, so there were some doubts related to the weather. However, it exceeded all the expectations - the temperature was stable within +12°С +22°С limits, with high solar activity, it was really hot to climb on the sunny side of the rocks. Even in the shadow rockclimbing sectors, the temperature was nice and comfortable.

Such wonderful weather attracted to Mallorca not only us - it was quite busy in the rockclimbing sectors, not even talking about cyclists - I would never have thought that in February there could be real traffic jams in Mallorca from huge herds of lovers to pedal and spoil the life to the normal car drivers .

In addition, the influx of tourists was observed not only in the sports areas. The idle public in Pollenca and Alcudia also turned out to be more than expected. And in Cala Figuera resort, the beach season has already been open - not only mothers and fathers with their children splashed in the turquoise water, but even their shaggy pets sought to swim in the cool, crystal clear water.

The water temperature was not as comfortable - after swimming in December, it seemed to me that the water is some cooler now. I would say, it is 10-12°C, no more. But after an intense workout on the hot rocks, you can swim with great pleasure, regardless of the water temperature.

The training schedule was built according to the standard scheme - we started climbing on the simple slabs of San Marti, then moved to Creveta, then to Magraner, Santaniy, Sa Gubia and El Fumat. This time I would not boast with high sports achievements - after all, for this you need to train more regularly. But general physical activity, weather and good mood were enough for a great rockclimbing program.

Finally, we were able to climb a multi-pitch route – that was an adventure uncharacteristic for Mallorca. The fact is that there are very few long rockclimbing routes on the island - all the rock masses have an average height of 70-120 meters and a significant difference in the complexity of the upper and lower sections. This feature makes the organization of multi-pitch routes quite a challenge. I'm not talking about 7c’s and 8’s as the second pitch after the "five" approach - after all, this is not a multi-pitch at all.

And the demand from the rockclimbing people of Mallorca is mainly for short sports routes. However, in the Sa Gubia massif there is a set of 12 routes consisting of 4-7 pitches - in fact, this is the only opportunity to climb long rockclimbing routes in Mallorca. The range of categories of these routes is from V+ to 7a, except for the "five", all routes are well equipped for free rockclimbing, with some courage you can do them without extra gear.

I talked about the accident on the neighboring long route my previous post. An unpleasant event, but on the other hand, demonstrating the accuracy of the work of the local rescue services - perhaps this is the most important condition for practicing any kind of extreme sports.

In conclusion, I would say that once again the island of Mallorca pleased us with the opportunity to immerse completely in the world of sports and the unique beauty of the nature. However, all good things come to their end quickly - especially if it is wine, a feminine mood or good `weather.

And so it happened - on the final day of the program, the sky frowned, it began to drizzle. And the next day Mallorca showed everything that it is capable in the winter. The temperature dropped to +6°C, snow fell in the mountains, and coastal areas were flooded. It has been raining continuously for the second day - a powerful cyclone has come to the island - I think that further rockclimbing has been canceled for at least a week.

The author of the program, text and photos is Alex Trubachev

MCS EDIT 2023