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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Topic Author's Original Post - Apr 10, 2009 - 08:56pm PT
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Firstly, I’ll refer to a post that I put on crimpie’s “On your 2009 ticklist - New locations to climb?”
http://www.supertopo.com/climbing/thread.html?topic_id=828340&msg=829305#msg829305
Here it is pasted:
Okay, not good. This evening it pissed down rain and thunder and lightning harder than I have seen in many of year, and is continuing to do so.
Seven years in England and 14 years in Ireland and I can't recall a harder rain than what fell on Mallorca this evening.
I looked at the 7 and 10-day forecasts for the island before we left and generally it said some light rain for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Light? My arse. The five-star Marriott resort we are staying at (I do not recommend it but we got a good deal, as long as on Thursday - Jennie's B'Day - we listen to a 90-minute speel about why we should buy a holiday timeshare here - KNOTT) couldn't even show the Manchester United vs Porto Champion's League 1/4 final, so I had to head up the motorway to Ca'n Pastilla to an English pub to watch it.
As I headed north, the rain was heading south directly onto my car. Did I say rain? Deluge is more like it. The streets were flooded and I almost got stuck. I finally found The Manchester Pub, albeit for the second half.
What has all of this have to do with climbing? I was hoping to spend some time (we fly back to Dublin on Saturday) at the Sa Gubia and Fraguel climbing crags. But it doesn't look good by the forecasts.
Sunny Spain? Afraid knott.
Darn, but fingers crossed for Friday.
Secondly, now for an update.
Friday
I decided on the S’Estret crags as they are apparently easier to reach. They are south of the village of Valldemossa on the Ma-1130 road, about six km from the university north of Palma. Near were the river crosses the road.
Coming south from Palma, one would not be immediately aware of them (going south from Valldemossa, the crags are very apparent). It was only that I noticed a bunch of cars parked on the side of the road and some guy loading some climbing gear in a pack that gave me the clue, so I turned around.
Sure enough as I started walking up the woods boulder problems with chalk marks started to appear, just minutes from the road.
Then I started seeing signs of sport routes. I kept scrambling over trees and boulders until I heard the distinct sound of biners being clipped.
I happened upon a local couple, Monique and Vicent (Catalan for Vincent), who had just finished Bunocracia (24m, 6b+ or 5.10c) on the Main Crag. I chatted with them and they told me (in broken English, better than my Spanish) a bit about the area. I went back to the car and got my shoes and chalkbag. I bouldered for about 90 minutes, with one 20m solo of a 5.4/5.5 climb, which had me scared, considering my lack of fitness.
The area has climbs within minutes of the road, and then some a bit farther afield. On the Main Crag, Tatoo (8b+ - French grading – or 5.14a), Head Hunter (8a+/5.13c), and Defcon One (8a/5.13b) , all about 30m in length, looked rad. Very good limestone, some of the best I have seen. No choss, though from a distance it would seem so.
I then proceeded to drive north through the lovely village of Valldemossa and on to the narrow (no sh*t) steep and windy road to Port de Valldemossa. I came upon a couple of climbers doing an overhang in the middle of the road and stopped to take pix of them. Darren and Milos from London, though the latter is Slovenian.
They were climbing in the area of the Rockfax guides of Valledemossa.
I will post the urls for the Rockfax description of the areas and some photos that I took (not great) when I get back to Dublin and figure out how to transfer them from camera to jpegs (new camera).
All in all, there appears to be a hell of a lot of good limestone climbing on the island, mostly in the north (Serra de Tramuntana or Tramuntana range). It is very worthy of a visit to those interested, with friendly people and high quality limestone. Highly recommended.
And the food is not bad. Sense Nom, a restaurant in Llucmajor, had the best rack of lamb I have had in ages, and I am no bad cook myself. Alex, chef and owner, and very, very cutie Susan - both Germans - made the evening a delight.
Just stay away from the Marriott resort Son Antem. For a five-star joint trying to get us hooked into a timeshare arrangement, the food was crap, but facilities and people great.
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Crimpergirl
Sport climber
Boulder, Colorado!
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Apr 10, 2009 - 09:32pm PT
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Very cool! I hope you are getting some photos too. I've always wanted to go to Mallorca.
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ß Î Ø T Ç H
Boulder climber
the greasewood ghetto
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Apr 10, 2009 - 11:20pm PT
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beautiful , friendly - - but does this ' Mallorca ' chick put out ?
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 11, 2009 - 05:40am PT
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Photos, though not great will be up in several days.
Don't know about the Mallorca chick, but I had a great massage this morning from Rosa. Massage I said, nothing else.
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mcreel
climber
Barcelona, Spain
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Apr 11, 2009 - 12:07pm PT
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We got mostly rained out on our trip to Montanejos last week - got in a few good pitches at a nearby sport climbing spot called Jérica, and we had a fun morning setting up easy climbs for the kids. Rain in Spain around this time of year is pretty common. I've been rained out 2 of the last 3 Easters. Mallorca has a lot of great limestone, but I think the mainland is even better - there is more rock than you can shake a stick at. I am kind of interested in trying the bouldering over water, though.
By the way, 6b+ is normally harder than 10c, it's more like 11a. I don't think that Mallorca has any particularly notable local variation.
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Topic Author's Reply - Apr 11, 2009 - 07:33pm PT
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Yeah Mcreel I was going by the Rockfax rating of the route (6b+) and then wiki'ed climbing ratings for a comparison.
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