Photo: Dragging Along, Cheddar
© David Pickford

Saturday 12 March 2011

Mallorca

Climbing in Mallorca may not be world class but it is top class.

It's a great venue to go to with babies and young children: easily accessible crags, friendly locals who are happy to help out with belaying and beta, cheap accommodation. One of our favourite places to go was Les Perxes: an impressive cave that you could push a pram right up to. Not much of worth under 7B but some classic 8s: including Commando Madrid 8B. Just missed out flashing this one: despite sending Tricia up to the brush all the holds (first time I've ever tried this but wouldn't recommend it – for some routes you just have to man up. Flashback: when I was trying El Membre in Sirauna I got it into my head that I needed to preserve all my energy for the route. The route didn't come into the shade until the afternoon so one day I spent the morning refusing to lift anything and got Tricia to carry all the gear to the crag: she was very over-laden! With hindsight it must have been quite funny to see her struggling down the path to the crag and me marching ahead. But I was so in the zone I didn't care. When it came to trying the route I had my worst session. Conclusion: the route needed me to man up!)


Commando Madrid, Les Perxes

 Fraguel is one of the classic crags in Mallorca and I managed to tick most of the best lines here. Nice one! Football Fan 8A is simply perfect (so much so that my mate Rupert came back out to Mallorca specially just to try and get it ticked). And if you are a bit sadistic like me and enjoy nasty, fingery cruxs then Amnesia 8B+ is one for you! There's plenty of easy stuff at Fraguel too so the Mrs was able to build up some climbing confidence again post-baby. She says check out Cous-Cous 6C. The only downside with Fraguel is that it's 5miles drive up a big mountain and this burns the petrol as we found out to our cost: After a successful day climbing we couldn't get the van started as we'd run the tank dry. Usually Tricia is very careful about things like this but the incident happened shortly after Woody's death: and death somehow makes you feel that you need to live life to the full and in the moment (like Woody did), and not worry about such things as petrol – just see where life takes you. Well it took us to being stuck. Luckily this odd, but very intelligent man and his dog came past in their 4x4. He managed to toe us to the start of the decent road and then I had to just roll us down the hill with no power: fucking scary stuff with no brake fluid and sharp turns. The odd man then pointed us to a garage and wished Ciara luck with having parents like us! (“No petrol in the mountains?” he repeated countless times in an incredulous voice whilst shaking his head. “I thought British people were meant to be clever” - sorry fellow Brits we let the side down).

Amnesia, Fraguel

The best route I did in Mallorca was Totes Fosca 8A+ at Gorg Blau. One of the most stunning lines I've ever seen, completely solid rock and beautiful moves. Location wise Gorg Blau is a long drive on a windy road but the views on the drive are wild and rugged, a different landscape to the rest of Mallorca.

I also checked out a few new crags that aren't in the guide book including a cave near Calvia called the “Museum”. It's the biggest cave with climbing on the island with routes from 6b+ to 9A. There are two fantastic 7Bs. Definitely worth checking out if you like the steep stuff.

And how did Ciara enjoy her holidays? Well I knew climbing with a baby at the crag was going to make life harder but I wanted to make sure that she enjoyed her days out too. I came up with a few ideas to keep Ciara amused, or even better asleep. Our methods were all quite “home made” and improvised so probably won't be going on Dragon's Den any time soon. Her favourite was using her car seat as a swing which we attached to trees or bolts. As an add on we could attach a length of rope to the swing and run it to the side of our harness then gently sway, creating a lovely rocking motion for her, whilst we were belaying a safe distance away. Check her out, sleeping like, uh, a sleeping baby:
Ciara nice and snug