Introduction

10 members of Imperial College Mountaineering Club travelled to the sunny island of Mallorca from the 12th to the 25th September. Not for the cheap thrills of Shagaluf but for the vast amounts of climbing on offer. While on tour many different areas were visited with all sorts of climbing on offer from caves to slabs. Some members achieved very highly whereas others had a less fortunate time. The aims and objectives of the tour were for members to climb in a different environment to those that they are used to.

In Mallorca the climbing was all sport or deep water soloing which are less common in the UK. There were also some longer multi pitch routs that members enjoyed climbing. Due to unforeseen circumstances 2 members had to use their recently acquired advanced first aid skills to help one team member out.

Overall Mallorca was an excellent location to visit. There was a wide range of grades from very easy to very hard. A lot of the very interesting routs were harder than many members could climb. Despite being a relatively small island there was a significant amount of driving. We managed to take advantage of cheap villas due to the off peak season and found some cheap car rental places, food was also remarkably low cost. We all learnt the hard way that accidents can happen, even when not doing a particularly difficult climb and we must always be aware of hazards.

People

The people going on the tour were:

• Matthew Lees (Murray) - President
• Mike Jones (Fails) – Vice President
• Jonathan Price
• Alastair Brash
• Lisa Alhadeff
• Elliot Carrington
• Tristan Pollitt
• Ruth Lawson
• Abi Attrell
• Oliver Mower

Diary

Day 1 – Flight

With 10 members flying from all over the country to Palma it was quite remarkable that all but one person had met in the country just after noon. The one member who had decided to take a later flight for a sweet deal wouldn’t arrive until much later that night and cause much unnecessary driving, the fuel for which probably cancelled out his own saving. Picking up the cars turned out to be not as simple as expected, the rental firm was too cheap to buy a place in the airport and needed a bus to get there. The cars however were very cheap and were already scratched and dented, as a bonus hey came with free insurance meaning we wouldn’t get fined for bumping the car. Driving out of Palma proved to be difficult but after a scenic drive around the city the motorway was found and the other side of the island quickly reached. Arriving at the accommodation Ali was convinced that the lead diver Murray was completely lost but was surprised when it turned out that they had arrived at their accommodation. The villa was perfect for the club needs and was very cheap. Classic ICMC Chilli was had for dinner.

Day 2 – El Fumat

The first crag to be visited on the trip was thought to be a local crag called El Fumat, but turned out to be the other side of a mountain so there was some slow uphill diving. The crag had excellent views and was well bolted. Most members found the grades to be hard; this was probably due to the new location and tiredness. On the menu for dinner was Curry.

Day 3 – Les Perxes

The area chosen today had a couple of different crags. Most of the group went to the easier section near the car park called Hairpin but Ali and Lisa decided to go for the cave nearby. The easy crag got sun around 2 and became too hot for climbing, the cave being north facing remained cool all day. Some members decided to go watch the cave climbing and take photos but others went to the higher crag that had a little bit more shade. Ali managed to climb an impressive climb up with some good tufa action and a nice rest in the middle. One of the local climbers then crushed it while warming up for a much harder climb. Carbonara was on the table tonight, there was much debate over what the ingredients should be.

Day 4 – Deep Water Solo

Being the tour’s first venture into DWS an easy small crag was chosen. There were 3 routs on the smallest section; the 6a was enjoyable and easy and done by most. The water was very clear and we could easily see that the bottom was a long way down There was a good 7a with a cool dino in the middle which many people fell off. Some members quickly decided they didn’t like DWS and others needed to work on jumping off to get over a fear of height. Some members had no problem jumping off the cliffs but had some minor issues entering the water. At the top of the cliff there was a mast, probably used for sailing the island to new locations, where we left all of our food and bags. Ali, Ruth and Lisa managed to hit their heads on the mast; unfortunately since they were not climbing at this point in time they didn’t have helmets on, all 3 felt very silly. A DWS dinghy was bought to help get people to the bottom of the climbs and to rescue them in case something went wrong. Various names were put forward, there were: Lizzie Wilkins, Fun Splash, Enema, Ella and Emma. After some debate the name Ella stuck, it was later revealed that this was also the name of Jacob Dean’s 12 year old sister, after this the innuendos came thick and fast. Fajitas were for dinner.

Day 5 – Rest day 1

Most people slept in late this day after some early starts on the previous days. Everyone except Ali went for a walk along the coast but Ali remained behind to do a literature review. While walking a large number of naked people were seen, this was highly disturbing. An old abandoned pill box was found and explored, it was very hot inside. Finding a small cover everyone sat down and had a lovely time playing in the water. Murray kicked a rock while swimming and bled all over the place. Fails annoyed a sea anemone by destroying its home and it got its own back by stinging Fails, Elliot and Ruth. Since it was Elliot’s last night with us we had another Chilli to remind him of all the good times.

Day 6 – Sa Gubia, eastern side

Another early start to get to the crag before the sun hit it. The massive walls of Sa Gubia were on the table for today. Ali and Lisa decided to have a day alone and headed over to the steep hard world of Fraguel. After quite a long walk in up a dry river bed the bottom of the wall was reached where we met 2 local climbers who gave us a lot of tips about which crags not to visit as they had bad bolts.

The 2 best climbs of the day were a delicate 6a and an outrageous 6a+ which had some cool tufa action on it. Ali and Lisa also had a good day out. The group split in 2 with half heading back to make a curry for dinner and the others taking Elliot to the airport for him to head home early.

Day 7 – DWS & more Sa Gubia

Murray, Jon, fails, Abi and Ollie headed over to Cala Sa Nau to try out a different area. There were a number of easy climbs, fails managed a 6b but failed on the 7a. Murray tried the 7a from day 4 but ripped the tip of his finer off on the sloping crimp. Abi jumped off the top and made a big splash. Ella was launched; she was a much finer vessel than the other group who were at the crag. The climbers at Sa Gubia tried a number of different things. Tristan and Ruth had a mini adventure on their 2 pitch multi pitch. Ali and Lisa tried a few hard things with little success. Since it was a Sunday most shops were closed so there was not a lot of food to be had. Heavy rain made the road outside the apartments turn into a small river. Since it was Lisa’s last day she decided to get drunk instead of packing.

Day 8 – Rest Day 2

Ali got up early to take Lisa to the airport, everyone else stayed in bed for quite a while. While Ali was sleeping most other people went for a large food shop taking advantage of Lidl’s cheap prices. After the shop everyone moved to the beach to enjoy the Mallorca sun. The slack line was put up and everyone had a good go with various levels of susses, this attracted many tourists who took

photos, if a hat had been left out we probably would have made some money. Towards the end of the day we moved the slack line to two trees that were much further apart, right at the limit of how far the slack line could reach. While tensioning the line we melted a section as there was so much force! This line was very long and wobbled a lot. Murray and Tristan both got about half way on it but nobody made it the whole length. Some people were scared off by the height of the line but the soft sand gave a good landing and when it sagged in the middle it was quite close to the floor anyway. While slack lining Fails failed and landed with one leg either side of the line and had to sit down for a while, see right.

Day 9 – The Accident

Ali and Fails headed off to a hard over hanging crag with short boulder like routs. Everyone else went to Puig St Martin where there was shade all day and easy climbs. A number of different routes were done. While trying a 5+ with a high first bolt Ollie slipped and hit the ground. He had broken his ankle and mountain rescue were called to evacuate him. Jon and Murray had both been on the union run outdoor first aid course which proved very useful. Both tried to check for broken bones but didn’t feel anything that felt broken, both were carrying first aid kits but there was little they could do. Four firemen arrived with a stretcher to carry him out, they were not particularly gentle. Everyone went to visit Ollie that evening, he was on pain killers at this point and seemed quite merry, fortunately he had BMC insurance and everything was OK.

Day 10 – DWS

Abi decided that she wanted to stay with Ollie for the day and keep him company as being in a foreign hospital. Everyone else decided to go deep water soloing as there would be nothing to hit and get hurt on. Ali and Fails went to Cala Barques and everyone else went to Santanyi. Ali and Fails found their perfect climbs of steep jug climbing with big powerful moves. The others enjoyed their day and went to visit the legendary Es Pontas and were surprised by how shallow the water was there.

Day 11 – Les Perxes Mark II

A permanent problem with Mallorca was trying to find shady crags where the heat was not too severe. Port Soller had a large amount of shade but we discovered building works and so couldn’t climb there. Returning to a previously visit crag is generally avoided on tour but this area has several sections. Ali and Fails went to the cave and tried more hard things. Everyone else went to the upper section called Muro de Caimari. There were several hard climbs done by all. Ruth and Tristan found an extremely pumpy 6b which was very hard. Ollie was visited in the evening and this time had a large amount of metal in his leg after the operation and was in for a bad night sleep. After climbing we took Fails to the airport as he had found a sweet deal and booked an earlier flight home

Day 12 – Betlem

Waking to the sound of heavy rain was not a good start to the day. Almost all the climbing locations would be soaked and the only things able to be climbed would be caves. Contrary to the malicious propaganda spread by the Outdoor Club we did not go to a pub, we went climbing instead. A crag called El Calo de Betlem was decided upon as it had some shelter and easy cave climbs. Arriving at the crag to find that rock fax lied and only a part of the routes were dry we soldiered on. Most people tried a cool looking 6b which had some hard moves in it to a hidden and now sodden slot. While Abi was on top rope an assisted dyno was attempted with no result. Another nearby area was investigated but the best routs were slabs that were still wet and there were serious signs of seepage. Murray and Ruth checked out an abandoned house which had an aloe vera plant in front that was about 3m tall and you could stand on its branches/leaves. Setting up a water line over the pool was discussed at length. We found 2 points that we felt would be suitable anchors and active spotting near the edges of the pool was also proposed. Unfortunately it was felt that the 2 anchors were too far apart and a water line was not put up. Instead a raft was built from the many empty water bottles with an impressively poor result.

Day 13 – Home Time

Ali and Abi went back to Les Perxes for Ali to try and finish his route. The top slab was wet and no route finishing happened. Packing the cars with all of our stuff took a while and lead to a rather uncomfortable trip to the airport. Both cars had to be returned empty and so the economy race was on. Murrays diesel had only had 1 ½ tanks of fuel so was already low but made it to the rental drop of shortly after the fuel light came on. Ali was forced to put in an extra 5 euros of fuel. At the airport there was a slight challenge convincing the staff that Ollie couldn’t walk and that he needed a wheel chair. After a large amount of repacking to get everyone under the weight limit we all ate and drank as much as we could to get as heavy as possible to reduce the fuel economy of the plane to restore Ryanair’s karma. Arriving late at Stansted we were all greeted by an enormous line for border control with some grumpy staff who were extremely unhelpful. We retried our bags and then all went our separate ways.

Finances

Cost Breakdown