Adam's Adventures: Majorca pt2

Majorca madness pt2

Monday morning, and we were up reasonably early for a return trip to s'estret in the hope of bagging the route we were denied by the greedy English and Spanish climbers. Parking up, we were the first car there, but once at the crag, were met by a few parties already there. Staking our place, we made a bee-line for the two slab lines of Mario Moreno 1 and 2.

Dave and Iain cracked Marion Moreno with no probs, so me and Ben tackled Mario Moreno 2, enjoying the easy and consistent slab climbing on large and friendly (but sometimes polished) flakes. We then swapped and completed the route next door. Of the two Mario Moreno is harder, with a few more technical moves off smaller and more polished holds, but both are equally nice climbs. By this time, the sun had burnt off all clouds and we were in for a scorcher, with temps reaching the high 20's.

Ben showboating on mario moreno (F5)

Me pushing through the crux of Mario Morerno, awaiting the arrival of the sun!

We all moved up towards the harder section and set out sights on some of the harder routes. Dave and Iain lead the way with an all out assault on Movimento Sexy (F5+), which Iain made look easy. Ben flashed up it, with no problems, but i came off on the crux, unable to fathom the move through the crux. After some choice words, i pushed through it to the top and was lowered off in a rather less than amused state...

Dave and Iain moved up the scale, with an assault on Part Forana (F5+), a slightly more technical route.

Look guys, one hand!

Iain making it look easy...

After a leisurely lunch, we decided to head up to the higher section of crag called Sector Passion. We had our eye on the classic Passion interminable (f5 top 50), but like with everything in life, the Germans had beaten us to it, so we made our way round to find El Culo Lefthand (f5). After an initial hard pull over and overhang (which i bypassed), the route leads up an airy and bold slab to a belay 20m up, with great views down to the Islands capital, Palma. Zapped by the heat, we all had a bit of a drama getting up and over the first move, but Ben and Iain finally cracked it, and made their way up to the belay with no further probs.

Iain on the hanging slab above the overhang

We had had enough by that time, so i thought i had better show the guys some of the islands hidden beauties. I drove them through valdemossa, and onwards to port d'valdemossa, passing by the roadside crags just outside the town. These make for a real eye-opener, being right on the roadside, with care nescessary to avoid being clipped by a local car.

Valldemossa, perfect roadside cragging?

We continued on down the road to Port d'valldemossa, following the winding, and often very thin road down the hill through numerous hairpin bends and out towards the sea. After about 4km of continuously winding and exposed roads (and around a 500mm vertical drop) we emerged into the picturesque town and headed to the port. We hit it really lucky as the sun was at an amazing angle to the port, giving us a prime viewing point to watch it sink in to the med, casting amazing and awe-inspiring sunlight over the town and surrounding hillside.