Rock Climbing in southwest Mallorca
There are a good number of sport climbing crags around Palma and Valldemossa that are easily accessible from both of these cities.
Map of the rock climbing areas in south western Mallorca
| No | Crag | Total Routes | Up to 4 + | 5 to 6a+ | 6b to 7a | 7a+ and up |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Can Ortigues | 19 | 2 | 8 | 8 | 1 |
| 2 | Capdella | 38 | 1 | 14 | 8 | 15 |
| 3 | Mont Port | 25 | 0 | 12 | 8 | 5 |
| 4 | Cala Llamp | 22 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| 5 | C'an Formiga | 7 | 2 | 4 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | Puig de Garrafa | 114 | 7 | 28 | 37 | 42 |
| 7 | Santa Ponca | 16 | 0 | 1 | 3 | 12 |
| 8 | Ca's Català | 38 | 10 | 16 | 11 | 1 |
| 9 | Sa Cantera | 13 | 2 | 7 | 4 | 0 |
| 10 | Porto Pi | 11 | 0 | 5 | 4 | 2 |
| 11 | Penyal d'es Grau | 26 | 0 | 4 | 15 | 7 |
| 12 | Es Verger | 35 | 0 | 1 | 14 | 20 |
| 13 | S'estret | 137 | 9 | 32 | 52 | 44 |
| 14 | Valldemossa | 58 | 3 | 15 | 26 | 14 |
| 15 | Sa Gubia | 147 | 6 | 43 | 61 | 37 |
| 16 | Fraguel | 62 | 1 | 6 | 13 | 42 |
The largest crag to the west of Palma is Puig de Garrafa. At this crag there are plenty of excellent routes across several buttresses that offer both sunny and shady options. The crag has easy access with routes across a good spread of grades. The other crags in this area are much smaller but still provide good rock climbing and are often in picturesque locations.
Around Valldemossa there are 3 significant and large crags, which are Sa Gubia, Fraguel, and S’estret.
Sa Gubia is the largest crag in Mallorca both in terms of number of routes and its height. There are superb single pitch routes as well as fully bolted multi-pitch routes in a magnificent setting. Fraguel crag has the highest quantity of quality hard routes in Mallorca, mainly on tufas. As such it attracts climber from all over Europe. S’estret is the 2nd largest crag in Mallorca that provides lots of varied climbing on a number of different sectors. Hence it is always possible to find either the sun or shade with routes across a wide range of grades.
The above information has been extracted from the current edition of the Rockfax Mallorca Sport Climbing Guidebook. This guidebook describes 31 sports climbing areas in Mallorca, describing over 1,500 routes across a wide range of grades. The deep water soloing is covered in a separate guidebook, called Mallorca Deep Water Soloing.