We made it hassle free from Paris (Orly, much less confusing than CDG) to Barcelona and then Barcelona to Mallorca, bags and all. We collected our rental car at the airport and headed east towards Cala D'Or, our home for the next week. After some slight confusion getting here (google maps for Europe isn't that great), we got checked in at the Hotel Rocador Playa. We got situated, shopped for groceries, and headed out on the town for my birthday dinner (lucky 37!).
Cala D'Or is touristy, but not in a bad way. From our hotel a casual stroll takes us to lots of small streets full of bars, pubs, restaurants, and gift shops. For dinner we had a hamburger and some calamari and a crepe for dessert. The crepe people here have a lot to learn from the Parisians but it was still good. The hamburger and calamari, well, let's just say America seems to hold the lead on preparing bar food. After dinner we enjoyed a nice walk around the town, ending at a bar specializing in fruity island drinks. I'm quite the sucker for these so there was no doubt what I'd be getting. Theresa split one with me while we people watched, enjoying the warm temperatures compared with Paris.
The next day we headed to Fraguel, a bolted limestone crag in the western mountains north of Palma. The normal approach involves driving 5km of steep switchbacks and then hiking for 15 minutes into a secluded gorge. Unfortunately for us, a gate across the road was locked so we had to hoof it up a steep road for 3km. This adds about 25 minutes and a lot of aggravation to the approach so if you go, hope the gate is open. The upside to the hike is it allows some very nice views of Palma (capital city of Mallorca) and the surrounding bay.
Once we got to the crag I was underwhelmed. Rockfax (guidebook publishers) describe Fraguel as "an amazing crag with some of the most important hard sport climbing in Europe". I was expecting something stunning along the lines of the Gran Boveda or Las Ventanas at Rodellar or Las Bruixes at Terradets . In reality the crag really isn't that big, maybe 100m long, on par with one of the sectors at Ceuse such as La Cascade or Berlin. The rock quality was impressive with lots of nice, linear tufa systems but for me it didn't live up to the hype. The climbing was great though, steep and juggy with nicely spaced bolts and fun moves. I started on the first bit of Ramadan, an amazing 5.10 warmup on awesome tufas. After that it was the first part of Bobo Dodo (11+) and then Fes Lo Que Puguis which felt quite hard for 12a. I then tried the upper part of Bobo Dodo (12+) but the first holds above the chains were wet. I moved on to Le Gorille a un bonne mine (12d), an amazing tufa route with a funky crux crossing through to an undercling pocket. Very weird and very good. I finished the day with the first half of Shabada (12a), another great tufa route with a cool scissor rest just below the chains.
We headed back to Cala D'Or and tried our luck with the European version of fajitas. For our split order we were served 1 tortilla (we asked for more and got 1) but the flavor was quite decent.
Tomorrow the plan is psychobloc at Cala Barques.
No comments:
Post a Comment