Climbing the elusive Puig Major on Mallorca

With its large radar facility run by the military the summit of Puig Major seems out of reach. Getting close to it is the Penyal de Migdia. However there is a way to reach the proper summit via the North Eastern Spur - it's tricky though!

Climbing the elusive Puig Major on Mallorca

From the Coll de Reis via the Serra de na Rius and the Pas des Matats to the NE summit

The official high point of Puig Major (and thus the highest point on Mallorca) is 1436 meter above sea level - however this point is right in the military base and therefore off limits (if you do not want to join the Spanish forces and are a radar technician by trade). The North East summit is just a tad lower at 1415 meter and barely out of the restricted zone.

360 panorama of the Tramuntana

I found some information on a route following along the Serra de na Rius spur and looked at images I found on the web and that I took during other visits to the Tramuntana. The spur is a mix of steep rocky ground with some vegetation broken up by a few steep rock faces guarding it. From my research I knew there had to be some way to get over these steps - however it was unclear how difficult that would be and if at all possible without proper climbing gear.

Nevertheless I started from Coll de Reis (this is where the famous Sa Calobra road reaches its highest point at about 700 meters above sea level) and quickly found myself in pathless terrain. The opening in the first rock step was fairly easy to find and a quick scramble later I was above it.

Finding a way over the next face was more difficult though. After quite some looking around and wandering left and right on steep scree I ventured quite a bit left and found a roughly 30 meter Couloir that brought me up. The third hurdle seems insurmountable standing below it but can be sidestep by going far to the right and up a very steep slope towards a small broken wall.

At least the wayfinding problems were over after that and I simply followed the now clearly visible summit ridge towards what looked like an even less doable final rock pillar right below the summit. Getting closer I remembered seeing pictures of people squeezing up a short chimney and saw something a bit to the left of the pillar that looked promising - and yes: a chimney with an old rope hanging down into it. With some huffing and puffing I got through that thing and further up a couloir to a sort of summit plateau - and finally the summit itself.