Metro Sexual Area at Cala Barques, Mallorca © Paul Phillips

There have been a number of individuals from the general public who have recklessly been jumping from the top of the Cova area and badly injuring themselves.

At weekends and in the public holiday season the bay of Cala Barques gets very busy with tourists and many of them are acting irresponsibly by jumping under the influence or in an ‘un-educated’ way. In 2012 a no jumping sign was erected at the top of the cove but unfortunately was ignored.

The Ban Sign

Once again the art of irresponsible Tombstoning has hit the climbing community hard and currently there is now a ban on Cliff Jumping and Deep Water Soloing at Cala Barques. It’s unclear as to what extent the ban goes to regarding the area but if choosing to visit then do so by avoid weekends and public holidays. If you are asked to stop climbing at any of the cliffs in the area then please do so without protest. The council are unable to issue fines at time of writing but they have increased the man power at the cliffs to enforce the ban.

Hopefully in time, collaboration between the climbing community and the Mallorca council may usher in new terms for climbing in the area. Currently it is understood that the authorities are not necessarily against Deep Water Soloing at Barques, but the feeling is that they would prefer the activity to be removed from the general public’s attention at Barques to discourage jumping.

Cala Barques has also a problem with illegal camping in the area which is now out of control. Officials are cracking down on people doing this with fines (which have been witnessed first-hand). Barques needs to be protected so please DO NOT camp at Barques, no fires and take all rubbish home with you. It’s a place of outstanding natural beauty and climbers and the general public need to keep it this way.

The crags at the popular hillside tourist mecca of Mijas have had a bit of a clean-up in recent times. The base of the roadside crags are now much cleaner than they have been for a while, whilst the Ravine is far cleaner and has had a few new lines added along with some re-gearing.

Also the town council has now stopped non-resident traffic going through the centre of the village so it is now necessary to park in the village centre (mostly free parking) and walk through the main tourist street to the climbing area (4 minutes approach time). The benefit for climbers is that hardly any cars now drive up the road next to the first roadside sector making the spot much quieter.

The circle of crags at Orgon above the camp site, before the fire.

A thread on the CampToCamp web site (in French) has some discussion about the fire. In the Rockfax France : Languedoc – Roussillion guide the effected area is the Vallée Heureuse crags from page 332 to page 347.

The east-facing Beauregard area (pages 348 to 353) and the Canal area (pages 354 to 365) have not been in the fire however it is not known if these areas are currently open for climbing. No damage was done to the camp site.

The long term implications are not known though and it is likely that the crags affected by the fire will need to have their fixed gear properly inspected before climbing can resume.

This is quite a shame as although it only had seven routes on it, four of them were in the Top 50 list for the area.

The current location of the Smiley Face headwall

Neal Heanes (BMC Portland rep) on Hysterical Solitude (6c) at Blacknor Central

The Portland BMC rep Neal Heanes lives on Portland and has kept an eye on the goings on. He reports that he foresees few problems for climbing access except for an increase in traffic levels and subsequent jams. However anyone familiar with getting on to Portland during the summer months will know that this is not an unusual problem on a sunny day! The best advice is to arrive early in the day.

Other snippets of interest are the re-bolting of a number of the big lines at Wallsend Central – Saskatchewan Uranium Miner being one by Rob Kennard, and some new lines to the west of the popular Bower at The Cuttings – see topo - by Adam Perrett  and co.

Neal also said that after the record rainfall of late the slope below Wallsend North that is used to access the boulder beach may need extra care (a spare rope – might be a good idea). However everything else seems to be in place although there have been a couple of minor rock falls noted. Neal also won the race to put the latest Rockfax guidebook out of date with his new line at Blacknor Central

In addition Range West will also be open for the month for those who have attended a briefing. There is one briefing left if you haven’t made one already and that is on Saturday July 28th (meet 9am at the Castlemartin Army Camp, 2 miles from Bosherston, post code SA71 5EB)

Rockfax Pembroke Guidebook

The firing orders sign outside Ma Weston's Cafe

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On this first visit 19 years ago, there was a bit of a building site above the crag and it wasn’t long after that that I first heard that “the crag at Port de Soller was closed due to the building work”. In the intervening years it has “opened” and “closed” more times than I can remember. In reality the crag has never been officially open and you always ran the risk of being turned away if the wrong person was near the entrance when you arrived.

At last though it appears that the building saga is over. The Jumeriah hotel is now open (photo below borrowed from their web site) and provides 5-star accommodation if you can afford it.

Hopefully this will now put an end to the access problems at Port Soller and we have had very recent reports of people climbing there without problems, however we have no news of any official position on climbing access.

If you have an experiences here then please let us know.

Just got back from the Tarn and it seems the re-bolting campaign is very much still in progress. 

Sectors De Que Fas Aqui, Figues au Cul, Club House, Hollandaise were all fully open.

Sector Tennessee – the 3 right-most routes (rockfax and local guide) were open, the Ailes du Desir cave is open (Court Metrage to Tennessee). Everything else was closed.

All of Sector Le Naivre was closed, Tresor du Zebre was in progress.

When I say closed, the first few bolts were missing and there was a small ‘no-entry’ sign on the first bolt stub.

We didn’t go anywhere other than the sectors mentioned. We did however go to Le Boffi and Gorge de la Jonte, both are excellent venues and all the routes we did were awesome.

Thanks to Luke for this . You can read more from Luke at his web site Brooks Mountaineering.

There are two parking areas described in the Peak Limestone guidebook but we have since found a good third option. These are marked on the map below.

Parking 1 – In the Industrial Estate
This is one of the two parking spots listed in the current (2012) guidebook and is on the approach to the research building. It has given few problems for the last year or so since it is out of the way and you aren’t blocking anything. Owing to developing weekend problems of youths swimming in the toxic lagoon, the police appear to be clamping down when it is busy. Technically, you aren’t allowed to park on a road with an unbroken ‘no overtaking’ double-white-line down the middle, which is the case here even on the section described in the guide as ‘lay by’. This law applies even if you get your car off the road, hence you can get ticketed in this spot and you will have no come-back despite the fact that it is such an open area with loads of space. The current advice is to park elsewhere, especially at weekends.

Parking 2 – In the village
This parking is as stated in the guidebook. You can park here but there isn’t much room, and you won’t make the locals happy, especially if you block something in.

Parking 3 – A new spot up Hillhead Lane
This new spot that reaches the quarry from the back appears to be a good option for climbers at the moment, since there don’t appear to be any restrictions on parking and plenty of space. The walk-in is easy and can take you to the Dark Side lower or Upper Tiers in around 10 minutes.

It should be noted that there is no formal access to Harpur Hill Quarry and you should leave is asked to do so. If this happens to you please let the BMC know the details.

There is a thread here on UKClimbing.com to discuss this.