Never ending views and never ending climbs

Through the Tramuntana mountains by MTB in two days

The Tramuntana mountains, which range the north-west coast of Mallorca, are well known for their beauty both among road cyclists (just look at early season training photos of any pro-team and the chances to see shots from here are great) and hikers who cross the mountains following the GR221 trail taking between six and eight days. The Tramuntana has several mountains above 1.300m and the whole area is protected as a UNESCO world heritage site.

In my quest to get to know the island better I went for a two days MTB traverse of the mountain range in February 2017 starting from the city of Palma in the south and finishing in Pollenca in the north. The route took me from the city center of Palma to the most south-western point of the island and over many mountains to the north until the end of the range itself. The trails I used combined parts of the GR221, hiking routes, double track and some asfalt racking up 200 km with 4500m of climbing. The tracks I used where very rough in parts I could only manage a 16 km/h average speed which included a lot of pushing and some cursing.

Along the GR221 there are a number of refuges managed by the island government that provide food and shelter with good quality and very reasonable prices. I made use of the refuge at the lighthouse in Port de Soller - which, like the other refuges as well, I can only highly recommend. I was especially happy to have a bed and warm food after arriving right at sunset on the first day.

Overall the trip was fantastic but I would definitely split up the trip into three or four days the next time to be able to enjoy it more and suffer less. Besides the never ending views and great trails the highlight that stuck into my head is riding out of Palma harbour into the mountains with concrete switching to trail and solitude with almost no transition.

Adventurer: Bengt