In 2014 there were 219 rescues of hikers in Mallorca. Last year there were 331, five more than in 2023, and the upward trend isn't expected to halt this year.
The president of the Balearic Mountaineering and Climbing Federation, Xisco Fanals, says there is a growing problem. Online travel and hiking sites tempt people without adequate training or equipment and can downplay the nature of routes. The Torrent de Pareis is the most obvious.
"It's the star route, but it's also the place where the most rescues occur. The problem is that many of these sites refer to hiking. Some people think it's just a walk, but it's not even hiking; it's descending a ravine, and you're walking into a torrent."
According to the federation, up to 60% of mountain rescues in the Balearics are directly related to hiking. The main causes are trips and falls, getting lost, physical problems, and the weather. They often stem from a lack of training and information, a lack of physical preparation, an overestimation of one's abilities or a failure to check the weather forecast.
There should be as much information as possible. Fanals says the federation has been asking for years for information officers to be posted at the beginning and end of the Torrent de Pareis route to prevent people without adequate equipment from undertaking it. "About twelve years ago, there was an information person up there. Then there wasn't and nothing was ever heard of this again."
The torrent in Escorca tops the accident ranking, but it's not the only black spot. The Camí del Pintor, which runs from Cala Deia to Bens d'Avall in Soller, is one of the most popular summer hikes. Fanals explains: "You can get there by bus; it's easy, beautiful, and runs along the seashore. In principle, it should be a walk in the park; no one gets lost there. The problem is that you're very close to the coast, and sea erosion has eaten away the substrate. When you look out from 10 metres high, the views are very beautiful, but at the same time, the ground slopes steeply toward the sea and sometimes gives way. Quite a few fatal accidents are reported. If someone falls, it is onto rocks from a height of ten or twelve metres."
Third in the ranking of black spots is Mortitx in Pollensa. Unlike the previous two, where the accidents concern mostly inexperienced hikers, the source of the problem is the lack of phone coverage, which causes people to get lost. “It's a rugged area; some mountaineers call it Mordor (after The Lord of the Rings) because it's easy to get lost. It's a very beautiful area, but the trails are very similar and not well-defined. It also has the disadvantage of having no phone coverage. In the Pareis torrent, it's impossible to get lost because you can only go up or down. By contrast, Mortitx is a large expanse of karst landscape; getting lost can result in an accident."
Commenting on the accident in Coll Baix (Alcudia) a few days ago, Fanals notes that similar accidents have occurred in the past. "There's access to a beautiful cove that's not that difficult. The path goes gently downhill to the right, but there are always some who think that if they go straight ahead, in 200 metres they'll be on the beach and want to avoid the 1.5 kilometre walk. They end up at a vertical area. It's a place where accidents happen every year."