Puig Major
Peak · 1436 m · Mallorca
Checked
Mallorca's highest peak at 1,445 m, with views across the Serra de Tramuntana. The US military operated an airbase here from 1950–1993; today an antenna complex occupies the summit, making it off-limits to climbers.
The Ma-10 climbs Puig Major's flank from Sóller for roughly 14 km at around 6%, finishing at the Monnàber tunnel well short of the true summit; through the tunnel the Cúber reservoir appears in the rock cut, and the Gorg Blau lake follows soon after. In 1958 the US Air Force cut nine metres off that summit to build a Cold War radar station watching the western Mediterranean, officially opened by Franco himself in 1960. Two orange domes locals called Ses Bolles, the balls, held the radars until a single larger dome replaced them in 2005. Spain gradually took over the base after joining NATO in 1986, and the US Air Force's watch ended in 1993. Once a year, during the Kill the Hill sportive, the military gate opens and up to 300 riders finally reach the actual summit.
Past the tunnel it's ~8 km downhill past the Cúber and Gorg Blau reservoirs to the turnoff for the Sa Calobra descent.
What you see
A radar dome crowns the summit, visible from much of the island long before any road gets close.
mountaincold war historyrestricted access