The Rockfax guidebook to Mallorca is the sixth Rockfax publication to this island since the first rather flimsy topo-card appeared in 1995. The latest version is naturally the biggest and most colourful yet and this time also includes the wealth of Deep Water Soloing that draws climbers from all over Europe. Karin Magog takes a look at the guide below.

It doesn't seem that long since the last Mallorca rock climbing guide was published by Rockfax but it's actually four years which was a surprise. This new guide is bigger and better than the old one, with nearly twice as many pages (up from 176 to 304).

There's a few new crags including including the superb Es Verger but the big bonus is the Deep Water Soloing section at the back. Mallorca is a very popular destination for this sub sport and it's well documented here, great for those groups who like to mix things around a bit. I was also glad to see that they'd managed to track down the route names that were missing in the previous guide – good job.

Mallorca Climbs follows the standard Rockfax format which I'm sure everyone is now familiar with. This includes plenty of useful info at the front, clear maps and excellent photo-diagrams This new guide has more of these than the last guide, with only a few remaining hand drawn topos of those sectors where photography was obviously impractical. The photos also offer an approximate route length which was very useful and made spotting the endurance crags nice and easy, as well as being a reminder to be careful with your rope length. The guide offers a great mix of grades and styles of climbing, from easy slabs to ferocious overhangs, deep water soloing to multi-pitch adventure, mountain settings to crags on the beach – surely there's something here for everyone?

The action photos give a good indication of the nature of the particular crag and work well with the photo-diagrams when deciding on which of the many crags to visit. I particularly like the front cover which certainly sells the place to me.

It's been a long while since I've visited Mallorca but this new guide has certainly whetted my appetite. Another good production from Rockfax and well worth buying.

Karin Magog, first published on ClimbOnline

• Price: £24.95
• Pages: 304
• ISBN: 978 1 873341 42 1