This regular snow and the snow houses corresponded to the period known as the Little Ice Age, which came to an end, so it has been estimated, around 1850. From that time on, heavy snow in Mallorca became less common.
It is the case today that there are years when there is no snow at all, let alone heavy snow. The episode in late February 2023 was unusual, one of only five over the past almost seventy years. But only one of the five stands out for having produced very significant snowfalls at sea level across the island and also for having been very cold. That was 1956, known to this day as the year of the snow.
A recently published book, The Chronicles of the G.E.M. (Mallorca excursions group), recounts the story of the rescue of sixty workers who were trapped by snow on Puig Major; they were working on the road to the summit.
Mountaineer Joan Espina wrote this story in 2001. He was at his workshop in Palma when he had a phone call asking him to meet a general. According to information from the civil governor, sixty workers were cut off by snow in Son Torrella. A rescue had to be organised, and Espina was to be part of it. There were other mountaineers, soldiers and Guardia Civil officers.
The rescuers headed for an estate in Orient, which was from where they would commence the rescue mission. Things didn't go to plan. A military off-road vehicle got stuck in snow before reaching the estate. A soldier and a Guardia Civil officer were taken unwell and couldn't take part. When the group did finally set off, the mountaineers and hikers were fine. They had the right boots. Two Guardia Civil officers did not.
It was -13C when they got to the Cúber estate in Escorca at 11pm. The owners looked after them, but it was then that the doubts started to creep in. If there were sixty trapped workers in the neighbouring Son Torrella estate, the owners would have known about them.
Son Torrella was three kilometres away. In the morning they trudged through a metre of snow. A plane flew overhead, and when they finally got to Son Torrella, they learned that their mission had been in vain. There had been six or seven workers, not sixty, and as soon as it had started to snow, they had apparently got into cars and driven to Sa Pobla.
They were to receive a letter of gratitude from the governor, but he was otherwise livid. He had acted on wrong information from the Spanish government. One of the Guardia Civil officers wasn't happy either. He had to spend two months in hospital because of frostbite in one foot.
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