Tozal del Mallo, Mountain summit in Ordesa Valley, Spain

Tozal del Mallo is a 2,280-meter (7,480 ft) summit featuring steep limestone walls that tower above the surrounding landscape of Ordesa National Park. The area is known for its numerous climbing routes of varying difficulty spread across its main rock faces.

The south face's climbing history began with a false claim: the 1951 Ollivier guide reported a 1944 ascent by Jorge A. Gavin and José Luis Rodríguez that never took place. In 1954 J. Santacana reached the narrow central ledge he named "Plaza de Cataluña" by a traverse from the east. At Easter 1957 Jean Ravier, Marcel Kahn, Noël Blotti, Claude Dufourmantelle and Claude Jaccoux opened the first complete route, now the normal route.

The name combines two words for "summit": tozal is common in Aragonese peaks, and mallo derives from the Gascon malh or Catalan mall, making it a pleonasm like Forcanada. Ramond called it "mailh d'Ordesa" and drew it; Edward Whymper also depicted it in his engravings. Climbers still name features after their routes: the narrow central ledge reached by Santacana in 1954 is the "Plaza de Cataluña", and the 1963 Rabadá-Navarro-Díaz line is the vía de las Brujas.

The south face rises almost vertically from the Ordesa valley floor and is best seen from the valley entrance and the Pradera de Ordesa paths. The first complete route, opened at Easter 1957, is now treated as the normal route; other lines, such as the 1963 Vía de las Brujas, are harder. Approach on foot from the valley, and check snow and rock conditions before setting out.

The 1954 climber J. Santacana reached only a narrow central ledge on the south face and named it "Plaza de Cataluña" as a joke; the name has stuck among climbers ever since. The face is also nicknamed "el retablo" (the altarpiece) for its near-vertical, symmetrical profile seen from the valley entrance.