UKC

Does anyone have any recommendations for areas in northern France and west germany that have nice multipitch routes? I'm taking a friend along who hasn't been climbing for long so it's probably best to be sticking with 5+ and below (french grades) We'll be going early summer.

In reply to Onions: Hi. Try getting a copy of the Jingo wobbly Europe book. Well worth buying.

In reply to pwhiteside: I've already got one, a very useful book but i was wondering about any personal recommendations.
Don't suppose you know where you could buy some of the guide books and topos recomended in Jingo wobbly do you?

In reply to Onions: Sorry mate. I have only climbed in Font and at some sport crags in Chamonix. I am planning on going back this Summer and was recommended the Dijon area. It's not too far and there is another Jingo Wobbly book that deals with that area. It has loads more detail than the Europe book. It's called "Bourgogne" (which is basically Burgundy). It includes crags in around Dijon, Auxerre and Macon. I drove past some of the crags last Summer but had my children with me and did not climb. However, it looked awesome. Good luck.

In reply to pwhiteside: Needlesports have the book by the way.

In reply to Onions: I suspect that the reason you haven't got many responses is that there isn't much multi-pitch climbing in northern France for the simple reason that there aren't any proper mountains.

I climbed at Clecy in Normandy once, there are some two pitch routes there but it was so scrappy that we didn't bother doing very much. There is probably some multi-pitch trad climbing on the Brittany coast, but really if you want to do multi-pitch climbing in France you are much better off heading to the Alps or further south.

Freyr might fit the bill (it's not in France but it's only a short distance from the border) - however I believe that the easier routes tend to be very polished.

In reply to AlisonC: ps if Clecy interests you look at:

http://www.malhere.com/gresandaine/sites-escalade-ffme.php?site=13

but in my opinion the pictures on this page are rather flattering!

In reply to Onions:

Your best bet is probably Freyr in belgium. there are also some very bizarre pudding stone crags not too far from Aachen, but I'm afraid their name escapes me

In reply to AlisonC: The Chris Craggs guidebook to Freyr etc has a polishedness grading for the routes

In reply to AlisonC:

I take it you didn't like Clecy ? on my one and only foot and mouth inspired trip there, I quite enjoyed the stuff we did.

In reply to pwhiteside: cheers, i'll keep an eye out for the book. I think rock on at craggy island have other jingo wobbly books, i'll have a peak.