UKC

I went to Frankenjura last summer and finally got round to writing a post about it on my blog. Just sharing a link here in case anyone is planning to go and is interested in what it's like!

I was a beginner outdoor climber, so it was quite hardcore for me.

http://girlclimber.com/climbing-2/frankenjura-german-climbing/

Have you ever been? What are your thoughts?

In reply to Vertical Souls:

Glad you liked it, it is my home region!

CB

In reply to Vertical Souls:

I'm impressed. Frankenjura for your first time outdoors? Hardcore. On my first trip there I was climbing around 6b, and found my first "IV+" warm up terrifying. I generally a set of nuts and a few slings up to about 6b or so. Above that most routes are at least reasonably bolted, ones done this century even to something resembling normal sport climbing standards elsewhere.

I absolutely love the place. I'm an expat Brit living in Munich, so it's about two to three hours drive away. There are closer climbing areas but they're nowhere near as good.


+1. I've needed to use a GPS to find a crag that turned out to be 50 metres away, and on another occasion completely failed to find the crag where I was supposed to be meeting up with some visitors from England.

Since your thread title mentions training: if you're planning to visit and likely to be doing any of the steep pocket stuff 6a and above, then throw a few sets of two finger pocket work on a system board or a finger board into your programme for a few weeks beforehand.

In reply to AlanLittle:

Yes, as I said, thrown in at the deep end! I went with my brother, who climbs 7c, and I climbed around 6a at the time, but found everything just so hard there. Totally loved it though, and definitely planning on going back at some point.

Lucky you, living so, relatively, close to this region! You must be so strong climbing there all the time

In reply to girlclimber:

nice write up and i sympathise with your issues with old school bolting....which is why i carry one of these:

http://www.climbinganchors.com.au/products/kong-panic-45cm

if i know they have been bolted by somebody who is 6 ft 4 or didn't have enough money to equip a route properly.

In reply to Morgan Woods:

Oh, nice idea! I've never seen those, though I did go and buy a clip stick after going to Frankenjura :-D At least that means I can clip the first bolt if it's 3 metres above my head!!

In reply to girlclimber:

In the Franken it´s generally assumed you might need a clip-stick for the first bolt so they don´t bother with low ones, there´s always a convenient stick around anyway! It´s hard to clip a long way above your head on steep routes so the idea is actually to climb up to the bolt and clip at shoulder height, it´s not top-roping
The easier routes are often sparsely bolted because they were climbed before bolts existed, re-bolting policy is only to replace existing fixed gear (pitons and threads), no extra bolts may be added and they are very strict about this. On the newer cliffs the routes are more `normal´ but most of the classic cliffs have a more challenging concept! The Southern Frankenjura and particularly the Altmuhtal is far scarier since there aren´t very many finger pockets and the rock is slipperier.
The key to success in the Northern Frankenjura is good foot positioning/body tension, not brute strength. I´ve been climbing there for 20 years and still haven´t got it right!

In reply to jimtitt:

I guess I've got quite a few years of trying to go still then!

In reply to girlclimber:

What a good idea,preserve a trad feeling,by just having enough bolts to keep you off the deck in a fall.Especially when those routes were trad anyway.Crags covered in bolts aren't very pretty.

In reply to paul mitchell:

No, that isn´t the idea. Plenty of the routes you´d deck out from almost anywhere if you relied on the bolts. The replacement was purely bolt for piton wherever it happened to be and the consequences of a fall are not considered. The original ascenscionists may have used more fixed gear but if it was no longer in place at the time of re-equipping then no bolt is installed. I know of routes where the only bolt is less than 4m from the ground and others where it is 15m from the ground.

In reply to jimtitt:

Surely you would be expected to use your own gear in those places though? I've seen quite a few routes marked as "mixed" in the guidebook, but avoided those as we didn't have any trad gear with us.

In reply to girlclimber:

Sure, if you are climbing in the 5´s and 6´s then a set of nuts and a couple of slings belong in your rucksack to cover all the eventualities. They aren´t "trad" routes and "sport" routes, they are just climbs with more or less fixed gear.

In reply to jimtitt: if you place trad gear whats the difficulty of placement and the strengh like? I've never been so dont know the rock

In reply to wbo:

On the sort of easier routes we're talking about, generally bomber medium to large nut placements or threads.