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Frankenjura Climbing partners/Climbing topo request

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 minty1984 26 Apr 2016
Hi All

I am going to be in the frankenjura area of Germany for about a week from this Sunday. I am looking to get some information and/or someone to climb with if anyone is in the area?

If anyone has any info they would be willing to share via email then that would be great. I did buy a guide to the area but obviously it was in German and was to difficult to figure out!

Ideal crags would be something slabby or vertical but not over hanging with plenty of routes from 4 to 6a+ range.

Any info/pictures/access/topos or crag suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks

(I am also in Hinterhersdorf for a week which is in the saxon Switzerland national park. Bold trad climbing on knotted rope protection I believe is the way round here!..... If anybody has any suggestions for that too)
cb294 26 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

Have a look at Frankenjura.com/klettern , loads of crag info and topos there. There are so many crags, it really depends on where you are based.
That said, I recommend the Trubach valley and surroundings, which is where I started climbing. Lots of climbs in your range e.g. at Haselstaudener Wände. Also, the other crags such as Zehnerstein are in easy cycling distance , and of course there are plenty of excellent breweries!

As for Saxony, Hinterhermsdorf is at the faaar end of the National Park, most of the well known climbing areas are closer to the Elbe. I usually go that far up the Kirnitzsch valley only for hiking (which is great!). At your grades, I can definitely recommend Schusterweg on Falkenstein, five pitches with everything from friction slabs to tunnel crawls, corners and short off width cracks, all reasonably easy and protectable with threads or slings across spikes, so no need to rely on jamming knots. Next to Falkenstein there are loads of good and protectable routes in the range you are looking for close to Schrammtor, e.g on Zackenkrone (4 on the south side and an exciting 6 on the north face). Perrykante and the bolt protected central route on the Tante one tier further up (the access starts close to the Schrammsteinaussicht viewing platform) are also fantastic, especially because of the amazing scenery.

If you have a car, a day trip to Bielatal will be well worth it, Kleine Herkulessäule is simply spectacular (the normal route can again be protected with threads, no knot jams required), as are the neighbouring towers such as Schraubenkopf (easy but dangerous) and Chinesischer Turm. My favourite is the Nymphenbad area with Falkenwand a bit further up the valley. The Alte Talweg and Juniweg routes are among the best I have climbed there. On the opposite side of the valley, Titan has some beautiful 40 m cracks.

if you are afraid of crumbly sandstone, Tica just on the Czech side has some ultra hard, large grained gritstone that on some routes feels almost like granite. Protection is also better than on the German side, and you can easily set up topropes as climbing is not limited to free standing pillars as in Saxony.

Stay away from Bastei, it is the local tourist trap and the rock in that area is largely crap. Also, do not climb when wet, in most areas the rock will turn to crumbly weetabix.

Drop me an email if you need more info, I currently live in Dresden.

CB
OP minty1984 26 Apr 2016
In reply to cb294:

Hi. Thanks for a great reaponse. I have sent you an email
 jimtitt 27 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

I did buy a guide to the area but obviously it was in German and was to difficult to figure out!

There are two guides in both German and English, the Röker (Gebro Verlag) is the better one.

> Ideal crags would be something slabby or vertical but not over hanging with plenty of routes from 4 to 6a+ range.

Best of luck with that one!



 Kemics 27 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

In my short experience there is no "mega crag" in the frankenjura, all the crags are relatively average...it's the overwhelming number and density of them that makes the area special. I also found it pretty stiffly graded.

Which area are you staying in? And do you have transport. I can send you a couple of local topos but depends where you are, it's a big place!

Saxon Switzerland is amazing. It's the most fun climbing destination I've been to. Drinking wheat beer and climbing with no shoes on. It's wild. I was lucky to have some locals show me around, i think you'd really struggle without a bit of local knowledge? But I'm sure it's possible to find people ahh it was incredible
 winhill 27 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

Must depend a lot where you are heading but if you head to Betzenstein there's a good gear shop and outside of the village at Betzensteiner Sportkletterwnd there are some lowish routes, we saw families there often.

Nearer (but not far) to the Trubach valley there is a place called Tuchersfeld, there's a few crags there called Intensivstation, next to an outdoors place and they've developed some easier stuff (UIAA 3+ is the lowest!).

Both of those are in Franken 1/2 plus by the Roker brothers but although it says english, only the intro is in english, the directions are in German (the bastards). But Intensiv is only about a 1 minute walk.

If you can't get the guide here the shop in Betzenstein would have it and Pottenstein near Tuchersfeld, depending on the Euro it's cheaper to get stuff there.
 jimtitt 27 Apr 2016
In reply to winhill:

How curious, in my copies each crag has the instructions in English under "Getting There" directly beside the German instructions.
 winhill 27 Apr 2016
In reply to jimtitt:

> How curious, in my copies

Copies plural? You have multiple copies of the same book?

Franken 1/2 plus is the third guide, published last year as an update. Zugang only.

Franken 1 and Franken 2 have Getting There.

 TheGeneralist 27 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

As whatsit said, you'll struggle to find quality 4-6a+ in the Fraenkische, especially slabs.

Having said which, it's better than it used to be. If you do find a crag that looks like it has lots of easier routes, try to guage the number of bolts on the topo. Most of the old 4s and 5s have only one or two bolts in the whole pitch. Many of the newer crags have been better equipped, but the old bolting sucks.

Bernard, who used to write the old guides, had some delusions about how sparsely bolting routes somehow gives them a similiar aura to stuff like Master's Edge. Not that this affected the easy routes, I just think they couldn't be arsed. Used to be very annoying.

Anyway, hope you find a good crag.
 jimtitt 27 Apr 2016
In reply to winhill:

I have all the editions of the Röker guide, in fact all the guides they have ever produced. I climb with Hary Röker sometimes, he lives 150km from me and he´s my German distributor.
The Franken + guide is only an update for crags with major changes or new ones, certainly not a guide to the Frankenjura. English translations of the access notes to new crags are available on the Gebro Verlag website.
OP minty1984 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

Thanks all for the responses. Still have not decided where I am staying yet. Going to look into that today. I have found the Guide book online so I am going to see if I can get it ordered and delivered to a campsite??....

Thanks for the tips about poorly bolted routes! I will double check before starting any climbing. I do have a 5m clipstick so maybe that will come in handy!
cb294 28 Apr 2016
In reply to TheGeneralist:

As per my original recommendation, Haselstaudener Wände in the Trubachtal has at least 20 routes in that range (out of 30 or so in total), and many more can be found at Grosser Mönch and other crags in easy walking distance, not even considering the dozens of crags in cycling distance. Of course you can also go to Grüne Hölle or Eldorado just around the corner if you prefer steeply overhanging mono pulling starting at around UIAA 9.

Other good beginner´s crags are the Graischer Bleisteine or the Leupoldsteiner Wand not far away.

The myth that you can´t find easy stuff in Franken is just that, a myth. I used to climb there a lot when my kids were smaller, and none of them could do anyting harder than about UIAA 6.

Also, you can typicially place nuts or thread holes on the easier routes, nothing stops you from carrying a small selection of trad gear. Most routes are single pitch, so you can see from the ground what might be worth taking.

CB

 John Ww 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

If you need another recommendation, have a look at Zur Guten Einkehr in Morschreuth for food/accommodation/meeting other climbers, also just down the hill is Rotelfels, which probably has the biggest and best selection of well bolted routes which are doable by normal mortals.

Hth, JW
OP minty1984 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

So I think we are going to stay in betzenstein as we have found a good campsite there for a good price. Also there is a shop which has good stock of the Franken 2 book which has both German and English in it

I will check through the book and suss out all of the suggestions and hopefully get to climb a few of them as we are in the area for a week or so.

Thanks again for your all comments and suggestions. It is so helpful and really appreciated.

Me and my girlfriend are touring Europe in our campervan until December so I will be asking for help/climbing partners on here a lot over the coming months!......
 AlanLittle 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

The campsite by the main road in Betzenstein is a bit busy & load. There's a nicer one a couple of kms away in the village of Stierberg.

Otoh the Betzenstein one is just across the road from an open air pool, for rest days or if it's too hot to climb
OP minty1984 28 Apr 2016
In reply to AlanLittle:

Thanks Alan. I will check this out. I don't think busy or hot should be a problem this time of year should it?
 AlanLittle 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:
Thursday is a public holiday in Bavaria and the weather forecast is good. It'll be busy.
Post edited at 20:01
 TheGeneralist 28 Apr 2016
In reply to cb24:


> The myth that you can´t find easy stuff in Franken is just that, a myth. I used to climb there a lot when my kids were smaller, and none of them could do anyting harder than about UIAA 6.

Were they leading these routes?
 jimtitt 28 Apr 2016
In reply to minty1984:

> Thanks Alan. I will check this out. I don't think busy or hot should be a problem this time of year should it?

Probably not, the snow had melted off my roof by 9 on Tuesday and it´s -3 outside right now here in wonderful Bavaria. Should be better next week though

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