UKC

Last week we ran a fun video of Pirmin Bertle climbing an 8B 'builder problem' on a bridge at Fribourg, Switzerland.

Following that, a UKC user Holger dropped us a line to show us this interesting video (in German) about Thomas Willenberg and Wulf Schneider buildering in Berlin, Germany.

Holger told us about the following video:

"At 2:42 min you will find a boulder called "FEINDESLIEBE" (EnemyLove) Font 8B+/8C, and in my opinion the hardest builder in the world."

Read more at http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=5141

In reply to UKC Articles: Great to see Willenberg is still climbing, what a monster!

In reply to UKC Articles: watched it all without reading the 2:42min heads up . Wish I'd read that because it is an awful film apart from that clip

In reply to shaggypops:

good to see consistency though.
The filming, the music and the climbing were all pish! ; )

My bit of wisdom: I am from Germany and spend a week climbing at the Elbsandsteingebirge. This is the region where TW did most of his climbing. I am not a strong climber, but met some of the hardcore locals. I followed the discussion about TW´s doubted ascents so I was interested in some facts.
They all knew him and either laughed or were angry about him. According to them,he is a good (but not very good) climber and boulderer with some serious thruth-issues. I was told that there e.g. doesn´t exist any footage on film of him bouldering anything confirmed harder then Fb7c.
The double-dyno he does in a video is supposed to be around Fb7c and apparently quite height dependent.
The whole thing reminds me a bit of the Rich Simpson thing. Sad...

In reply to UKC Articles:

Ignorant, it would seem, to all the politics surrounding this guy: I thought the film was quite enjoyable.

(!)

In reply to danielr:

The 'Rich Simpson' thing? Whats that all about?

In reply to jazzyjackson:

Suddenly I want to stop watching climbing videos and get back to work.

In reply to UKC Articles: That's all very well but (deep breath) What's he ever done on brick?

In reply to mattbirch: I don't have any problem, he's put up hard problems all over the world, and either he has climbed them and got the grades right, or has been very good at guessing!

In reply to danielr: whats your problem? you climb with ,,hardcore,, locals that got to know him? but same time you never talk to him ? sad sad sad
in my opinion this is jealousy, whats your point? to enlighten the world, how bad thomas was/or still is?
posts like that show more about yourself than you want to.......

the poeple that saw thomas said that it was incredible to watch and furthermore he is a nice and intelligent person...
http://4-seasons.tv/film/thomas-willenberg-bouldern-in-sachsen

a climber from germany who nevern met thomas but is man enough to do his own thing.....

In reply to UKC Articles:
Call me an old-fashioned romantic but I'd have to be pretty desperate for somewhere to climb before I'd touch a sh1thole like that. What a dump!

In reply to UKC Articles:

In reply to UKC Articles:

Everything about this film (not least the climbing) is shit.
However, it is quite refreshing, once in a while, so see a climbing film that doesn't make me feel inadequate, unfulfilled and frustrated with work, life and everything.

In reply to UKC Articles:

Let's be honest, us Brits are suspicous of the guy ever since the Brad Pitt sitstart affair (which I take it is no longer disputed).

If you read interviews with him (in German) it becomes clear that he's really not that bothered about fame and reputation. In my view, that makes him more, rather than less credible. The case of John Gaskins springs to mind, who, ironically, was at the receiving end of plenty of German criticism.

But in case you're not convinced, 8a.nu has a page called "Fact or Fiction", where both Markus and John are cleared of all bullshitting. Also google for some pics of Markus and check out a (photo) sequence of him in Fatman. For what it's worth, this is not the body of an impostor.

In reply to gritstoner:
http://www.ukclimbing.com/news/item.php?id=64154

In reply to UKC Articles: I quite liked the video and the place looked quite fun in my opinion.

In reply to Wiley Coyote:

Might be a shit hole, but it still seems a step above the plastic holds on plywood I have to train on.

In reply to danielr: Kannst Du mir bitte Deinen Klarnamen und die Namen der LOCALS, mit denen Du gesprochen haben willst, nennen. Ich gehe seit 21 Jahren in Sachsen klettern und da würde es mich schon sehr interessieren, wer so darauf aus ist, die Leistungen von Thomas mit Dreck zu bewerfen.

An Deiner Stelle hätte ich mich vor dem Verfassen eines derart unseriösen Kommentars mit den medial verfügbaren Fakten zu Thomas Leistungen beschäftigt. Um in England zu bleiben, beginnt alles mit dem FA von "BradPitt sd" und der 1.Wiederholung von "BradPitt" auf der Jason-Meyer-Variante (heute immer noch 8a). Thomas ist damals mit Ron Fawcett unterwegs gewesen, eventuell verstehst Du die Bedeutung dieser Bemerkung. Wenn Dir dieses nicht genug ist, dann schau Dir das Bleau-Profil (bleau.info) von Thomas an. Bei einer Vielzahl der Boulder war ich dabei. Die Bilder von DUNE oder SHIVA stammen von mir. Bei der Wiederholung von Kheops assis war eine große Gruppe von holländischen Kletteren aus der 7+8 - Crew anwesend. THE ISLAND hat Thomas an einem Tag klettern können. Und ich könnte ewig so weiter machen und dabei haben wir den Bereich der Sächsischen Schweiz noch nicht einmal berührt.

Nur weil jemand nicht im Strom der Kapitalisierung des Kletterns und Boulderns mitschwimmt und nicht von jedem Stück Fels irgendwo auf der Welt ein Video oder Photo hochlädt, bedeutet dieses noch lange nicht, dass er diese Leistungen nicht wirklich erbracht hat. Setz' Dich doch einmal dezidiert mit dem Interview von Thomas (hier auf UKC) auseinander, eventuell kannst Du menschlich noch etwas lernen.

Und wenn Du dann noch den Artikel von Klem Loskot über Thomas irgendwo im Netz entdeckst, dann wirst Du eventuell den Anstand besitzen, Dich hier in diesem Forum für Deine Unterstellungen zu entschuldigen ...

Holger May (Berlin (Germany))

In reply to UKC Articles:

Joe Brown is the world's hardest builder, everyone knows that

In reply to gritstoner: I was surprised anybody would reference that site to prove a point especially with the reputation is has. So I was interested to read the article. Not surprisingly the article was a load of tripe, labelling claimed assents "case closed" or "case open" by going off the writers personal opinion.

In reply to UKC Articles: Rubbish... but really like the T-shirts

In reply to Jiduvah:

Should have asked you instead, shouldn't we? I'm sure you could have settled the matter unhindered by your personal opion. Or by video footage and witnesses, for that matter.

In reply to gritstoner: Nope, I have no idea