Germany Planning

[ehowell]

Mark, this one is especially for you, as I know you've been.

My wife and I are looking at taking a trip to Germany next year, and being the long-term planner I am, I'm trying to work out a good schedule. My wife doesn't climb, so when we went to France, I positioned the trip such that my first week would be on the very tail end of my performance phase (to climb at Ceuse), and the second half would be for non-climbing activities, such as copious amounts of bread, cheese, wine, etc. That worked well, but because I extended my performance phase to accommodate the trip, I was far from prime shape for Ceuse.

It seems the Frankenjura is more like Wild Iris -- short and powerful. I'm thinking that I could go to Germany immediately after my power phase in June, get endurance on the rock (never a real weakness for me), and then have a short mini rest (travel + bier) before coming back to the US to complete my summer season, which is never a "big goal" kind of season anyway.

Questions:

Is June getting too hot (and/or expensive) for this area? My friend and potential travel partner likes this time as it coincides with his summer break from teaching.

Is my plan to show up after a power phase a decent one? I don't want to be doing power pocket-pulling late in a performance phase if I can avoid it.

If my friend doesn't join us, is it easy to find partners? My wife will belay in only the most desperate of times, which means almost never.

Thanks!

[MarkAnderson]

Great idea! Can I come? I had an awesome time there, very worth a trip and I'm surprised it doesn't get more attention. It seems to be forgotten by US climbers for some reason (stiff grades).

There is a wide variety of climbing styles in the Frankenjura (including "like Wild Iris"). I did many really awesome routes that were 30-40m long, vert to gently overhanging enduro lines. Definitely steep and powerful is the predominant style in the harder grades, but there are over 10,000 routes, so you could easily do a two week trip without climbing anything of that style. I couldn't really say if one style is any "better"--the stuff that's historically "classic" tends to be more short and powerful, while the stuff that gets the most stars in the guidebook tends to be long and pumpy. I guess I had the most fun on the longer/pumpier lines. I was most surprised by how many super fun/good routes there were in the 5.10 and below range. That would be an awesome place to take a beginner.

Anyway, you'll definitely want to train pockets regardless. The rock is generally super featured, way more so than Lander Dolomite, but depending on the crag you could have anything from a steep swell littered in jugs, to a sheer slab with micro edges and shallow dishes.

Your June plan would certainly work. I did the exact same thing you're describing in terms of my training (except I climbed the entire trip). I don't feel like a lack of endurance held me back at all, so that's probably a good approach regardless of what types of climbs you decide to try. I think its wise to do pockety/tweaky climbing as soon after hangboarding as possible (or make a point to maintain your pocket strength well during your power phase).

Not sure about the weather or cost, I was there in late Sept/early Oct. That was ok, but it was on the warm side, and definitely more humid than I would like (that's probably a year-round thing; the environment is very much like the KY/WV area). In general I would say its about average for Europe in terms of cost.

We rarely saw other climbers on our trip. I think this is partly because we were climbing on weekdays a lot, and going to old-school crags that are now out of favor. I also think its just not a very popular travel destination compared to Spain or Greece. When we saw climbers, they were almost always locals. That said, there is a crag called Barenschlucht that has a huge campground, and I would think you could bum a partner there pretty easily. We saw a few climbers camping there. There are a number of good crags (especially Puttlacher Wand) within walking distance of the campground, so you would have a few options from that point. Weissenstein is another popular crag where you'd have a good chance of finding a partner (it would be no problem on a weekend).

There are also a ton of great gyms in Germany, so it would be theoretically possible to get a training session or two during your travel + bier week if you wanted to.

Let me know if I missed anything.

[ehowell]

Thanks Mark! That's what I wanted to hear. I'm also surprised by the lack of attention, but there's lots of world class rock in Europe! The partner situation is maybe a little concerning, so hopefully my friend will decide to join us.

I think you said Dresden was worth a visit. Did you do any other non-climbing activities worth repeating?

If we fire on this I'm sure I'll have more questions via email. Thanks again.

[MarkAnderson]

I enjoyed all the sightseeing we did. I really enjoy that sort of thing though. You can ready about all the things we did on my blog (just scroll past all the tedious climbing talk, haha). In retrospect some of my favorites were:

Rothenberg

Berchtesgaden

Dresden/Elbsandstein/Festung Konigstein

[andreas]

Jan 25, 2017 7:09:58 GMT -7 ehowell said:

Thanks Mark! That's what I wanted to hear. I'm also surprised by the lack of attention, but there's lots of world class rock in Europe! The partner situation is maybe a little concerning, so hopefully my friend will decide to join us.

I think you said Dresden was worth a visit. Did you do any other non-climbing activities worth repeating?

If we fire on this I'm sure I'll have more questions via email. Thanks again.

In case you are still looking for information - be it where to climb, what to do, how to train - let me know.

I grew up and lived in Munich for 30 years and know all the southern areas (Frankenjura and Alps and austria, italy etc very well.

[ehowell]

Thanks Andreas, I certainly will. We're still about a year out from this trip, but I'll hit you up soon!