Friday, June10
These guys are (left to right) Benjamin, Magnus, and Petko. We all met up early Friday morning to pack and prepare the car for the trip. Petko (an exchange student from Bulgaria) and I met at a climbing wall in town about a month ago, and since have become pretty regular climbing partners. Magnus and Benjamin are Petko's friends from school. They are both from Frankfurt. I just met them 2 days before we left for the trip.
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| Ed |
This is Ed, one of the guys from Climbfind. He's a 6'6'' ex army, 200lb, outdoor-loving, fast talking, heavy accented Englishman from Portsmouth. We picked him up Friday morning from the Munich airport with only the instructions, "look for the guy with the big blue backpack." We had no idea it was that big (see above). Ed managed to cram every bit of outdoor gear that could possibly be necessary for an outdoor trip of this kind. From goggles and fishing pole to trad rack, he came ready to play.
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| It was a short 1.5 hour trip from München to Parsberg |
We stuffed Ed's bag into the car and were off to go grocery shopping. Ed had never been to Germany before, so naturally he was smitten with every skyscraper and shop we passed. Two hours later, we were completely packed and on our way to Frankenjura!
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| Ben Swindlehurst |
Shortly after arriving in Parsberg (see map, Parsberg is just south of Frankenjura) we met up with Ben Swindlehurst - the second guy from Climbfind. Ben is a US Army medic stationed at the base in town. He's 38, been to Afghanistan twice (hoping to get back there within the next year), grew up in Burns, OR, loves to rock climb, and is easily one of the most badass dudes I have ever met in my life. He had countless stories about near misses with IED's and RPG's, and many more about friends of his who were not so lucky. Hearing him talk about his luck, and then express his wishes to return, he reminded me a lot of the main character from Hurt Locker who only seems capable of functioning as a soldier. Ed had been to Afghanistan too, but neither his stories, nor anything we had to say, seemed comparable to Ben's tales. Like never before, my heart goes out to the soldiers in the middle east.
Ben let us all crash on his floor and couch for the duration of our trip.
We must have arrived at Ben's at 5pm, and by 6pm we were all stepping into our harnesses at the nearest crag. Everyone could tell it was going to be a great climbing trip.
Saturday, June 11
It's raining. Climbers hate rain. Normally rain kills climbing trips.
Normally...
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| hot soup for lunch |
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| californian tree-hugger |
Frankenjura is an exception! All the rocks are lower than the canopy of the trees, so everywhere we go we have this amazing natural rain cover over our climbs. We climbed hard today! We must have hit the crag at around 12 and didn't leave til it got dark at 9pm. Such a great day of climbing, I led a 7+ and top roped an 8- (see this conversion chart from UIAA to YDS). To celebrate the day's success, we all went out for steak in Nürnberg.
Sunday, June 12
Another day full of amazing climbing, but this time with a lot of sun and camping mixed in. Today we found this awesome south-facing crag with a cave! Part of the cave is deep enough never to see sunlight, and so made a perfect cooler for our food. Today was a little too warm to climb all day long, so we did some exploring around the top of the rock wall and found a perfect campsite. Ed went fishing today and caught this huge trout, which we roasted over a campfire. We finished off the day with a little bouldering. Everyone is dead tired by the time camp is pitched, but good stories, fine beer, hot spaghetti, fresh trout, and our campfire keep us awake well into the night.
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| Ben traverses the cave |
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| camp |
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| Ed's monster fish |
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| ...and it tastes incredible! |
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| Benjamin pretending to cook with rum... |
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| smoked spaghetti sauce |
Monday, June 13
Today is our last day of climbing before we head back to Munich tomorrow morning. After packing up our camping gear, we head back to Ben's for coffee and showers. Today is a religious holiday (corpus christi?), so grocery stores are all closed, and we are out of food. Ben volunteers to take anyone interested to the store at the army base to stock up on groceries. I volunteer because he says they sell Skippy peanut butter there (my favorite, and incredibly hard to come by in Germany!), and I'm curious to check out this base. Ed and Magnus tag along as well. As it turns out, you can't get on to an army base without your passport even if you are an American citizen. Therefore, instead of touring the base I got to take a nap on the grass outside the entrance gate. Ben, Magnus, and Ed made it in, and were back in 20 mins with Campbell's soup, Skippy, and a plethora of american cookies. I was in heaven. 30 mins later, we're all leaving Ben's apartment heading to the crag.
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| oh, don't forget tick removal! we each had one or two... |
It's clear that our hands are worse for wear, everyone seems to be too tired to accomplish anything great. Petko and I project an 8+ for a good couple of hours before it begins to downpour harder than the forest can protect us from. We willingly accept defeat and head for the local pizzeria. At home, we put on the movie 127 hours, eat pizza, drink beer, and everyone is asleep by the time the movie is over. It has been a great trip. We are exhausted.
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| end of the last day, everybody's pooped... |
Tuesday, June 14
We wake up early, clean Ben's place, and head back to Munich. I napped for the better part of the day. My hands are absolutely killing me, but it's a good kind of pain - the kind that makes you proud to have earned it.
