Cape Town to Madrid

We flew out of CPT international on September 5th after staying the night with the infamous Justin Hawkins. Of all visits with Justin this was the most mellow. We arrived, hung out for a little, went out to a casual dinner at a wonderfully delicious Thai restaurant, and fell asleep watching the paraolympics. Which by the way were amazing if you did not get a chance to watch them. Watching a one-half armed man beat everyone in the 100 meter freestyle was badass.

Unfortunately this trip was not on business class, like our flight to CPT. Since we had to purchase one of the flights, as we did not have enough frequent flyer miles to pay for them all, we flew on Turkish airlines with an 8-hour layover in Istanbul. We had hoped to be able to check out Istanbul during our layover but after our hellish hot and uncomfortable flight, all we could do was sleep on the benches in the halls of the airport. Though Turkish airlines has free tours of Istanbul if you have a long layover, the tours do not start until 9am and end at 3pm. We arrived in Istanbul at 6am and left at 2pm. 😦

Though the temperature on the flight to Madrid was cooler, there were no private monitors for movie watching. They were showing Snow White and the Huntsman, which we both really wanted to see, but we were seated directly below the monitor and could not see the movie at all….ipad to the rescue! We watched a few episodes of Forbrydelsen (The Killing), a show that Colin and Jen turned us onto.

We arrived in Madrid with no problems. We received a new visa upon entry and BOOM, we were admitted for three more months to the EU.  Two minutes after our exit, Erin and Matt arrived and off we went to navigate through the metros of Madrid to their amazing flat.

They live in the western portion of Madrid, between Arguelles, Moncloa and Islas Filipinas (three different metro stops). You can get to anywhere in Madrid pretty easily; it usually takes 10-20 minutes to any part of the city. We laid pretty low during our first few days there, as we were tired from traveling and climbing in SA. We then began to get back into our groove; however, as Erin noticed, my groove is getting slower and slower as I get more and more pregnant. I am not quite as motivated as I usually am. Though my energy level is supposed to be back to normal, carrying the extra weight and sleeping a bit more fitfully is definitely sapping my energy.

After a few days of rest, we began to actually see the sites of Madrid. We got our museum fix on; we visited the Prado twice, the Reina Sofia, the Thyssen for a special Hopper exhibit and the monastery in el Escorial de San Lorenzo.

Outside the monastery in El Escorial

Inside

The caskets for all the deceased Spanish kings

Checking out some surrealism

Of course food is a huge part of Spanish culture, with lunch being the most important meal of the day. Most of the days we cooked, well, most days Matt cooked, but we also went out for some meals. Matt is becoming quite the Spanish cook; his tortilla con patatas is amazing, as well as his preparation of sea bass and liver; we definitely enjoyed the food in Spain. Mid-way through our stay, we were invited to have dinner with Fernando, Erin and Matt’s landlord. Fernando is Claudia’s father, a good friend of Erin’s who I climbed with last time I visited Madrid with Frederique. Fernando is a professor in Barcelona but also has a couple of apartments in Madrid, which he still considers his home. He is also an amazing cook. He made us a chilled soup, similar to Gazpacho but a little tangier, a hake dish with baked egg on top, as well a black sausage with a tasty green sauce (can’t remember the ingredients). For dessert, we had whole cream and peaches. The evening’s conversation revolved around American politics, the election and the media that presents it.

Fernando’s handy work

Our time with Matt and Erin was relaxing and exciting. We did more than eat and visit museums however. Stay tuned!
-Corinne

Time to spray

Epic sunrise at the camp

Rocklands has exploded over the past six years. It went from a relatively unknown far away climbing destination, to a seasonal epicenter for the world’s hardest crushers to come and lay down the bouldering law. The average visitor climbs hard 7s or 8s and for the three months of the high season, climbing becomes the main topic of discussion and the primary activity of every visitor in the small farm town of Clanwilliam.
Obviously this can become obnoxious as not all the climbers eat, breath and sleep the sport. Some of us try to pull down hard but would rather have fun climbing, visit with friends, and braii our brains out. However sometimes, one can’t help getting caught up in the hullabaloo of hard climbing. 🙂

Since we were going to have close to seven weeks here, we decided that it would be best to start out very slow. We began climbing half days. That way we would save our skin and be able to enjoy getting outside and climbing most days. We both knew that rest days were key and that there was no reason to trash ourselves no matter how excited we were.

De Pakhuys campground in the evening

Resting and taking it slow worked out very well for both of us. We both came with some projects in mind. Things from the previous seasons that we had tried and wanted to complete; as well as lines we had not tried, but had inspired us before and wanted to give a shot.

Corinne and Charlie, the resident crag dog at De Pakhuys, on a rest day

We arrived mid season and it was colder than it was last year, which is both a blessing and a curse. This year our down coat and hats became a permanent part of our attire. The actual climbing was far better this year but we missed being able to chill out in the hot sun during the afternoon at the campsite. As the season progressed the temps slowly warmed up during the day and within the last weeks we managed to get a pretty nice tan. 😉

Life in Rocklands is rough

The biggest downer this season has been Steve’s ability to pick up every virus that passed our way. He was sick half the time that we have been here. Something is seriously wrong with his immune system in this country. Before we got to South Africa, he hadn’t been sick once, but here he was sick all of the time, which put a damper on the trip. Eventually he kicked the what we coined the Rocklands Plague and managed to get back into climbing the final weeks.

As has been the theme of our journey so far, the weather went from damp and rainy to warm over the season. When Steve wasn’t sick, chances were it was raining, so the amount of climbing was less than expected in our seven weeks. That said we managed to send many of our projects, climb lines we never intended to do and Steve managed to add a number of first ascents to a few sectors around the northern Cederberg.

Corinne on Bullet Proof at Plateau

Steve knocking out Shosholoza before a hold broke this season…

Corinne sending here long term project Girl on our mind at Plateau, Photo Courtesy of Morgan Boiss

When we first arrived we met up with our good friend and Rocklands legend Scott Noy; the very man who convinced us to come back to ZA for the season during our visit in Freiburg.

Scott crushing Witness the Sickness at the de Pakhuys

Then a few weeks into our visit some of our friends from San Francisco came to Rocklands for the first time. Will Wolcott, Colin Trenter and Jen Szeto arrived in late July and joined our small troop. The psych was high and much sending ensued.

Will Up Top at Roadside

Jen and the 5 crash pad stack. Ready to send.

She used em all on Creaking Heights at Roadside.

Colin in crush mode on The Rhino

Will on Pinotage at the Sassies

After hard days of pulling on the bullet hard orange and gold sandstone we would gather back at the campsite and visit the De Pakhuys bar. Built early last season, the bar has proven itself both a blessing and a curse. It brings together the climbing community during the cold evenings for story and beta swapping. It can also turn your future climbing day into an unintentional rest day…or two.

Bar night – Scott, Val and Thys

Other evening we gather around the campfire and braii and chat; hopefully about anything but climbing. Though some nights we can avoid it and may go out for a night session with headlamps.

Our campsite in the evening

Night session on Koevoet (crowbar)

Another season in Rocklands has come to an end. The destination has gotten a lot of bad press this year because of potentially inflated grades, access complications and over crowding. While these issues hold validity and certainly need attention and discussion, I think some visitors overlook the other aspects that make this place a magical little corner of the world. It remains a special place to hike, explore, meet new friends, visit old ones and take some time to live life at a different pace. I want to give a big thanks to all the wonderful people of Clanwilliam and the hard working folks behind De Pakhuys, Alpha Excelsior, and Traveller’s Rest. Without them life in the northern Cederberg would not be the same.

Cheers
-Steve

A little more video spraying:

First ascent of The Power and the Glory at Big and Roof

First ascent of Crankenstein at 8 Day Rain

Singing, Dancing and Climbing

Near the end of our trip, Thys set up a day of climbing with some of the local kids who attend Elizabethfontaine Primary. The idea was that a group of climbers would go out with the kids, spot them and get them psyched on climbing. There was even a TV crew coming to film some of the kids with the climbers.

Our international group of climbers included Sandra and Yves from Switzerland, Kaddi from Germany, Jen Szeto and myself from the US and Marinus and Rebecca from South Africa. The kids natively spoke Afrikaans but also had a very good grasp of English, so communicating was not a problem.

Future crusher

Most of the kids hadn’t climbed before but there were a couple who had been out a few times before and were quite good. But the kids were not just interested in climbing, they wanted to listen to music, sing and dance as well.

Singing…

…and dancing

We hung out with them for three hours and everyone had a blast. I hope to see some of still climbing the next time I visit South Africa.

-C

The whole gang. Can you find me?

The big news

The permanent residency of the Goose has increased to three. Corinne is 17 weeks pregnant and the baby is healthy.

Based on careful calculations we determined that the future crusher (look at that full crimp!) was conceived on Hvar island in Croatia roughly sometime after this photo was taken:

We are very excited and will keep everyone posted on future developments.

-Steve

Golf Day

Exactly a week after Rockstock, de Pakhuys and other Clanwilliam businesses hosted the second annual golf day. On a beautiful Saturday, about 40 climbers decided to take a rest from the rock and compete against each other on the golf course. Our team, the PorkNeck Putans, were last year’s champs and we were determined to win again. (Corinne was not part of the original team, but she and Shannon replaced Kieran, who was not in attendance this year) Paul Raad, our Lebanese/South African assigned “golfpro” was sure to win again, as he is a top-notch player and with Ricky on our team, there was no way we could lose.

“How do I do this?”

The master and his disciple

Shannon hammering it off the tee

Our pro, Paul Raad

Bakkie bar break

Eventually Corinne got the hang of it

The two top men at work

But lose we did. Though Ricky and Paul both played a beautiful game, there were others who played well AND had better handicaps, thus we came in third. Third wasn’t so bad; we all received free brick oven pizzas from de Pakhuys which all of us enjoyed, excluding Paul, as he doesn’t live close to the camp area and coming to the campsite bar and hanging out with a bunch of climbers isn’t really his cup of tea.

The winning team. Our friend Daniel on the left

The team that actually played the best game thanks to semi golf pro Jackson in the blue

Fortuitously, almost a month after golf day, we also received the first place winner’s prize, free dinner at Muisbosskerm, as the winners never claimed their prize except for Daniel and we refused to let a free all you can eat fish dinner go to waste. Thanks for the hook-up, Thys!

Our day at the fish buffet

Until next time.
C and S

Holy Backblogged Batman!

We departed from South Africa yesterday afternoon and are on our way to Madrid. In six weeks of climbing, exploring, meeting new friends and visiting with old ones we managed only two updates. Obviously a bit more happened during our holiday away from our Euro holiday. We attempted to defend a championship, sent projects, put up new boulder problems, had visitors from SF, forgot what it was like to eat green vegetables, and have some very big news. Stay tuned as we sort out text and photos.

Rockstock

Photo Courtesy of JP Du Plessis

What started out as a simple idea for a campsite party has turned into a yearly tradition here in Rocklands. It is part of the culture, not to be missed and gives all the climbers something to hone there skills on other than the sandstone blocks. As always this year had to be bigger than the last. That meant a larger sound system, more lights and better DJs to follow the climber’s performances.
The brainchild of Justin Hawkins, Rockstock started with humble beginnings in 2006. He wanted an event to bring together all the climbers staying at different locations in the northern Cederberg and celebrate the community, meet new friends, and all have one hell of a time. The idea was to host a kind of lip sync contest. Each team would select a song of their choosing, create a routine, perform to live music and the crowd would select the winner. The first year went off so well with the help of DePakhuys owners Thys Kruger and Mark Botha, that it was decided to repeat the event every year. I missed Rockstock in 2009 and 2010, but I got a chance to perform last year for the first time. Justin, our friend Manu and I did the opening act that was not to be judged against that years contestants. I think we did Justin Beber proud.

This year would be Corinne’s first Rockstock and a chance for us to perform together. We wanted to win, but more than anything we wanted to make the crowd laugh. Making a winning perform for Rockstock means picking a song people know and making the performance as funny as possible. Scott suggested “I’m too sexy” by Right Said Fred and we immediately knew we had a potential winner. We recruited Justin’s girlfriend Lisa for our act and rushed to Clanwilliam to buy costumes and props. We spent the afternoon before Rockstock chorographing our performance and building the costumes.

Meanwhile everyone in the camp who was not out climbing was helping to setup for the event. The weather forecast was for rain, so Thys and Mark had purchased a large tent to house the epic sound system Justin has rangled up. As things started coming together in the late afternoon, the rain struck hard. Leaks in the tarp over the DJ booth had to be fixed and water draining past power lines rerouted.

As evening set in and the few dozen people whom had braved the weather crowded under the lapa for shelter, things started looking grim. I had read on the weather report that the rain was to let up at 8 pm. At about 7:50 I set out from the lapa, snapped this photo:

and stood by a huge bonfire while the rain continued. This prompted a few others to join me. The rain stated to let up as we stood around the fire sipping beers and rotating to dry ourselves out. All of a sudden the rain stopped. I glanced at my watch, the time read 8:03. In the next hour three times as many people and performers showed up and the energy was high. Rockstock was on.

Cody Roth mc’ed the event posing as Nicolas Sarkozy for reasons slightly beyond my comprehension. This year’s climbing contingent is about 50% French, so perhaps that was a motivator. Justin was welcomed to the stage as the Madiba, which drew big laughter and a few gasps. He started the event off and took his position behind the light and smoke machine controls.
The performances started strong with the folks from the Hen House doing a rendition of Thriller. This was followed by a chaotic performance from a mixed group of drunken climbers. It lacked polish, but their intentions were spot on. We were up next and rather than describe our performance I’ll let this video by our friend Jackson do the talking.

More performances followed, climaxing in an original song composed and performed by a group of Swiss. It was created using an iPhone app and highlighted the main characters of Rocklands over the years, drawing applause and laughter from all the veterans of the area. While everyone loved Pimp Dawg Diggalo and his Funky Ass Hoes (our team name) the Rocklands Crew (the Swiss team) took the prize and we agreed they deserved it.

Photo Courtesy of JP Du Plessis

After the awards ceremony the DJs took the stage and the real party began. Everyone danced, chatted and partied the night away until the sun began to rise. It was another epic Rockstock and perhaps the best one yet.
Everyone here comes to South Africa for the climbing, but when they arrive they discover there is so much more happening then simply climbing on rocks. They meet new friends, discover new culture and get to take part in events like this. The rocks bring them here, the people keep them coming back.

-Steve

Cape Town to Rocklands – A 21 hour tour

Since we booked our flight to South Africa so late, the only flights that we could buy with miles were business class. One way economy to SA from Germany is 30,000 miles but biz class is 45,000. After much deliberation, we figured why the hell not. We then would have to pay for one of one way tickets back to Germany, but hell, flying in on biz class was worth it.

We left our van with Kaddi’s parents in Pluderhausen and then trained it to Frankfurt via Stuttgart. The train rides were a bit epic, as we had both our crash pads and one large bag each, not to mention one small backpack each (our carry-ons). It took three different trains to get to the airport and on two of those we couldn’t even sit down; the bags and bouldering pads wouldn’t fit down the aisle.

Much to our chagrin, we arrived at the airport 5 hours before our flight. Not realizing that we could have checked in early, we waited for 3 hours in the airport “lounge” area with our bags. The German airports are very efficient and next time, we now know that you can check in many hours earlier and then hang out in the business class lounge right next to your flight. Stupidly, we waited and then thought that we had to go to the lounge in a completely different terminal, as that was what the airport guide said. So we rushed to the other terminal, so we could eat (the cost of the food in the airport was outrageous, so we were waiting for our free food in the lounge). We went to the lounge, stuffed our faces, each had a drink (Steve had three) and headed for our flight. It took us almost 20 minutes to get from the lounge to our flight and then upon our arrival we realized that there was even a nicer lounge right next to the gate. Why the hell doesn’t the airport guide/map say that?! Well, we ended up getting more food and more drinks and then getting on our flight, which was one of the most comfortable flights we have ever taken. We had full on beds next to each other. Steve slept the entire flight. He never sleeps on planes. I am sure that the fact he was allowed to have endless Scotches prior to the flight may have helped but the fact that he was able to stretch out made the flight much more bearable for him. I am not looking forward to his attitude when we have to take Turkish airlines back in economy…

We arrived in Cape Town at around 12noon; the infamous Justin Hawkins picked us up right on time. Justin lives in Cape Town, so after heading to the shop to pick up some items like coffee, etc, we headed off to his home. We were then greeted by Lisa and Tristan. Lisa is Justin’s new lady friend that he met on the set of his last job (Justin is a cameraman). They were working on the set of Strikeback in Jo’berg; a new HBO series being filmed here in SA. Tristan is Lisa’s precocious 5 year old son. Lisa was frantically packing when we arrived, as we were all heading to Rocklands. They were going for ten days but we were about to start our seven week stint in bouldering heaven. Lisa is not a climber and though Justin used to be a climber, he now heads to Rocklands to party and get away from the hum drum life in the city; Rocklands is his escape from reality. The five of us were going up to the Cedarberg range in Justin’s VW Golf and since we needed to bring tons of crap for camping and Rockstock (stay tuned), we also had a trailer that we attached to the Golf. After an hour or so of packing, we all piled in and headed off.

Ready to Go!!!

When Justin had first picked us up at the airport, he apologized for the condition of his car, well, not the condition really, but he warned us about the bumpy ride; it seems that the rear shocks were not really working anymore. At his point, we should have realized that dragging a trailer was probably a pretty bad idea. About an hour and a half into the ride, the rear driver side wheel started making some noise. Steve jumped out of the car and ran along side to see if there seemed to be anything wrong. He saw nothing but we decided to do some shifting with the weight and moved Steve to the front, and Lisa and Tristan to the back. We figured maybe less weight might just do the trick. Ten minutes passed without further noise but then a couple of us smelled burning. Justin quickly reassured us, all was fine and kept pushing on. Two minutes later a white car pulls up aside us, frantically beeping his horn and pointing down, we all look over and in the reflection of the car, we see fire. It seems that our rear wheel was shooting out flames. Justin immediately pulled over and yelled for water, we poured water on it and put the fire out but the disk brake proceeded to glow bright orange for a few seconds more.  We all got back into the car to catch our breath. Tristan was still sleeping, on top of the wheel that had just been on fire…

We figured out exactly where we were, 24 km south of  Picketberg, and Justin then proceeded to call tow trucks. He got in touch with one that was about 40km north of Picketberg and then we waited. Through all this, everyone still remained in good spirits; it was a situation that we all just accepted and dealt with. No stress, no whining (well, maybe a little bit about the cold, as our down jackets were packed away in the trailer), and laughter; it was all a bit ridiculous and an almost expected experience when you are with Justin Hawkins. While we waited for the tow truck, Justin posted our situation on Facebook, hoping that someone would take pity on us from de Pakhuys (the campground in Rocklands where we were all headed) and come and pick us up. Yet, it wasn’t just us they would need to pick up but the trailer as well, so we needed someone who had room and a trailer hitch. Though there were endless comments about our situation, nobody could come and save us, so it looked like we needed to figure out another way. The tow truck arrived after an hour and fifteen minutes. He put the car on the flatbed and hooked the trailer onto the back.

FAIL.

We were all able to smush into the cab of the tow truck and off we went to Picketberg, the closest town where we might be able to get the car fixed. Once we reached Picketberg, we headed into the Tourist center/Spur/Truck stop. The tow truck driver wanted to make sure that he dropped us off in a safe area, as the plan was to sleep there, for we arrived in Picketberg at 9pm and there didn’t seem to be any other apparent options. Justin, Lisa and Tristan were to sleep in the car and Steve and I were going to sleep in our tent next to the car, on the only grassy area to be found. Steve and I had bought one of the 2 second Quechua tents from Decathlon in Germany but we only purchased a one person tent, as it was to be our gear tent.

Luckily, we were parked right next to a restaurant, namely, the Spur, so the next step was dinner. We sat in a table close to a window so that we could keep our eyes on the trailer and the car. The Spur is a large chain here in South Africa that serves basic fare, burgers, toasties (grilled sandwiches), taquitos etc. The food is decent enough for a chain but I guess the adverts are amazing; no race is left untouched. They don’t seem to care who they piss off and sometimes, their adverts have been banned from national TV.

After dinner, we decided it was time to set up camp, at least for Steve and I…
We fished out the tent, sleeping bags and bouldering pads along with our down coats and proceeded to set up our tent on the only spot of grass. Luckily for us, that night was one of the coldest nights on the western cape, so no hanging out, we just crawled into the tent and attempted to sleep. Since our tent was a one person gear tent, it was pretty small, when Steve was fully stretched out, the opening of the tent hit his chest, so when I say we crawled into the tent, we literally did, one at a time and proceeded to sleep in spooned fetal position, as that was the only way that we were going to fit in. Once asleep, the night wasn’t so bad, we were warm enough and pretty comfortable on the pads.   Throughout the night, people passed by, made noises, yelled, screamed obscenities etc, but overall the night went well, except for the necessity to pee in the middle of the night,as getting in and out of the tent was an epic struggle.

We woke up early the next morning and headed to a small breakfast cafe also located at the truck stop. Justin then went out on a search for a mechanic; he figured that the best way to find one was to ask the locals around the stop. Ten minutes later, he was driving the car over to a local mechanic two minutes up the road. 40 minutes later, Justin was back and ready to hitch up the trailer and get on the road. According to Justin, the mechanic put the car up, grabbed pieces off another old car and switched out the disk brake and something else and said we were good to go. It cost 650 rand for the fix ( about $80), whereas it cost 1000 rand for the tow (about $130). Off we went and arrived two hours later at de Pakhuys campground in Rocklands no worse for the wear but 17 hours later than first expected along with an amazing story…

-C

Döner Macht Schöner

Germany is known for it’s beer. Bavaria is know for the high concentration of breweries in it’s region. Nürnberg is know for the highest concentration of breweries in all of Germany. Germany is know for it’s high concentration of limestone crags. Frankenjura is known for the highest concentration of hard limestone crags in all of Germany. Nürnberg is 40km from Frankenjura. Sounds good, no?

We were to arrive in Nürnberg the evening of the Germany and Italy match in the Euro Cup. Unknown to us, Moritz and Julia were planning to go watch the match at a public venue. Due to poor planning and construction on the autobahn, we arrived later than expected. Moritz greeted us outside when we arrived in “Little Istanbul” or as what he called the southern ghetto of Nürnberg. Yet, as far as ghettos go, the area was more like the outer sunset in SF than Hunter’s point. Due to the amount of Turks in the “ghetto”, this area could also be considered “the home of the Döner”, the German version of a burrito, insofar that it costs €3 and is a cheap meal that is quite suitable after a hard day of climbing.

Steve met Julia and Moritz in Rocklands last year. Moritz is almost as tall as Steve and they are both obsessed with climbing hard and training hard; they are like two peas in a pod. They climb at about the same level and are able to use similar beta; Steve truly enjoys climbing with Moritz.

We arrived in Nürnberg on a Thursday, as we planned for a full week in the city; we wanted to have a German garage check the Goose. We figured that if anyone would know how to fix the van, it would be a German, being that Goose was born in Germany.  We were still having our coolant issue and we just can’t figure out how to fix it ourselves. Steve has been religiously reading forums to help him problem solve but it seems like the more he reads, the further down the rabbit hole he goes. We ended up bringing it to a garage, called N&M, on Monday, explained the problem (well, not all of it but most of it) and they found that part of the radiator was clogged and that the temp sensor for the water temp was old and needed to be replaced. When we picked it up on Tuesday, Goose was definitely acting better but still after a 45 minute drive on the autobahn, the minute we slowed down, Goose’s temps were rising again. Not to the level where he is about to overheat, like before, but definitely reading temps above normal, but since it wasn’t heading toward the super high temps, we thought maybe, just maybe, they had fixed our issues. That was until Saturday when we headed out to Frankenjura with Julia and Moritz and began to overheat. Once more Goose was acting up and all we could do was unscrew the cap on the expansion tank to release the pressure that was preventing the coolant from flowing. The coolant is getting stuck in the overflow and then cannot push back through to the expansion tank because of the pressure inside the tank. We have no idea why the pressure is building up in the first place. So,a week after our first visit to N&M, we went back and thoroughly explained our issues. The mechanic listened to us but decided that he had absolutely no idea what was wrong. He claimed that it shouldn’t make a difference whether the engine was idling or being pushed at 80kph, it would overheat either way, but when he ran the engine all day, it resulted in no overheating and perfect coolant distribution. He kept it for another day, but found nothing wrong. Thankfully, he didn’t charge us for his efforts. Once again, we were frustrated and annoyed, as we knew that our coolant problem was going to be a continuing thorn in our side.

We were psyched to head to Nürnberg to visit with Julia and Moritz but we were also psyched to hit Frankenjura, another climbing destination known for it’s short, steep but often run out routes. Unfortunately, between our car and the relentless rain during our ten day visit, we spent more days in Nürnberg at the apartment than out on the rock.

We arrived on a Thursday, spent Friday in town sorting ourselves out and headed out to Frankenjura Saturday morning. We received a message that Kaddi, her brother Christian, and some friends were going to be climbing as well, so we headed out early to meet them at Kalte Wald. Though the weather was pretty warm, this area stayed pretty cool and had a nice array of routes from 6a to 7b. There were a couple of really fun 6a’s and a great 7a called Stracciatella (sp?) that I enjoyed, while Steve, Moritz and Kaddi worked on a couple of 7b’s that seemed to serve them well.  It was a great day and we were excited to see what else Frankenjura had to offer.

After a full day of climbing, we went to do what everyone in Bavaria does at the end of the day in the summer and headed down the road to the Biergarten. The beer in Bavaria is varied and plentiful and ALWAYS tastes good, except maybe the smoked beer, which Steve says tastes a bit like drinking bacon. Not only are there varieties in beer but there are also varieties in non-alcoholic beer; they even have several types of alcohol frei hefeweisen and they were all fabulous. Thank you Bavaria!

After the biergarten, we all were pretty hungry. Moritz knew of an awesome restaurant next to a pig farm but unfortunately, they were having a private event, so we headed to another place in the sweet little town of Pottenstein, right in the center of the Frankenjura region. Noone had been there before but it turned out to be one of our best meals yet. Steve and five others ordered the schäufele, while I ordered another smaller pork dish, as I had had the schäufele two evenings prior and I couldn’t finish it the first time.

We were told that the schäufele was one of the best folks had ever eaten; it was pretty fantastic, the rind was perfectly crisped and meat just fell off the bone. We all rolled out of the restaurant after our huge, hearty meal and went looking for a place to camp for the night.

Though Moritz and Julia headed back to the city, the rest of us camped out in one of the very few bouldering areas in Frankenjura.  At around 10pm, it started to rain. We all sought refuge in our respective shelters, Kaddi and Christian and Wupi (Christian’s dog, who is a mix between ewok and a wookie) sleeping under a cave with a couple of hard as nails  boulder problems. The rain continued throughout the night, along with a lightning and thunderstorm. It rained all throughout the morning as well. Despite the rain, Moritz and Julia STILL drove out to meet us, as promised. After several hours of relentless rain, Kaddi and friends decided to head home, as they had a long drive back to Freiburg and Basel, Switzerland. While Moritz and Julia gave Steve and I a quick tour of some other nice climbing spots on the way back to Nürnberg.

We dropped the car off on Monday at N&M. Julia has off on Mondays and being the amazing host that she is, took us around the sites of Nürnberg. Nürnberg is a cool little town; it has a central area which is only for pedestrians and maybe bicycles, like so many other cities in Europe; why aren’t there more of these in the U.S.? I can only think of Boulder and Burlington off the top of my head. It is so nice being able to walk around, stop at a cafe, go shopping and never have to worry about cars, lights, etc.

For the rest of our stay in Nürnberg, it either rained or was hot and sticky. Limestone sucks when it is wet and does not dry too quickly in heat and humidity. Though we did have three more days of climbing in Frankenjura, we still have yet to truly experience all that place has to offer. Since we need to go and pick up our van in Germany in September and were promised that Jasper Bote would be there if we returned, we are planning on spending another week or two in Nürnberg to give Frankenjura another chance. Though Moritz and Julia will be in South Korea during our second visit, we will have a new base with Melissa and Jasper on the northern end of the city. But don’t worry, there are Döner shops there as well…

Just want to give a shoutout to our amazing hosts, Moritz and Julia. You guys were so amazingly hospitable and we hope that we didn’t cause too much strife in your life. When we think back to our stay,  we will warmly remember Döner macht schöner, your amazing training gym, great food, great beer (including alcohol frei), Crankenstein and your incredible hospitality. Thanks again you two and we can’t wait to climb with you again soon!
-C&S

PS – more posts soon hopefully. 🙂

Random ramblings #3

I hate the rain…

I do not like the weather here…Europe, I mean. We arrived in Europe in April, so rain seemed pretty normal. The old saying goes April showers brings May flowers which is all fine and well but hell, we have had so much friggin rain on our trip…in Font, it rained every single day, sometimes only a little shower and the rock dried later on or sometimes, a shower late in the day after a morning sess but nonetheless, rain every single day.

In Freiburg, it rained too…yes, we got to enjoy two days of climbing but it rained two or three of our five days there.

In Trieste, it also rained almost every day. Again, sometimes in the morning and then dried out or later in the day after some climbing, but still rain.

By the time we reached Hvar, the rain had already passed (the silver lining of our registration debauchle – it rained for five days straight when we were originally supposed to be there). I believe we only got one or two days of afternoon rain. Of course, one of them was the day that Steve had his eyes set on finishing an 8a+ at Vela Stiniva but nature won out and denied him his send.

Italy, more rain…a LOT of rain in Zandobbio, which is why most of our days were filled with admin and spending time with Laura and Guilia (which we were thrilled to do).

No rain in Finale, just hot and sticky, which is almost as bad but at least, we were still able to do morning sessions on the rock…

Magic Wood…a lot of rain…luckily, there were still enough days to get in some bouldering.

And now, rain in Nuremberg…which is why I am writing right now and not climbing…

Let me explain. I actually love rain and truly enjoy spending days indoors when it’s raining but we are traveling in a van AND we are climbers, we want to climb rocks, but can only do so effectively when the rock is dry.
Right now, we are lucky enough to be staying with friends in Nuremberg, Germany and are able to enjoy the comforts of a home while it pours incessantly outside but our plans, as of last night, was to go climbing today in Frankenjura, at an easier crag where I could climb some 10’s and get in some mileage…but alas, no climbing today, rain.