Frankenjura

0 CommentsFriday • July 1, 2011 • by jim

The past month or so there’s been a trip to the Frankenjura on the horizon! Happily this has coincided with crappy weather, so bolt clipping on the Orme and endurance training on the boards hasn’t been too difficult to get into.

The Frankenjura is one of those places where anyone that’s into sport climbing and pushing their grade has heard of, but very few people have been! It’s a climbing area steeped in history; Kurt Albert started the redpoint there, Wolfgang Gullich invented the campus board to train for specific routes there, and Jerry Moffatt rode his motorbike and got his knee down there (and did some climbing too!).

Although its reputation is for steep, powerful, pocket pulling, there’s a massive selection of lengths and angles, and while pockets are the order of the day, there’s plenty of crimping to be had too.

I’d never been before but ever since hearing about Action Directe, the world’s first 9a, I’d always wanted to go. DMM were holding an event there at the Eichler Campsite so it seemed like a good opportunity to tag along.  I felt like I’d been in full redpoint-battle mode down at LPT too, so a week of carefree on-sighting was pretty appealing!

After a full 24 hour drive in a cramped van we finally ended up at the campsite, where we were greeted by the legendary Marta (owner of the campsite), closely followed by coffee, and more importantly, the (in)famous Frankenjura cakes!!  Refuelled and psyched to be out of the van, we went for a look at one of the nearby crags; the not very German sounding Eldorado-home to the classic Jerry Moffat routes Ekle and Stonelove. Super-psyched by the look of the routes we were desperate to climb but the onset of darkness sent us back to the campsite.

The following morning we set up the DMM stand, then, at last, it was finally time to climb. The following 5 days took us to too many crags to name, mostly because I can’t remember, ( separated by copious amounts of coffee and cake consumed in the vain attempt to get rid of the perma-pump I had seemed to develop in my forearms), and I can honestly say all of them were stunning, each with its own character, and all with multiple classic pitches.

What did suprise me was the amount of trad climbing going on! Lots of people were keen to come and test out the DMM gear; wires & cams as well as the quickdraws. Then out at the crags there were plenty of teams fiddling in gear in the crack climbs and, not too dissimilar from many of the Orme routes, placing gear where there is natural pro, between more blank sections protected by bolts! New trad lines are still being put up too; local Frankenjura climber Heiko Queitsch put up a bold new UIAA 9 (about 7c) while we were out there. He has also been spearheading the “Greenpoint”  trend, climbing existing sport routes on trad gear only, ticking classic routes such as Fight Gravity (pictured above) and the John Bachar route Chasin’ the Train…both would be well into the E grades, with Chasin’ featuring some tenuous moves with 7c climbing (it felt like a long enough fall on the bolts)!!

All in all, the Frankenjura is amazing. The local climbing scene was super friendly, the cake (see the developing theme) was fantastic, and the climbing was stunning. A great week made all the better by great company in a beautiful location…I couldn’t recommend the Frankenjura enough!!

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