Frankenjura

So, day two in Munich: my wonderful hosts & I hit zee autobahn north outta Munich.

The trip took about 2 hours going through some lovely scenery, things are starting to green up as spring is trying to spring. The pic below is of Hops fields, the large trellis' are to support the plants that grow 5 meters high and these are the hops that go into all the beers from Munich!

We finally made to the Frankenjura area (Franconian Switzerland) in northern Bavaria. Frankenjura is scenic area of picturesque villages, farmed valleys and wooded, rolling hills. The area has about 6,500 climbing routes! We headed to the closest area to us that was likely to have sun - which is important in March... I don't think the mercury hit 10* all day, however we were warm enough in the sun for most of the time. Konstein is where we ended up...

The large limestone outcrop is the 'Dohlenfels' crag. We started out about 5 minutes walk to the right on some easier stuff to warm up.

A castle/fort ruin in Konstein

Closer up on Dohlenfels - it was quite popular...

We made our way around to the 'Lucky Luke' area which had a nice selection of well bolted easier routes from about 4 to 6+ (UIAA grading)(about 13-20) offering slabs, cracks and even a small roof. The rock on a few routes here was quite polished, which took some getting used to!

As you can see above, it was a lovely setting!

We were joined by Serge & Nadine's friend, Tom.

As the shadows got longer we returned to Dohlenfels - we just had to climb something on this stunning outcrop! Problem was most of it was way to hard for me or too long as the temperature was plummeting, we had to be fast. After much debate, I launched up an old 2 pitch trad line that goes up the middle of the wall. This turned out to be the line of the day! Stellar crack system with a chimney section, an overhang to crank on and a hairy traverse to the belay - brilliant! Turned out to be the hardest climb of my day too, fortunately the pro was good too as parts of it was polished marble. Sadly we didn't have the time to do the second pitch so we rapped off and headed home.

The line goes right above the guy in red.

 Now, what better way to spend a London trip!? ... and what better way to finish a climbing day in Bavaria than at a beer hall! Brost!

Serge & I scheming schemes for the coming euro summer...