SUMC Easter Trip to Frankenjura

by Matt Everett

This year, the club made the awkward choice of veering away from sunny climates and common locations and heading towards the mysterious realm of the unknown cragging spot known as Frankenjura in Germany.

The trip started well with the various cars leaving as according to plan. By all, I mean ours. Matt Jaffa missed his ferry and had to get the next, while Eds car (last minute replacement for Wade’s) also missed several ferries and arrived in France at some ungodly hour. In the morning, my car left the formule 1 leaving Matt J’s car to get a lie-in and Ed and Wade to sleep. Meanwhile Hugo left Britain at this point to embark on his usual exceedingly long detour trip…

My car was the first to arrive at what we would call home for the next 5 days. Half a barn in a lovely German farm-village sort of thing, surrounded with forest land. Short drives away were a plethora of limestone cliffs with every style possible to suit anyone. The classic Frankenjura terrain - steep walls with powerful pockets - were visible everywhere… Covered in green slime and rain water. Yes, it was a washout.

The others arrived in dribs and drabs and the barnhouse began to fill up. An early night was had as we were eager to get out and see what we could find the next morning.

Well, rainy weather was the first thing we found. We headed to Eibenwande near Gossweinstein to ease us in gently with easier climbing. Looking beyond the wet rock, the climbing was out of this world. Strange formations in the rock creating semi porous looking outcrops that gave the area a very medieval feeling. The routes varied between long and short, steep or slabby, with or without features - all in one crag! Matt J and Betty chose a pretty serious undertaking which required some gear and, despite the rain, made a good effort to the top. So good infact, one of his nuts wouldn’t come out… Wade and Ed found a horrible slimy slabby offwidth which needed gear - luckily for Alex he placed a good offset nut which took his weight when he took a lead fall onto it, his head narrowly missing a ledge. Max and Florian headed up a nice slab which despite the wet was still fun. I chose a different approach and found a route that was dry. Althought it was too hard, I dogged my way up spectacularly - a theme prominent throughout the trip!
Half the group split off and headed to another crag of easier routes to try their luck there (with success). The rest of us sat under a rock and ate lunch, reminiscing of drier times. After a while we bailed and had coffee and food in Behringersmuhle before retiring for the night.

If day two was an illness, it would have been a personality disorder of some kind. The day started dry and lovely (but a bit cold). We headed to Lindenstein which was a bit further afield from our barn. After some ad-lib directions and communications with the natives (thanks Florian) we parked up and walked in. This crag had a different feel to it. Although Eibenwande was pretty quiet, Lindenstein felt quieter and more remote. Almost like a crag that had been abandoned for years and forgotten (it hadn’t, it was well equipped). A great crag again filled with every variation imaginable. I had my first encounter with my Frankenjura expectations of a pocket pulling adventure here too. Frankenlander Weg (VI) was a great piece of rock, gently overhanging and filled with pockets till the end. Other notable climbs were everyones ascent of Hexi (IV) and Muzi (III) at the far right of the crag, along with Ostkante (IV) - a wandering route up a ridgeline.

It was almost too good to be true, until the branches started swaying more and more violently and the snow, sleet and hail began to fall. We quickly took shelter under roofs and caves and waited for it to pass. A short while after, sunshine! The cycle between clear weather and hell continued for a couple of cycles before the group again split up. Max and Florian had found a little gem hidden near Ostkante called Lindenstasse (VI). A tall wall broken up with a large ledge at 1/3 height. After this, a fairly blank looking wall allowed easier than normal route reading with big throws and moves between holds. Very enjoyable climbing, which a few of us had a play on before leaving the crag.

Day three brought more April showers to the day which varied from very light to pretty heavy. Team old had a late start with little ambition at this point while everyone else got out early and headed to Barenstein. The crag was supposedly very sheltered from the elements (apart from top sections) so would be a good idea for the day.

After getting considerably lost in Gossweinstein, and then again in the forest, we eventually found Barenkafig, a lower part of the area. This crag was massively different to the other 2, it felt more modern and more popular. It was close to the town and also just off to one side of the path. These routes were quite short and less littered with holds as the others (but enough holds still). Climbs that took place were the one-move-wonder of Goldbar (VII-), the contrived variations to Faulpelz (V-) and Barentest (VI+). A collection of the freshers on the trip decided to test a ground anchor of one route by seeing how many people could be clipped into the bolt at one time. I believe the answer was atleast 3… Despite the enjoyment, the crag became overcrowded as everyone was trying to huddle close to the rock out of the rain. Leah, Wade, Ed and I decided to leave and head to the steeper Barenstein, higher up above the trees. We were looking to work Kate Bush’s Running up that Hill, but after tapping several spinning bolts with a clipstick decided against it. Instead we worked Jederzeit Sicherheit (VII-) and Cafe Greif (VII). Wade managed to drop the final moves of Cafe Greif resulting in a pretty sizeable whipper putting the ground anchor we had to the test. After a redpoint ascent of both routes, we walked round to the top to strip the route (where I created alot of faff). We gave up and headed to rejoin the others back at the ranch.

Day four - more rain and wind and definietly getting colder now. While the others headed further a field again, Team old decided it was too cold to sit around belaying so we explored Gossweinstein. After purchasing the mandatory postcards and presents we found a coffee shop and sampled the coffee and cake. We chose right. We could have easily stayed there all day, but the town had much more to offer, including velociraptors and gold. We wandered through the town and got drawn into a fossil shop - the only shop I’ve ever been to that has a doorbell and buzzer to let people in. It was difficult to tell if this place was a shop or a museum as there were a large number of pretty rock crystals and fossils and…well…just other cool stuff. After a conversation with the shopkeep about things to do and landscapes (Could have done with you here Florian, not going to lie) we headed for the vasilika. A beautiful ornate building with gold decoration and statues. A walk extended from the grounds around the town featuring religious statues, carvings and text as well as pathways leading to various rock structures. A parisellas cave look-a-like took my eye as did a steep boulder problem but alas upsetting the locals probably wasn’t a good idea. The walk ended at another viewpoint otherlooking the whole town and the castle at the other side of the town. Anyway, with enough sightseeing under our belt we carried on walking to the castle where we found more crags. This time, Napoleon which as luck would have it, featured an impressive rock gully lead with trad gear. We returned to the car to find that it was Westriss (VI) a three star classic from rock legend Kurt Albert. Wade was determined to return - despite the cold (it had stopped raining now) and lead it. Inspired by Wade, we all then had a lead on it. Wade carried on up Sudwestwande (VI+) - a wall that was only a foot thick. Topping out onto the knife edge proved pretty scary so he lowered off shortly after. I tried to follow him up, but as the snow kicked in once more my hands froze and I dogged my way up. Still, a great day. We were joined by the others back at the barn who told us their tales of the day and we all sat and played a delightful game of Cards Against Humanity.

Day five was another wintery day so 6 of us wrote it off and went to explore Nuremburg instead. Everyone else headed to another crag for a final day of climbing. I have no idea what happened at the crag, so I can’t talk about that. Nuremburg was great fun, and bore the fruit of the magical music box ;).

Wade and Ed left for their hotel as they were set to blast around the Nurburgring the next day. We headed home and packed up ready for our early start to catch the ferry home. Well…Im sure you’ve all heard about what happened there… After 22 hours at the wheel we arrived in Swansea and couldn’t wait to get into bed. Meanwhile Matt J caught a very late ferry back, and Hugos team slept in the car to try and get some rest before their final trip back.

In summary, Frankenjura would be a fantastic location in the dry with undoubtably epic climbing for everyone. Runouts were a bit impending on some routes, but taking a trad rack would be worthwhile. We endured the worst the weather had to throw at us and still came out the other end smiling…. Sort of.