Very similar to the past years the month May offered two weeks of sun and blistering heat, followed by much cooler, much wetter and horribly instable weather throughout the remainder of May and the entirety of June. But unlike spending June in the hospital or recovering at home from a rather unhealthy situation, I could go out this year. And so I did, cherry picking my weather windows.
At the very peak of the hot period I somehow ended up at the south facing cliffs of Lüerdissen in Ith with Erik and Tamas. Although my ability to climb hard deteriorates unreasonably rapidly with increasing temperature, we were determined to try the power endurance route 'Maibock' (7b). The fact that it was about the only route that didn't even get a tiny bit of shadow didn't put us off. Under any circumstances this would have been a stupid decision, but this time I won't complain as Erik and I managed to climb the route. Yes, it took much more effort than it would have in better conditions and I might as well have gotten back on that much more shady, horrible roof dyno project I still had there. But fact is: Maibock turned out to be a beautiful route and posed the perfect challenge for this day and these conditions. It felt good breaking out in flop sweat, nearly falling off the last move and topping out.
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Erik working on his tan on Maibock (7b) in Lüerdissen, Ith |
When the rain came, finding those small dry windows and dry rocks became the challenge. A session in Glees (that I already
wrote about) was the first result, followed by two route climbing sessions with Matt in Teuto (climbing one new 7c variation and leaving two new combinations around 7b+ unclimbed). During the next free, dry day I couldn't find a partner and went bouldering on the big limestone roof of Pferdestall in Ith. I climbed the great problem 'Need for Speed' (7A+), but needed (way too) many attempts. It turned out to be an absolute horror to work, with the crux right at the end after powerful climbing into it. Only after taking many falls, I changed my beta to suit my strengths better (heel hooking and locking off in this case) and quickly dispatched it. With my remaining energy I tried to do 'Schweizer Nachhilfe' (7B+), but failed to find the essential toe hook tric to get past the crux and wasted my last strength and skin on the jump just before it. Once more something to come back for...
'Zeit des Wartens' (7c), the massive roof jump route in L
üerdissen (Ith), remained on my mind though. I tried it in Februari last year and failed with numb, frozen fingers. When I came back in October I failed again, tearing a big flapper on my fourth attempt. I made
this video of the route as a reminder to myself to go back and finish it. So when I ended up in L
üerdissen for a second time this year, now with Frans and with better conditions, I had to try it again. After getting in the roof mindset with the superb routes 'Hang or Hang Not' (6c+) and 'Fluchtpunkt' (7a), I collected myself and went up Zeit des Wartens again. It took three more attempts to conquer my fear of it and go all in on that horrible jump from a mono finger lock, but it's done! The direct start ('Tsunami', 7c+) is waiting to be done next...
There's no rush though. I've made a count of the routes I've put effort in and haven't finished yet. It turns out there are at least 15 routes ranging from 7b+ to 8a+ spread out across Ith, Bielefeld, Teuto, Ettringen, Berdorf and Grotte du Brotsch that are on that list...