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Climbing In Europe

Diablo

3-May-2012
11:55:14 AM

Hey everyone! I am heading over to Europe in June/July for a month. Hoping to get a whole bunch of climbing done over there. Anyone been? What spots would you recommend? I will mainly be in Germany, but traveling around through Holland, France, Switzerland, and Italy.

Thanks guys!

turtlespit

3-May-2012
12:06:26 PM

Take a look on UKClimbing.com for their destination articles. They'll cover the most popular spots on the continent and have the benefit of being written in English. For Germany, Frankenjura looks good - http://www.ukclimbing.com/articles/page.php?id=2742

nmonteith

3-May-2012
12:25:50 PM

No climbing in Holland. Negligible great climbing in Germany (unless you like short powerful pockets). France and Italy are filled with fantastic rock of every variety and style. French major areas - Verdon, Ceuse, Gorge de Tarn, Chamonix, Font - there is literally amazing climbing everywhere in the south of France. Italy has Finale, Dolomites, Arco and heaps more - mostly in the north. Switzerland & Spain are also filled with excellent world class climbing.

bw

3-May-2012
1:41:24 PM

Depends where in Germany you'll be, if near munich and the alps are looking murky frankenjura has 7000+ routes on 1000 crags. Kind of like this:

It's not all sport, did a fun 6b (I think?!) on gear up the middle. Great location :)

dalai

3-May-2012
2:09:58 PM

On 3/05/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>Negligible great climbing in Germany (unless you like short powerful pockets).

Or climbing on knots? How about Elbsandstein?

The good Dr

3-May-2012
2:21:51 PM

On 3/05/2012 dalai wrote:
>On 3/05/2012 nmonteith wrote:
>>Negligible great climbing in Germany (unless you like short powerful
>pockets).
>
>Or climbing on knots? How about Elbsandstein?

The climbing there is awesome. Befriend a local and get dragged up some classics. Also, the Czech part has bolted routes which are not as scary.

nmonteith

3-May-2012
2:50:28 PM

I knew people would try and push the positives of German climbing but I still stand by my statement. Compared to what is in Spain, France, Switzerland or Italy - Germany has insignificant climbing areas. It does seem that some people really love the 'below the tree line' Frankenjura (usually very strong climbers who enjoy Nowra short power routes) but IMHO it's rubbish compared to 300m+ high blue grey limestone cliffs in France.

Most Aussie climbers have plenty of local sandstone - so Elbsandstein seems more like a novelty region once you've visited the major areas. It's high on my list of places to go - but I've done four separate trips to Europe previously. Certainly Frankejura rates as the least interesting 'major' crag I have visited in Europe.

There are 7 messages in this topic.