Endless Roam: Climbing Frankenjura!

How Goes? Me, I'm doing good as long as I'm climbing so right now I'm doing pretty good! This past Thursday I linked up with the Outdoor Rec to go climb at a new area and that is what happened. We ended up going to Hartenstein, a nice crag with a few good routes. There where three of us that lead all the routes for the others in the group to top rope and that turned out to be pretty fun time. It's always good to see new people enjoying climbing on real rock. After putting up a route I got to try out a the bouldery start to an easy 5+ climb that was pretty challenging. Weird body positions proved to be too much for me or anyone else there to do it but it could be a project for a later day. It was a fun night of climbing but the best part of it was meeting people who also climb and getting some numbers and making plans for a future climb on Saturday. Got home at 11 which was a little later than I expected but well worth it!

Saturday I got up early thinking I would need to take the train in to Vilseck to meet up with a guy that I had met at the Thursday climbing trip. Instead my mom and dad drive me in and I got to relax for another 40 min before hopping in the car. I got dropped off at the Outdoor Rec Ctr just as another group was leaving to go on a kletterstieg. After waiting and reading a book for 30 minutes Will drive up and we were on our way to Steinberg which turned out to be a great crag with lots of routes. It was cool to approach this one through a thick forest with rock poking up on both sides of you until the wall appears on your left side. We walked along for a while with the wall on our left side before joining a bigger group that had already put up a top rope on one route. We warmed up on the route "Neuer Schafsuchersteig" before moving on to harder climbs and to get the blood flowing. Very fun climb with two easy roof to work your way over. After that climb I tried to lead a massive overhang (L'Allpinist 7-) but ended up pumping out at the first bolt that was at the end of the route. I lunged for different holds for 10 minutes before admitting defeat and lowering and letting another guy that was with us finish the route. It was tough watching him hit a deep pocket that I hadn't seen and walk to the top but thats how it goes sometimes. After that I did a few more easy routes along with a lead that I ended up taking a nice size fall on and ended up going around the crux using a crack on the right side. Great day ending with my first train ride to Weiden and walk to the house from the bahnhof. Its only a 20 minute walk so it wasn't too bad.