Rochers Des Grands Malades Belgium

This weekend no trad but some sport climbing in Belgium.
Due to my elbow injury low profile climbing and just having fun.


Peter and I went to Belgium to a new crag for me called Rochers Des Grands Malades.
The crag is very near to Namen and Beez where I have been multiple times.


The crag is nicely situated and has morning sun and afternoon shade.
It was quit and just some teenagers with their instructor were doing some via verata and some rappelling.
https://splice.gopro.com/v?id=3JwR4X512
Routes are most vertical, slaby and some have some small overhangs.
Nice but certainly not always easy.


Below some pictures of the crag.

Toms Lay St. Johann Ettringen

Hello,


Last week the whether forecast was bad. Rain was expected again.
So we slept a little longer to catch up from the week with early morning hours for work week duties.


We went to Ettringen a little later, nevertheless we still were the first ones in a small crag called Toms Lay in St Johann.
A few weeks earlier we cleaned most of the traditional routes during climbing, but now we went for some overgrown uglies that needed for sure some cleaning.
We started with the bolted Schach Matt 6 which is a pretty nice starter with some big moves.
I cleaned Rumpelstilzchen 6- from the top and San did the route on-sight trad.
Then we cleaned the bolted Tommahawk (a project before) which should be a 8- (6c+). Apparently harder than that I thought, specially the first large move and the balancing ending on the face and arête.
Regretfully I could not finish it due to my injured elbow.
We closed the day with cleaning and San climbing Himavat 7- just before the rain came down.
Next day we spend our time in Finsterlay Mayen, one of our favourite crags where we have our ceremony stone for our lost friend Martijn Seuren.
We tried some routes but conditions quickly changed from good to very bad. We left as it became too slippery. Once above quarry it was dry again, nevertheless went back thru the corn field and became soaked wet ha, ha, ha.

San rapping up in Finsterlay

Rain came pouring down on the crag

Purple Haze Ettringen

Hi this weekend a lot of rainfall in Ettringen.
Nevertheless with not so optimal conditions we tried a some nice Traditional routes.


On of the best ones was Purple Haze in Kuhlschrank.
Fantastic crack

Purple Haze 7 in the sun

Big Bro from Trango

Yes finally it is in. My first Big Bro.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fTEVXl7g9kg



I had to search and wait quit a while for getting this nice peace of gear.

Reason for this was because it is not sold in Europe because of the missing CE certification and markings.

Nevertheless now I can follow my offwidth aspirations although I still will be a beginner. 

I hope I can find positions to place it as the Big Bro 4# is slightly bigger than our Cam 6 that was often too small.

You will be hearing soon the outcome. 

Yippieh Yah Yah Yippieh Yippieh Yeah!

No it is not what you think.
We have not been to Texas to ride like cowboys behind a caddle but we went again to Ettringen in Germany.


This weekend it was supposed to be wet but it turned out well.
After finishing the traditional routes Voodoo Child and Midnight Lightning that seem to get no traffic I made an attempt in the grassy and tree overgrown YYYYY. Cleaning my way up and placed 0.75 cam below the roof, and went for a small tree and placed a sling before I could get to the small crack.
Some long reaches to the upper grip was sufficient after placing some micros'.
The last wider crack was a relieve and enjoyable.
Glad I could finished it. 

Cleaning Routes and Dealing with Wet conditions

Hi,
This weekend it was predicted to be  humid, wet and rainy, nevertheless we decided to take 3 days weekend in our favourite trad location Ettringen.


Ariving in St Johann Toms Lay we saw that al the routes where too wet, bummer.
We left and went to Kottenheim, there we decided to visit Zeckenloch, famous because of the ticks?
We started with a nice crack called Mausebar (5), delightful jamming and placing gear by San in the sun. Tricky ending though.
Then the technical Mach Dich Fot (7) took some Caribbean hip moves to get the job done.
The obvious line to the right was Demenz,(8), it took a try to define the hard start and the technical upper arête but could be achievable. Second go I got it send. Whow.
Last route of the day was at Verlegenheidsturm, a classic 6-, San made it, but I was 3/4 and the rain hell came down. Brrrrrrrrrr. I loosened the rope on top and walked downwards , scrambled back to the base.
We got wet to our underpants!




Next day we visited our glory place called Dornental.
It was wet but the sun came quit on time.
Starting with a 6, San believed she was ready for the 8- Dornenriss.
Piasing the first few meters to place gear at a horizontal crack and a cam 5 in the crack did the work.
Then some classic style movements to hang some slings in loose flakes (they wont get out) and the upper part with some 3-4 cams the route was in the pocket. Well done Sandra.
Now my turn.
We cleaned for one hour the route called Rehsturz (8+/9-), upper part was still wet from the rain but I put some tissues in it to dry, first go was artificial C1 (No Top rope) finding the correct entrance?
Then we both tried various versions, but none worked.
I believed a third version could work. It did, placing gear and taking the tissues out I could manage to hold the grips, nice technical fingertip moves and balancing all the way up, Yeah made it.




Last day we went to Ettringen, always full on normal climbing days but now almost empty (only a school class). We spend our time in rehearsing trad routes in the sun.
I got a tan, but importantly we enjoyed :-).

Dornenriss 8-

Rehsturz 8+/9-

Re-open classics

In May we used our time to re-open some classic Trad routes in Ettringen Germany.
Most of the routes showed green layers and scary tree trunks on top or loose rock from from winter time.
We did a lot of cleaning by brushing or scraping, that took additional energy from us.
Nevertheless we enjoyed the great settings and wonderful trad routes in Ettringen.


Due to my elbow injury I had to coach San to do the leading.
She managed very well and even got inspired to lead scary un-protected routes.




This weekend we finished only two routes due to the humidity but they were oh so nice.


Café Bendisberg is a real beauty in Toms Lay.
Some weeks ago the route was full of needles of the Pine tree and unclimbable, but now it seemed worth while of trying it, but still some cleaning work was needed.
San did during leading it, a real effort for one hour.( Pain in the legs and arms)




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Enjoy climbing trad routes, San and Jan