Flintsbach in July

Published on 2013-7-23 by Michael Stanton

Flintsbach cragging

July 23, 2013

Today Hannes and I did a few climbs at Flintsbach in the morning. Due to a sleepy brain I forgot that Dan had brought the quickdraws into the basement Sunday night, and assumed all my gear was still in the car. So we got out at the crag and realized we were probably hosed. Happily, I could create some old-school draws from two carabiners by raiding my gear rack. We had 7 draws.

First we climbed a new route on the crag, called SteinLaus, rated 6-. Very nice, well protected, good warm up.

Then the "crag classic," Fliegenschiss (fly dung), again 6-. I had a hard time making the 2nd clip and had to try a couple times. It's very polished and thin at the start. Finally I got it, rather inefficiently, then really enjoyed the rest of the pitch. Its easier in the middle, then gets hard again at the top. Super climb. Hannes led up, then I did it again, trying to emulate his good style on the slabby start. Then Hannes climbed it once more.

Next was Fruechte der Saison (6+/7-), which looked easy from the ground but had a difficult step after the first bolt, and then proved to feel very hard at a near-vertical slabby wall at 3/4 height. I kept climbing up then getting scared and coming back down! Finally I worked out a sequence that had me going up and right, reaching for a "thank god" bolt hole. I put my finger in the hole and something was terribly wrong...the coefficient of friction was very negative!! The hole had a deep well of water and sand, making a slurry of mud, which meant my finger was coming out. I was mantling with the other hand, pushing on a ledge, and just barely kept my feet on while I tried to escape the hole. It was touch and go, but finally I stood up. There was a tough move above the last clip too, but soon I was at the anchor.

Hannes went up for that one and climbed past the crux much better. He put his right foot high in a chalked up channel very early in the moves, and stayed oriented to the left side of the face, using small holds directly above. He eventually used the finger pocket, but for a much shorter time and with less riding on it. I wish I'd had time to do this route again, it's great!

Finally, we climbed Knabenkraut (6+), a "nice route with difficult moves at the overhang," according to the guidebook. A sandy, somewhat insecure beginning let to a pleasant middle section. The roof was pretty hard. I made a few false starts with rests in between, then committed to it with high steps on my right and an insecure search for holds above. A good lieback hold for the right hand could only get me so far...eventually side-pulls on the right allowed me to make progress. I skipped a piton at the end of the difficulties and went up to the anchor. For Hannes, this climb was tough, but ultimately he figured out a nice solution.