[Ged]

That was brilliant. Imagine watching a 9A boulderer falling of your route from 20 years ago.

The 6c one looks truly hard. Were they fully freed in the 60s barefoot etc, or did they use tension to get between the cracks?

[Kingy]

Fully freed as far as I can tell. I don't think the chap who was taking 20 metres falls would have been happy with a frigged ascent!

[SA Chris]

I'm speculating that being used to never using chalk would make things easier, still looked utterly nails and weird though.
Did anyone notice at one point Pete was puffing hard, and there were clouds of dust / dirt being blown out the crack?

[webbo]

That was brilliant. Imagine watching a 9A boulderer falling of your route from 20 years ago.

The 6c one looks truly hard. Were they fully freed in the 60s barefoot etc, or did they use tension to get between the cracks?

I thought that they initially rested on the bolts or in some cases belayed on each bolt.

[Muenchener]

That was great! The drone shots showed well how stunningly beautiful the area is as well. I have such fond memories of Adr, but it is too bold for my current lifestyle. A modern style guidebook to the area wouldn't go amiss, or failing that, one that has the routes written up in a language I can read.

Panico have an "Elbsandstein Plaisir" select guide for the other side of the border. I assume anything with more than one ringbolt per 65 metres counts as "plaisir"

[jwi]

Adr and Teplice is pretty far from the Elbe valley. Just on the polish border in fact. For the czech areas just across the border from Saxony there are comprehensive german language guidebooks.

[T_B]

This was published in 2019. Looks good https://climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/labske-udoli-rock-climbing-guidebook.html

[Muenchener]

Adr and Teplice is pretty far from the Elbe valley. Just on the polish border in fact. For the czech areas just across the border from Saxony there are comprehensive german language guidebooks.

Ah. I didn't realise they were a different area.

[Duncan campbell]

This was published in 2019. Looks good https://climb-europe.com/rockclimbingshop/labske-udoli-rock-climbing-guidebook.html

Oh wow… more extreme injury routes than sport climbs…. Incredible given the strict ground up ethic. Awesome stuff

[m.cooke.1421]

I've climbed in the Labak region and thought it was great. There are quite a few routes with glue-in bolts which are much more like conventional sport routes and are just a little run out, I think you are also permitted to use chalk there but are encouraged to do so sparingly. There are still some routes which only have a couple of ring bolts which you can also protect with threads and knots. They allow climbing on cliffs rather than just on towers and the routes climb the faces a lot more.

I haven't visited any of the other Czech sandstone regions but I have climbed in the Elbsandstein which I think has a similar ethic to the other Czech areas. The guides give two grades for routes, one for climbing from the bottom to top and another for climbing between the bolts. I think someone told me that historically people used to belay at every bolt. There was also a photo in one of the guides of people standing three high on each others shoulders to reach the first bolt on a slab.

[jwi]

After the war and before the fall of communism in Central Europe, the climbers were really poor. No one had a 60 metre rope to go ledge to ledge. I was told that very short ropes were pretty common, and pitches of 20 m quite standard (=about average ring distance on the old-school wide cracks in Adr).

For most of the very hardest routes from the 60s or earlier, you can assume that they were done using combined tactics. Standing on someone's shoulder was thought to be fair-means since the gear was not weighted. However, weighting gear was completely totally taboo on FAs. You can safely assume that the FA did not use a tension traverse to go between the cracks depicted in the movie.

My impressions from climbing there in 2012 can be found here http://steepground.blogspot.com/2016/03/czech-sandstone-meet-2012.html

[Duncan campbell]

Enjoyed that blog!! Thanks jwi!! Do they still do the international meet?

[cheque]

An absolutely fantastic video that (The Ondra Adrspach one) a long time since I enjoyed a climbing film so much.

As ever when I watch a Czech/ Saxon sandstone film I’m mesmerised by the rock, the beauty of the location, the climbing, the history, then I remember that I barely have the head for normal climbing let alone the runouts and knot protection!

Amazing to see Bosi so out of his comfort zone, “somehow” ending up in the wrong crack and flailing about in that huge runnel chimney in his Hiangles 

[spidermonkey09]

Nice footage of an underfilmed route.

[remus]

Enjoyed this of a young US wad putting the effort in on some hard trad.

[Fiend]

Pretty cool, looks thin AF.

[remus]

Nice interview with Morus Sanderson (underground welsh wad). Franco is a pretty good interviewer!

[spidermonkey09]

Just the walk in looks a great day out. Paging jwi; any good routes for mere mortals to do?

[jwi]

Just the walk in looks a great day out. Paging jwi; any good routes for mere mortals to do?

Depends what you mean by mortal? I have never been there and decided against going there with my better half, who don't climb 7c in a day unless it is vertical and techy.

AFAIK There are two short 8bs to the side and a 7b/c warm-up for the feeble. Both are supposed to be good. There is a classic 8c and 8c+ as well. Beware of climbers trying the super-classic 8c+ and are hard-selling the crag (to lure in belayers).

[Fiend]

I enjoyed this, straight up footage of Chris Sharma doing his best Chris Sharma impression on an amazing looking route.

[Paul B]

Just the walk in looks a great day out. Paging jwi; any good routes for mere mortals to do?

This even managed to get me psyched. How do people manage to take holds so precisely even when they're at their limit?

[Bradders]

He's not at his limit?

[Paul B]

He's not at his limit?

Fair point. I'm hoping he's at least a touch fatigued though!

[rjtrials]

All the body tension in the world.l!

This is exactly how I have to climb as my finger/ upper body strength lags well behind my repoint grade.

[duncan]

Barbara Zangerl's ascent of Meltdown.

If you'd asked me in 1981 what rock climbing would look like in the 21st century I'd have described something like this. Funny how it is now almost completely atypical of what constitutes modern hard climbing.