Topic split - Bohemian, Saxon and Czechia sandstone bolting

[duncan]

I regret not going when I was young and bold but, assuming I'm neither, where would be a good place to sample Czech or Dresden sandstone?

 

[Paul B]

I went to Labske. It wasn't really my thing (which probably explains why Nic S and T_B enjoyed it). The towers had wooden boxes in them with a red cross on them; the one I checked was empty apart from a stretcher.

I can remember a discussion in the climber's bar (which is a weird place where they've painted a mural of ladies pointing and laughing above the urinals) where I spoke with someone who'd been drilling that day. He made it clear I should only pull on the small holds as the big ones were mostly soft or loose.

Another sight I remember is they were often TRing towers with multiple ropes tied together and they were very handy at passing these around their fig-8 devices.

 

[T_B]

You’d have to get a guidebook Duncan but my memory of Labske was it was sportingly bolted but not crazy. This photo of K is on an immaculate 6c+.

https://www.instagram.com/p/CGFyKy4jDHP/

I wouldn’t say don’t go to Ardspach/Teplice as it’s worth going just to marvel at what was climbed back in the 50s. We get v excited about Whillans and Brown but tbh the Czechs were doing much harder and more dangerous FAs in that era. Honestly there’s not much to do at Ardspach unless you’re comfortable on sighting E5s or are very solid on wide cracks.

Bear in mind that when we were in Labske K was not really into it (she did lead some bold stuff mind) and when I was in Ardspach one E9 leader in our team refused Point Blank (hint) to lead anything!

 

[jwi]

I wouldn’t say don’t go to Ardspach/Teplice as it’s worth going just to marvel at what was climbed back in the 50s. We get v excited about Whillans and Brown but tbh the Czechs were doing much harder and more dangerous FAs in that era. Honestly there’s not much to do at Ardspach unless you’re comfortable on sighting E5s or are very solid on wide cracks.

I am not particularly bold (I think) but I thought Adrspach & Teplice were amazing (Cross hill a bit less so). My oh has told me in no uncertain terms that she will not be going there and if I go with someone else it goes towards the one climbing trip per year I am allowed.

I thought Teplice was a lot more user friendly than Adrspach, but that was perhaps down to the routes we did. In Adrspach we did a lot of unprotected offwidths and chimneys. In Teplice I just remember hand-cracks and face climbing on OK holds (and one brutal offwidth with a brilliant line).

I have climbed very little around Dresden, as it started to rain. What little we did was good but I remember Adr/Teplice as better.

The guidebooks where absolutely abysmal though. Text only guidebooks with very vague descriptions. I can read german OK-ish, but I almost killed my parter because I did not really know what a Zacke was, and Czech not at all. Teplice had one that was borderline useable for a few sectors. It definitely adds to the difficulty that in the end you just walk around and try to figure out from the ground what you would be willing to do without really knowing the difficulty.

 

[T_B]

Exactly! The birds-eye-view topos of the towers are not very helpful when you’re on the ground wandering among them. Maybe nowadays you could send a drone up and use that in conjunction with the guidebook. We also ended up just trying stuff that looked either protected or at least doable.

 

[Paul B]

You’d have to get a guidebook Duncan but my memory of Labske was it was sportingly bolted but not crazy. This photo of K is on an immaculate 6c+.

We definitely found some stuff to do and since then I've probably grown more accustomed to sportingly bolted stuff in a similar style.

Likewise, we stopped really consulting the bird's-eye view topo in Labske and relied on watching the locals climb things that looked acceptably bolted.

 

[webbo]

Could you not have asked the locals to recommend routes for wimpy Brits. They would have to be pretty sociopathic to suggest routes on which you might get hurt.

 

[Paul B]

Ha! Perhaps?

This was around 2007 so my memory isn't that great but from recollection, the first bolt was usually the initial hurdle with it being uncomfortably high. I was definitely less accustomed to that style of climbing back then though so there's the definite possibility that I was just totally soft.

Looking at the photo of Katherine, it looks like new bolts between the old school meaty rings. Again, ropey memory time but the stuff with newer kit was less terrifying than stuff purely on the ring type bolts.

If I was going to recommend old school sparsely bolted stuff I'd say Meteora was more enjoyable.

 

[duncan]

Thanks everyone. I have a highly romantic view of Elbe sandstone climbing, growing up with pictures of carpet-slipper shod nutters running it out above tiny slings. And I really like the Mitteleuropean ambience from the various non-climbing trips I've had to Czech and south eastern Germany. It'd be great to experience it even if I didn't climb anything harder than Severe.

Bear in mind that when we were in Labske K was not really into it (she did lead some bold stuff mind) and when I was in Ardspach one E9 leader in our team refused Point Blank (hint) to lead anything!

;D

Not that I'd be much different myself.

The picture of K is great and I'd have been well up for it in 1997, not so much now.

If I was going to recommend old school sparsely bolted stuff I'd say Meteora was more enjoyable.

I'd also love to go there.

 

[jamesturnbull97]

Bumping this thread as I am planning to that area shortly on my way through Europe. Sounds pretty nuts and somewhere that needs to be experienced.
Does anyone have any recommendations of the best areas to start to not end up straight on a death route? Also any good places to stay/meet people, I know a couple of people that are from the area but wouldn't be able climb everyday so might need to go in search of some partners.

 

[cheque]

Sounds pretty nuts knots

 

[jwi]

The easier routes all felt like soloing. Anything under French 6c and with cracks on it was probably done before human life was regarded as valuable

In Teplice there were quite a few routes that were basically safe. In Adrspach there wasn't a lot of safe routes, at least not that I found. Apparently there are some really hard routes there that are safe.

I've heard that Labske is pretty safe but I didn't climb there.

We climbed just a little bit on the German side and it was all pretty freaky.

There's a lot of bouldering apparently.