AlexLugerClimbing: September 2013

climbing high on Mainstream for the filming. pic Radek Capek

After an intense ice climbing season and the trips to Utah and North Wales I had two filming project one with Bernd Zangerl and some Highballs. The other project is about the red point ascent off my multipitch route “Sangre de Toro” at the Rote Wand. Both movies will be coming soon in television.

on the cruxpitch 10+ of Sangre de Toro

at the belay before starting into the cruxpitch

After finishing the productions I headed to Chamonix with Jojo for some granite climbing. As we got there the weather and conditions were just perfect but my mind was not, I felt lazy. Maybe I did too much climbing, it´s the first time in my climbing life where I felt it s okay to sit in the sun while there was a perfect high pressure in the Alps. So after some days on the Cham-granite we ended up in Ceüse for some group sport climbing.

At the moment I am equipping new routes in my home area, amazing steep limestone….. but secret ; ).

After my first time in the US I travelled to Frankenjura for the Adidas Base Camp event at Burg Rabenstein.

I met up with the other climbers of the team and we had a great and productive time together with meetings and climbing lot’s of chatting with the other athletes and good food ;).

the famous slate quarry....... slippery climbing in a crazy area

After this few days with not much climbing, I travelled for my first time to North Wales. In my mind I was prepared for shitty weather, scary routes, cool people and lot´s of rock.

Dorita accompanied me and when we stepped out off Manchester airport the sun was shining and no cloud was visible. This day Rob Greenwood picked us up and introduced us to the Welsh rock. This visit we went climbing at the sea cliffs of Gogarth, Rhoscolyn, Craig Dorys the Slate Quarry and on the pass. I fell in love with the climbing in Wales. The walls are small compared to the Alps, sometimes with lot´s of vegetation, and often wet. But there are lot ´s off different types of rock so close that it´s easy to combine two climbing spots in a day. The rocks are drying fast and on trad climbing it´s not about running up 10 routes to have a proper training. I am remembering a writing on the bar in the Klatrekafeen in Henningsvaer it ´s saying: “Sport climbing is like eating a burger at Mc Donalds, you now what you get.” (Dough Scott)

Compared to the climbing on the sandstone in Utah, where you can almost place every two meters a protection if you carry enough gear and a bomber endurance ;). In Wales it was like being an artist. Looking up a blank wall deciding what gear could be needed and just start the climb and see what you find. It´s more a journey up the wall searching for features that will capture a wire, a cam or a sling.

Electric Blue at Rhoscolyn, amazing solo

My impression of the local climbing community was that everyone climbs but nobody talks about how bold or epic his day was and that’s something I have rarely seen on my travels. It´s just about climbing and not how is better or the more badass climber.

Thanks DMM team and friends fro the good times.