France is like Kentucky!!!*

Alex and I took a little road trip to France to check out a few climing sites in Alsace. We found amazing tarte flambee, perhaps the world's best, and great wine, went "wild camping" and were almost speared to death by ferocious wild boar in the middle of the night, and practiced our quickdraw-clipping skills. The trip ended with misshap when Alex injured his knee (torn meniscus?) but he now gets to use a really nifty pair of crutches with built-in reflectors - always look on the "bright" side of life???


Climbing sites - Lorsbacher Wand, Germany; Nouveau Gouberschwihr, France; Bergholtz, France

Lorsbacher Wand, Lorsbach, Germany: a nice little slate rock wall about 20 minutes from Oberursel. Around 40 bolted routes ranging from grades 4- to 8, UIAA system.

Testing out Alex's new rope at Lorbacher Wand. First time lead climbing outside in a long time! This was our warm-up daytrip.

Nouveau Gueberschwihr, Gueberschwihr, France: sandstone climbing, 10 different sections of wall and a whole bouldering area. Bolted, hard standstone. Lots of easy routes. Really beautiful area on a hill overlooking Alsace wine region of France.

Notice how Alex is using a fine white table cloth instead of a rope bag (we WERE in France...)

Alexander, prince of Durp, overlooking Gueberschwihr.

Feels so great to be climing outside again!

Bergholtz, France: Lots of bolted routes on North and South sections. Really beautiful area, a bit of a hike to reach the walls. The sandstone was quite soft in some areas, but some great cracks!

Alex (white pants) on C'est Cholibah

Alex (still in white pants) on Par Benelos

My favorite [meniscus-tearing] lead (you can see my black pants at the top of the crack): Porcos III, la rechute

*okay, so France isn't exactly like Kentucky, but the hills and oak trees somehow reminded me of Red River Gorge