History.

Like the Peak and Yorkshire there is a rich history associated with sport climbing, which is mainly attributable to Wolfgang "Flipper" Fietz, Kurt Albert and the legendary Wolfgang Gullich. Flipper Fietz was the Frankenjuras first true boulderer putting up classic boulders and short routes such as Technics (9) and Maud (Fb 7a). Being a little afraid of heights he toproped many routes which would later become early Gullich classics in the 9 to 10- range. Jerry Moffats The Face was an old Flipper toprope problem before it became Germanys first 10-. Kurt Albert and his bushy moustache were pushing standards in the late 70's and early 80's with routes like Fight Gravity (8+), Sautanz (9-) and Magnet (9+). At this time many climbers would claim a route with hangs, drawing a red circle at the base to indicate their ascent. Upon freeing these climbs Kurt decided to fill in the red circle, hence the redpoint and a whole new climbing ethic was born.

Then along came Wolfgang who ruled the roost for the rest of the 80's and early 90's before his untimely death, transforming this into a truly world class area with groundbreaking routes such as Kaum Zeit zum Atmen (10-), Kanal im Rucken (10), Level 52 (10+), Wall Street (11-) and his swansong Action Directe (11). The latter still repulses many of the worlds top sports climbers, having only been repeated by local Alex Adler and more recently by the Spaniard Iker Pou. Pretty fierce for a 10 year old route. Top end sport climbing in this area continues to grow with 200+ routes in grade 10- and above and a staggering 70+ at 10 or higher.

Bouldering has always been a big thing in this power orientated area but in recent years it has exploded as everywhere else. Be warned, there is no easy bouldering here and even the easy bouldering is hard! The good stuff starts at Fb 7a and winds it's way up to a gut wrenching Fb 8b courtesy of locals Werner Thon and, the "unnaturally strong" Marcus Bock. It did take a visit by Ben Moon in 1993 to open the first Fb 8a (Full Moon), which was subsequently given an alternative start and graded 8a+ by local Andi Hofmann. The name? "Mondfinsternis" or "lunar eclipse", ouch! You have to pull very hard for the grade here, so watch those tendons!. There are some access issues with the bouldering in this region so the best thing to do is ask some locals to point you in the right direction. You might like to try the forested area of Neudorf just above Obertrubach, the burly roof in Ailsbachtal called Boy's temple or the crimptastic Waischenfelder boulder bloc. If you like hard polished limestone then check out the Klagemauer next to the village of Sorg. This is Germanys answer to the right side of Ravens Tor being home to many a hard classic boulder and micro route. This was the place to climb in the 80's and still sees as much traffic these days. Check it out!