Ascents in Alter Freund

Nice old-school route with small holds in the beginning and at the end. The middle part is powerful climbing on a sort of mini-dihedral-pillar-arête thingy. Good footwork is essential, then it resolves quite nicely.

Quite brutal for 8-, I'd say it's 8. Every meter of climbing from the no-hands rest is hard, until you're out of the overhang. Tough moves to the horn, then even harder moves over the bad sidepull in the crack. Originally thought about climbing the full arête ("Kreuzweh"), but I couldn't make out any holds and it seemed dirty and chossy. The last bolt has a loose screw! Didn't have a wrench on me to tighten it.

One of the hardest summits in the Frankenjura. The easiest route (this one) is rarely climbed, therefore dirty and vegetated. Crux is the start of the second pitch, to get past the first, massive ring. The rest is way easier but a little brittle. Backing up the uppermost ringed piton with a nut is advisable. Unfortunately, ants gobbled up half of the summit book and used it as their nest.

The start from the second pitch was really hard for me and I barely made it! Happy it worked out! Christoph Rauch did quite some gardening on the way. The top is completely covered in ivy, finding holds was interesting.

Fun experience!