Ascents in Würgau by Christoph Rauch

Straight up via the crack system. Interesting start, powerful in the upper part. Wrongly graded 4+ in some guidebooks.

Might be among the hardest routes of that grade around, even for Würgau. The start is gnarly, especially clipping the second bolt can be a nightmare (with ground fall potential). Seems like a hold broke in the upper part, creating another difficult section where I had to do a sort of leap of faith (it was already dark, too). To top it off, I got a nut stuck and had to fiddle around a good while. #lastrouteoftheday

High first bolt, then well-protected. Athletic moves through the little roof, massive jug incoming!

Interesting passage in the middle.

Looks harder than it turns out to be. The rock quality is of course not the best.

Interesting crack at the start, not easy to jam and steep for the grade. The upper part is also not a walk in the park considering the grade.

Great climb along cracks and flakes, the best line here for sure.

#lastrouteoftheday with headlamp. The start is tricky and hard to protect. There's a good nut, but the hardest moves are so far above it that you'd probably hit the ledge in the event of a fall. A little detour to the right might make it more manageable.

Not nearly as long or exciting as its namesake nearby, but still fun and also with perfect hand jams. The inside of the crack was wet, but still had enough grip for the jams to stick. Started from the left, apparently the original start was from the right.

The line looked so good that I just had to try it despite the wet patches in the cracks. Totally worth it, although I guess it would have been quite a bit easier in better conditions. I thoroughly enjoyed every minute of it although I was completely exhausted in the end and had to fully commit to some bag-of-tricks moves which surprisingly worked out (although the last few hard moves must have looked desperate). Fantastic movement problem in great rock.

Interesting arête with good laybacking moves. A nut between the first and second bolt is sensible.

Good line, the middle part requires some nuts or cams, otherwise you'll have to trust the peg below the overhang. Nice laybacking crux, then easy to the top.

The old farts from Bayreuth climbing clubs must have been angry that there wasn't a tower left to be named after them, so they looked for a bold line through the wall opposite the biggest tower and after failing to climb it, they chipped a few holds to finish the job. Well, I have no idea how the story really went, but there are definitely one or two chipped holds. Other than that, it's a pretty good route, hard for the grade but fun.

Cool line with an interesting traverse. I set off into the latter a bit too high, which made it more difficult, but still manageable. From there it's technical wall climbing on crimps to the anchor.

The cold wind was blowing harshly, so I hardly felt anything and was glad when I reached the good handjam below the first bolt. Not sure if this was the first route to the summit, but the line would suggest it. Traverse from the southeast corner along the diagonal ledge to the northeast corner, then up on good holds to the ledge below the summit, slightly harder to the summit. #jahreserste2022

Starts in the chimney. The (new) first bolt is a bit misleading. Nice stemming to a diagonal bulge with jugs that allows you to clip the (now) second bolt. Tough moves from there on slopers and slopy edges. It didn't help that the rock was moist. A small nut after the third bolt might be sensible because the rock is brittle there (but it's easy).

Not as homogeneous as the original, also a bit hard to read and more sensible a bit left of the bolts, so that you're almost drawn towards the good holds of the finish of "Talseite". Jammed my way up the crack, there are really only two or three sequences where you need to use actual holds. Jamming your foot in the crack also helps sometimes. Still didn't feel too polished to me.

Great route with an exciting finale. Mostly good rock, but careful on your way to the third bolt. In the recent past, big blocks have been removed, but there are still a few massive ones that aren't exactly trustworthy. Good placements for small nuts on the ledge after the first bolt. The upper part is splendid wall climbing with a traverse through an overhang at the end, felt marvellous in the evening sun. #lastrouteoftheday

Fell off in the lower crux, barndoored out when I already had the jug, so I reconsidered my beta and improved it. Same goes for the upper redpoint crux, for which I then used a less elegant but to me more manageable solution of not doing a crossover move but just pulling up and bumping to the jug on the left.

With everything laid out perfectly and using the few rest positions optimally, I finally made it! Fantastic route. Balancy, slippery crack at the start, then endurance on slopers. So many things can go wrong here, there aren't many routes I know that have that many apparent cruxes and are super sustained.

Alzheimer's flash. It's been a while since I've first tried this (and failed to even get to the top). Felt totally manageable today, especially after sending Metamorphose. Remarkable route, kudos to Tobias for onsighting it, that really pushed me. Laybacking on shallow pockets in a faint crack, then some gnarly moves past the fat dormouse, almost fell off there.

Put up the draws and tried to remember the beta. Seemed to work out relatively well, but I still felt a bit insecure in some places.

Pretty fantastic #warmup

We climbed the original finish with traverse (some nice moves) to the left and then long runout through a field of choss (which in addition was wet today) without fixed protection. It is probably much more worthwile to instead go right below the rooflet and finish at the ring of "Weg der Jugend". The middle section is good with big layback flakes; the start is a hard crack sequence, which has been made slightly easier long ago by chipping two good holds next to the crack, which are now already polished.

Great wall climbing with crack elements in the middle. Quite polished, but not really bothersome (at least in these temperatures). Good moves, but hard for the grade.

Good moves along the arête. Far to the anchor/last bolt, but there's a good sling placement on the right around a juggy flake.

Quick attempt after it had already started to rain. I got through the lower crux somehow first try (but it still felt incredibly awkward and hard), including putting a wire in, but overlooked the sloper "jug" on the right at the end of that section and fell. The rest went through okay, much better than 4 years ago, but I suppose it will take some more attempts before I can send it.

Still felt hard, had to struggle quite a bit! Nice, reachy moves in the beginning, then this strange section with the two-finger slit and nothing else, and then the layback crack (which was slightly wet today …) which threw me off two years ago. Not today! But there's still potential to fall off after that. Probably one of the hardest routes in that grade that I know.

A fall between first and second bolt ends in brambles … but there's a good horn-shaped hold to clip from. A bit hard to read, but good, overhanging climbing.

Supposedly a bit harder now due to rebolting. I can't really tell, especially here in Würgau.

Somehow messed up the start but managed to pull up into the good rest; manoeuvred myself into a dead end in the last few moves of the crux section, though …

Varied climbing with two pronounced crux sections in the upper part, separated by a mediocre rest. First a cross move to an invisible crimp on a sloper far up, then two dynamic moves, first right, then left, to slopery ledges. My first 8 in Würgau!

Slightly crisp material in the beginning, climb carefully. The slab crux is just before the merger into the original "Talseite" , which is still a tad better, I think.

Tried to stick to today's topic (slight variation): cracks. Had to retreat at the third bolt due to the sun setting (and my feet hurting). I had no clue how to get past this bolt. Sketchy layback moves only lead me to even more sketchy pockets in the "crack", without any footholds to gain height. Hard already up to this point, but I imagine it wouldn't have been over. Another one to come back to …

Next classic on the list. Slightly scary in the beginning, but one or two nuts and it's okay. Jamming galore from beginning to end, unfortunately it's very polished, which makes it even more exhausting. Definitely worth the sweat, though, and another summit experience!

Looked like a nice line, so I did this one waiting for "Südriss". Turned out to be a bit chossy in the beginning, with a hard part at the last bolt if you go very directly. A bit easier to the left.