Sächsische Schweiz Mostly Trad climbing 21,384 routes in crag

The Elbe Sandstone Mountains are probably the birthplace of modern freeclimbing and certainly one of the most historic climbing areas you can find. Not counting the Bronze-age settlement on Pfaffenstein nor the occassional remains of castles of robber-knight on some summits, climbing here dates back to the mid 19th century.

In 1864, gymnasts from Bad Schandau ascended the Falkenstein. While their style (using ladders, thrown ropes and pick-axes) saw a few imitators, it soon became clear that what we today call "free-climbing" is the way to go. Oskar Schuster and Rudolf Fehrmann were among the driving forces to formulate the Saxonian climbing rules, as they still stand today (see ethics): no climbing onto anything "a cow could ascend" (ie only true summits), no progress on artificial holds, placing bolts only as the last resort. This visionary abstinence, born from a mixture of elitarism, boldness and an eye for conservation issues alike, helped to form a climbing standard that was unrivalled in the world for decades until the 1970ies. Milestones like Spannagelturm Perrykante (VIIb) by Oliver Perry-Smith (1906), Wilder Kopf Westkante (VIIIa) by Emanuel Strubich (1918), Frienstein Königshangel IXa by Fritz Eske (1965) and Amselspitze Schallmauer Xa (Bernd Arnold) are still testpieces for modern climbers - especially when you would climb with the equipment of the respective era.

Saxonian climbers like Fehrmann and Strubich also left their footprints in Alps. In the 1930ies, Fritz Wiessner brought Saxonian ethics to the USA, where it evolved to modern freeclimbing and finally spread over the world.

The two World Wars took their toll among climbers - but also the crags - a great part of the Elbe Sandstone Mountains became part of Chechoslovakia, which made climbing trips for climbers crossing the border a little more complicated. During the Socialist era, free traveling to western countries was banned. Arguably, this may also have contributed to the rise of climbing difficulties: climbers like Karl-Heinz Gonda, Bernd Arnold, Mathias Gäbler and Manfred Vogel established benchmarks of their time. However, in the recent decades the strict gound-up ethic made the creation of climbs at the top end of the scale increasingly difficult if not impossible. Already, some first ascenders have been suspected to bend the rules; and debated routes have even been removed. Every few years, the controversy between traditionalist (defending the status quo) and reformers (wishing to allow climbing on currently forbidden walls and rappel-bolting) boils up again. So far, the tradition stood its ground, supported by the National Park administration, who also favours restrictive climbing rules.

Whatever the future may bring, with roughly 20000 routes there is a lifetime of climbing - and despite being considered "outclimbed" for first ascents long ago, some enthusiast still add some hundred routes each year.