crack climbing course

Last weekend I had another appointment in Ettringen… This time not with my usual climbing mates but with a group of Dutch climbers. We all signed in for a crack climbing course organized by the Dutch Alpine Club (oh yes, of course Dutch Royal Alpine Club)… our instructor Martin climbed El Cap several times and also did some bigwall shit on Baffin Island.

I already attended Martins bigwall course two years ago… he managed it to let me climb a A2-pitch on the second day of the course – fun! So, my expectations were high for this course as well. I mean, I spent quite some climbing days in Ettringen, but my crack climbing techniques are not well developed.

The first day we went to the Arena and the “crocodile back”… we started with taping our hands and Martin installed very quickly some topropes. Then it was our turn to try the different routes: “stay in front of the crack and try to put hands and feets in the crack”. This sounds really easy but my hands and feet were constantly searching for hand- and footholds… He also told us that we should try to make a lot of climbing metres… ok got that and I tried to climb all the routes at least 2 or 3 times.

Another funny thing is that the difficulty of the route really depends on the anatomical properties of your body. Sometimes your hand perfectly fits in the crack and jamming is easy…. Next time it just does not fit and you have a hard time on the rock. We also tried some off-width routes, that means the size of the crack is larger than your fist… you really get a good whole body workout stemming arms, legs and your body into the crack…. Nice exercise.

Yesterday I bought the hugh cow bells (Black Diamond camalots size 5 and 6). So next time when I’m in Ettringen I can try this freaky stuff as well.

Next day we went into sector “Finsterlay”. The routes here are longer and harder – yes! The route Oger is an 7+/8- crack in the size of your fist…. Really cool but difficult climbing! Next time I’m gonna try to redpoint that one!

Together we had a great time out there. I think everybody learned a lot about climbing cracks. Thanks to Martin for his enthousiasme and his patience. If you are interested in his skills and courses please check the site of the alpine club at www.nkbv.nl and his own website www.bigwall.nl