Found a place close enough
Finally the weather got much better and we had a long weekend coming up, so we decided to do some sport climbing outdoors. After long research I found a place accessible with public transport and roughly 20 minutes walk from Mödling train station.
Since we did not have the chance to practice under lockdown we decided to only climb some easy routes. But we couldn't imagine to be that bad after almost 3 months. 🤣
When we arrived to the crag and packed out our bags I realised that I was so excited about the trip I forgot one quickdraw and the longer sling at home. When we started the first route, which was graded a 4 (French 4a), it quickly became evident that we have no idea anymore how to efficiently climb. It didn't help that the bolts were quite spaced out meaning that every 4-5 metres you found one and it was impossible to see or hear each other from the upper section.
Lets find something easier
For the second route we walked to a different crag where the routes looked more straight, so we could practice our communication as well, since we haven't climbed outdoors together with Christoph before. Plus we wanted to find something that's suitable for Emi too.
This spot is right next to a hiking/cycling track with benches, a playground and toilets on the other side.
We climbed two routes here reaching the impossible grade: 5 (French 4c) 🤣. It was a good chance to get our courage back. The routes were fairly easy but we struggled to trust in our feet or using good technique. Since the crags are close to the city the rock is a tad bit polished, but it is not awful at all.
A huge respect to Emi, who tried once a route and got a couple of metres up then bailed out. But she forced herself to go up again and got more than half up on the route (roughly 8-9 metres). 💪 She doesn't have a lot of climbing experience and she is afraid of heights, so I am sure this wasn't easy for her.
Guidebook
I was planning to buy a guidebook for the area, but it was sold out online everywhere. Fortunately Christoph had a first edition of Keltenkalk, which is still quite accurate. It is very different than what I am used to. In the guidebooks I've seen there were pictures of rock faces with the lines drawn on them, but in this book there are only sketches of the crags, which makes harder for me to find the actual routes. The grades are in UIAA, so I have to convert them into French to know how hard a route is.
I bought the latest edition from the climbing gym, I printed out a grade converter table and attached it to the book. So now I should be set for the next adventures.
