Vogesen “Mountains”

After spending the night at my new flat in Freiburg, Frauke and I drove across the border to France and spent a night in the Vogesen mountains (hills). We went climbing at a crag named Gueberschwihr which was quite fun. We haven’t done a lot of climbing recently and have no finger strength. I lead a few climbs around the 5a, 5b mark and then we had had enough.

Above left: Me climbing at the Guerberschwihr crag with Frauke belaying below. Above right: There was a boulder area a wee walk from the climbing crag.

We camped in a little town in the evening. There was a wine festival there and at about 2am a lot of drunk French guys came out and started making lots of noise. Two of them came over to our tent. One poured a glass of beer over it and the other peed on the side of it. The French are so terribly charming.

The next day we went cycling for a few hours in the hills. It was ok but we were both still feeling a little unwell from our lingering colds and various ailments. We checked out Martinswand, another rock climbing crag in the afternoon but it was only 6 degrees and a nasty wind made it feel much colder. It was beginning to rain so we left without doing any climbing and headed back to Germany.

Above left: Frauke and I cycling up Col du Firstplan. Above right: It was rather cold and wintery at the Martinswand crag so we headed back to Freiburg.