Hello everybody,

finally, after a longer break without any climbing trips, I’ve made it to Berdorf for the first time last weekend! And I was stunned by the beauty and quality of the crag and the routes. The weekend was great: made a first ascent, saved a life and sended some “kinglines” J But let’s start at the Beginning:

Two friends asked me to join on a little weekend trip to Berdorf. Luckily, I was able to join them and we headed to a campsite in Berdorf. Unfortunately, regarding the climbing performance there was a group of Erasmus students on the campsite. Fortunately, regarding evening plans there was a group of Erasmus students on the campsite. We joined them with some drinks on the campfire and learned the finnish version of “cheers”. Although one of the guys told us about a boulder he had brushed near the campsite but wasn’t able to make the first ascent yet: D

Next day we went to the crag for the first time. Berdorf is really beautiful! Kind of a “Lord of the Rings” atmosphere with well protected lines on solid sandstone. I started with “Minimops”(6a), then made “Willy”(6c) which is an incredible cool line: 30 meter of perfect wallclimbing. That was the moment I started to love Berdorf! Afterwards I tried “Kaffisdous”(7a+) and “Nishiki Alien”(7b+). We then changed sectors and I was lucky to flash “Arrete Paulette”(7a+) and finished the climbing day with a try on “Jaques”(7b+).

Back on the campsite we joined our group of Erasmus students again. But we couldn’t resist checking out the guys boulder, since he was telling us the story of how he tried it again in the morning at 6 am before he went hiking with the others. Obviously (at least one could believe this by his bodyshape :D) the guy was not a very good climber. That also explains why I could flash his boulder in the night on first try without climbing shoes or chalk. Probably around 4c. So I stole the guys first ascent but didn’t feel too sorry since it’s not permitted to brush boulders in Berdorf anyway…

Next day we started with a way to pumpy warmup on Francolux(6b+). Then I was lucky to send “Jaques”(7b+) first try that day with quickdraws. Definitely one of the best lines I tried that weekend! It starts with a technical wallclimb section, then a dynamic reach followed by some grimp moves. Finally, a funky slabcrux to reach the chain.

Two minutes after I came down from the route a woman arrived hysterically. She screamed that a boy is about to fall from the rocks and that she needs a rope. So, without hesitation I gave her our second rope and she headed off. I followed hear to see if I can help in any way. After around 500m walking through the stone formations of Berdorf we arrived at the scene. A guy had tried to solo up one of the crack lines and was stuck at about 10 meters not able to continue or to climb down again. But he was standing in a good position without risk of slipping… He told the woman to calm down since she was still screaming hysterically “You can’t be there” … And do you guess who the guy was? One of the Erasmus students from our campsite… So, I told him to wait where he is, took the rope and walked to the top of the rock (20 meters next to the crack he tried to solo) easily with a stairway… Luckily by fixing the rope and reaching it to him he was able to climb up the last 5 meters. The group then disappeared thanked me and disappeared relatively quickly in shame: D

But the day was still early. So, I went back to routes with my friends who had arrived in the meantime. We then all flashed “Voleur de spits”(7a+) which is a funny edge climb on jugs quite unusual compared to the rest of the lines. And as if the day had not been already quite successful, I also managed to onsight “Infernale”(7b) which had been my objective for the trip J

To sum it up: I couldn’t want anything more from a weekend climbing trip.

stay chalked and see you on the crag

Arved