Photos by kirk

„Mayflower“ 5.12a -After the last damn handjam (my very personal crux- but thanks for the beta to the excellent coach Alex!) you`ve to block the 2 finger pocket (an old drill-hole, remember its a former quarry)on the left hand site to finish the lower part up to the ledge of this classic single pitch basaltic line.

„Mayflower“ 5.12a -Sorry Petje!! This is more nasty toperope pic- the handcrack first starts harmless…..don`t start laybacking cause this might pump your arms! But what a beta – the locals told me of barfood ascends and pure wall climbings in there,- just a fairy tale?…….no granite at all only simple volcanic stuff in the quarry!!

It´s the historic first trad route in the quarry. A middleformat black-and-white pic taken by a Mamiya7 cam and printed on 9½x12 inch photographic warmtone paper from a uge 70x60mm negativ. But what a poor scan, you can only get a taste of the mass of brilliant details this negatv size might offer…..and the shimmering tender purple selen tone within. Beside of this the route presents fine and for me scary corner-crack climbing in the upper part- if you dare to lead……

Flowers on the street up to the top, an rare example of an easier gently + gymnastic exercise in 3dimension basaltclimbing. Only the entrance, shown on the photo, seams to be a bit tricky. You can find this peace and a fine route mixture too in the section Schiffsbug. Once again: What a pity about the bad scan from the fine bw-print….use your imagination!!

Better scrub the slippy moss from surface of the tiny gothic cave- AKOPADS an agressiv metalwool based cleaning substance might be right for it. As shown in the wide bw-pic a size 5# friends clams down my mind in this case….even in a 5.9tour a grounder hurts. And at the top the akku might fail (=patzen)………what a subtil word game?

Are you looking for pain?- Simply use the knifesharp edges of the fingercrack-fleshmixer to crush your fingers. You`ll find a lot of those cruel laser-sword cracks in the quarries. “Nen Lalaith” is a gentle name for such an painfull experience- but challenging like them all !! The original print from the 60x70mm negative shows the whole microstructure of the wall…..impressive.

Athletic awkward moves on chunky flakes at the base and in the upper dihedral there`s strenuous climbing up the shattered handcrack…..just typical magnificent Ettringen. Even you love or hate it (her), there is rarely anything in between….. a strange affair a single middleformat pic can`t illustrate!! (don`t worry about the ugly scan with the longitual stripes...and the visible toperope Petje:I`ve already led the route twice)

I`ve to increase the angle to reach the walls of this wide uge chimney, but this reduces the grip of my feet and my fingertips can`t really reach the opposite one……. To scary for a middle grade climber like me to lead. But from this perspective I`m near to the real difficult routes. Edge- and face-climbing at its best (you can see the bolts on the left) the locals told me. But this is not my league- just dreaming of them ( A bit grey in grey……). You`ll find the woman called Nen L. in the section Refridgerator.

a real symphony jamming up this fingercrack corner called “ Amadeus 5.10b”-although I`m looking quiet different. Well protectable (single-pitch semi trad-route) with some Microfriends an a few nuts if your leading- but not if the belayer takes the pics. And did you believe that this crack-pic are made in an old quarry? Sure it is!

There is one more pic from fingercrack concert. “Amadeus” is in the section called Kiefernnadel. The cracks down there doesn`t have those sharp edges like elsewhere in the quarries. Have a try….

More purgatorium- even toproping this route might be challenging, for me it is! If you like the harder stuff- there is plenty of them all around. In the following part of the Fegefeuer you have to layback on the slippy edges of the crack………but than pure jamming.

Fegefeuer = Purgatorium A short trad route with a fine an sharp crackline in the mystic basaltic quarry of Ettringen. Helldoor- an impressive little set with a stonewindow. Take a little set of stoppers an some friends up to size #1.

This 5.10 will prove the flexibility of your hips - bridging up in between the basaltic walls. This might be a taste of “the American dream”. A well bolted single-pitch route in section “Große Wand” but some wires are always usefull. (but if your looking for more stretching your hips in this crag hava try with “Nen Lalait” in the Kühlschrank)

Heaving and bridging up the wide corner to the upper part of the “Amerikanischer Traum” , much easyer than the entrance

The little vampire 5.9 might bite you like the tics all around in the hidden „Rattenloch“- but its worth the effort to search the crag and climb through the splitted cracklines and blocks of this old basaltic quarry.

Vario leads straight up the plain wall into the finger-crack, impressive much to short route beneath the huge and overhanging crane- if you reach the crag.