Thanks a lot to the Petzl Crew for inviting me to the RocTrip making its way this year from Romania to Turkey within 40 days through 5 different countries via 10 different base camps.

Right after the Adidas Rockstars in Stuttgart I flew down to Bulgaria together with Sachi Amma and Akiyo Noguchi to join in for bouldering in Rila. Since then I’ve been to Prilep/Macedonia, Meteora/Greece and Bafa Lake/Turkey.

It was a colorful mix of adventure, climbing and traveling with very different and inspiring people from all around the world like from Australia, New Zealand, Japan, Canada, USA, Mexico, Brazil and many European countries with all their own stories to tell.

I had a wonderful time. To me Prilep in Macedonia was a highlight. The video above, published by Petzl, shows what impressions we got within our five days stay. Not only the climbing but especially the sunset every evening (which gave the name to my first ascent you can see in the video) were so fascinating that I already made a decision: I want to come back. Best with my brother Ruben to meet again with the local community of very committed climbers and the Slovenian team who is helping to develop the area. Recently they’ve published a bouldering guidebook for Prilep.

Prilep is only discovered to perhaps 20% yet. Tons of unclimbed rock widely spread over several big hills is laying around waiting to be climbed for the first time. So why sitting around? Let’s all go for our next bouldering destination: Prilep in the Balkan Mountains!

My good Slovenian friend Gaspar Pintar posted on the climbing history of the region and the FA I’d done. As well he summarized an epilogue of the stay. Thanks a lot to Izi and You for Your support and the very well-written lines! I enjoy reading Your blog

Also nice to read there is the blog post “Going East with the Petzl Roctrip” by my compatriot Fabi Buhl who has been to the first part in Romania and who is telling some of his experiences.

Another highlight to me was Meteora where I spent an enyoable time particularly with Dicki Korb und Colette McInerny who took these nice shots below. Climb Greece devoted some friendly lines on the RocTrip’s stay, Mélissa Le Nevé’s multipitch of the Greek “Action direct” (FA 8b/8b+) and the nearby crags of Pyli/Mouzaki where I could manage to quickly top some nice sport climbs.

Amores Perros (8c), Mouzaki (c) Colette McInerney

Last destination for me this time were the boulders of Bafa Lake in Turkey where I had to grapple with the heat (35 degrees in the daytime). Fortunately on my last climbing day Dave Graham and Paul Robinson took me with them to the Sakarkaya area 30 km away from the main spot where we’ve done some superb lines together. It’s located further up in the mountains and the rock is so different than down at the lake. When we’ve been up there it was agreeable and windy. So much better conditions for hard climbing in comparison to the main area. Together with Dave and Paul I’ve tried „American Dream“, an 8A line on unique features. The FA was done by a Turkish local. I was very close to send it but couldn’t hit the crimpy slot at the top. On the backside of the bloc there is a 7C problem along a quartz line. It looks so good and climbs perfectly! This is a beautiful place surrounded by so much smooth rock and I think that there is still loads of unfinished business still waiting for me to come back.

Popping in for the rest of the trip in Turkey there was my good friend Lena Herrmann who surely will be reporting on this on her blog soon.

Last but not least I am planning to write a more extensive travel report for the winter issue of our North German climbing magazine „Der Klemmkeil“. So I hope to meet you soon for some more reading about the RocTrip.

Cheers David

David in the 1st qualification route – (c) Vertical Axis

The first German Lead Cup of this year has been a great event held in Darmstadt near Frankfurt. On last saturday there were the lead qualifs of the youth categories followed by the speed youth comp. On sunday it was the adults‘ turn (qualifs + finals) with the youth lead finals in between.

Ruben was preparing himself with intense lead training in Hanover and Hamburg besides working for several exams at school. It’s his last year in highschool. So it becomes time-consuming and of course stressful. David just came back from the Petzl Roctrip 2014 making its way from Romania to Turkey via Bulgaria, Mazedonia and Greece within 40 days with 10 different base camps (more news to come here!). So recently he has been climbing on the rocks.

We both met in Darmstadt the day before and slept in our van in front of the gym. On saturday morning Ruben headed into the gym to give the youth qualification routes a try. He topped both. For him there was no need to go for the speed youth comp because he already competed once in Munich this year and saved enough points (he became 3rd) to now focus on lead and the overall result.

Ruben in the youth lead final – (c) Sportklettern NRW

The sunday was packed with a pretty full schedule. At first lead qualifs of the adults, then youth lead finals and finally the adults‘ finals in the evening. We both qualified easily for the adults‘ final with two tops in the two routes by David. Ruben was the last competitor in the youth finals showing a superior performance with the single top of the resistent and varied final route. Especially a hard sequence at the end with a long move from volume to volume he mastered without jumping but instead statically and with control. The other athletes had already been falling off the wall some moves before so that it can be said that in relation Ruben’s performance was outstanding. Very well done besides the double pressure of school and climbing on high level! The adults‘ final had no single hold but volumes all the way up to the top. The style was rather bouldery with an interval of good rest positions and boulder problems. It was also something new which hasn’t been there before. We probably have climbed the most expensive comp route in our careers ever too Volumes nowadays cost from 50 up to more than 700 or 800 euros (respectively for a single one) and to insert over 20 or 30 of them in a single route is a noble investment. Due to a concentration mistake Ruben overlooked the first quick draw of the men’s final unfortunately getting disqualified. Indeed this wasn’t his intention but once you step over a quick draw with both feet you get disqualified. Never again Ruben! In contrast David caught a fluent climbing flow working himself up the labyrinth of volumes. He fell one move before the saving volume to set off for the final jump to the top hold. It was a tiny moment in which he lifted his upper body a little bit too high up the slopy volume so that he pushed himself out of the wall slipping off the volume immediately. It was only Mathias Conrad who fell on the final jump securing the stage win. Good job, dude! It was close for David because if he would have done one move more to the next volume he could have gone for the jump and due to his better qualification performance he could have won the comp. But don’t worry, be happy! There are two more chances to go for the victory for us in Neu-Ulm in two weeks and the capital Berlin in one month. This time we had loads of fun and we are looking forward to competing soon again

More to come soon. Cheers David & Ruben

- Mens results

- Youth A results