David sends „La Rambla“ (9a+) and „La Reina Mora“ (8c+/9a) in Siurana

David before setting off to jump to the next hold in "La Rambla" (c) Iuliia Leonova

David right before setting off for the famous dyno in „La Rambla“ (c) Iuliia Leonova

The two weeks trip to Siurana turned out to be a very successful one. After a couple of days of working on „La Rambla“ David could finally tick his first 9a+ ever. And right before leaving he finished the trip with a quick ascent of „La Reina Mora“, just next to La Rambla.

The trip to Catalonia was originally planned together with Ruben over New Year. But just before David got a foot injury which made it impossible for him to go. So he had to shift his climbing in Catalonia to February.

The main objective of the trip was to send La Rambla. In January David started to train for the upcoming bouldering season. Together with his coach Urs Stöcker he put up a new training plan in Zurich. Since the trip to Catalonia was actually planned earlier he didn’t train his endurance specifically. Instead Weiterlesen

Between lecture room, competition and rock

In the so called "Lichthof" in the main building of UZH

David learning in the so called „Lichthof“ in the main building of the university of Zurich (c) Ruben Firnenburg

We’ve contributed our first article to the thecircuitclimbing.com below which is run by Eddie Fowke. He is a well-known and very friendly photographer and writer in the climbing scene and travels to almost every IFSC World Cup around the world. He’s a friend to every athlete in the circuit of rock and competition climbing. We are happy to work with him more often from now on!

If you like the article, spread the word so that everyone can benefit from our thoughts about the dual task of combining performance climbing and education in life. There are more articles about more topics to come!

Anyone who wants to study psychology at the University of Zurich (UZH), has to undergo a packed program with a year-round average of 40 hours per week or sometimes even 60-70 hours during the lecture period – and this within the confines of a public university where there is neither integration nor support of the sports system or athlete’s commitments. This sets a pretty tough schedule for athletes like David where competitive sport training often depends on free space and individual design of the study course, and where training starts to amount to a full time job. “In fact the first year at the UZH in psychology is a screening year. Virtually, they want to clear out every second student. That’s what here is called the assessment year“, David explains. Weiterlesen

„The Fine line“

Santa Linya in Catalonia is a very impressive sport climbing destination. Not only because of the steep power moves in the big cave and the spectacular shots in this film by Hening Wang. It´s also because of the many falls, frustrations and failure that are behind a sucessful climb. Ruben is showing this fighting spirit in “Seleccio Natural” (9a) that has turned out to be his hardest project up to now even though it is not his first route in the grade. And by keeping working on it he fires all our inspiration for hard climbs.

German Lead Championships 2015

David in the 2nd qualification route in Frankenthal

David in the 2nd qualification route in Frankenthal

The last stage of the German Lead Championships took place at Neu-Ulm (Bavaria) last Sunday. As last year, this year’s championships consisted of 3 competitions, in Germany known as German Lead Cups. The first cup was hosted at the brand new DAV climbing gym at Munich Freiman and the second at a rather old but gold climbing gym at Frankenthal in Pfalz close to Mannheim. For us two it was a nice series with various challenges because the Cups had different route settings. Weiterlesen

„New Age“ (8a+, 5 pitches) at Swiss Rätikon

The crew. F.l.t.r. Julian, Ruben, David and Michi (c) Julian Bückers Photography

The crew. F.l.t.r. Julian, Ruben, David and Michi (c) Julian Bückers Photography

In the beginning of October we’ve spent three days at Swiss Rätikon for some multipitch climbing. Rätikon to climbers is well known for its hard alpine climbs on outstanding limestone and the surrounding beauty of mountain nature. It is located up in the mountains on an altitude above 2000 meters and is divided into two parts, a Swiss and an Austrian but the walls are mostly south facing so you predominantly climb on the Swiss side. The closest village is called Schuders consisting of only a handful houses. This time we were climbing at the Schweizereck in the region around Grüscher Älpli besides the other parts of the wall such as Kirchlispitzen (known for routes like Silbergeier, Unendliche Geschichte and WoGü), Drusenfluh and Drusentürmen. Weiterlesen

Petzl Junior Rock Camp in Frankenjura

Training Café Kraft

Training at Café Kraft with Dicki & Patrick from Gimme Kraft

The Petzl Junior Rock Camp in the Frankenjura was a new experience for us. This time it was all about some of the most motivated young guns from all over Germany who we could accompany for some days.

On our first day we went to Café Kraft in Nuremberg, meanwhile one of the most known boulder gyms in Germany. Every athlete got attached to a group of teenagers so that we attended approx. 15 kids each. In total there were around 50 youngsters who completed an individual training program. The boys and girls had the chance to meet and train with Patrick Matros and Dicki Korb who are known for publishing the classic training book called Gimme Kraft. The main training content was individual goal setting for competition and rock climbing as well as proper warm-up routines and specific boulder training in groups. After a recreative lunch break training continued with circle work outs. At the end the ones who still had some energy left in their arms could try the unfinished boulder problems of the pre-rounds on their own. Weiterlesen

Panel Discussion – Trend Sport Climbing

The Panel (f.l.t.r.): Karl-Heinz Steinmann, David Firnenburg, Andreas Kuhnt, Britta Schweigel, Ingo Leven, Prof. Dr. Semmler-Ludwig, Martin Schönwandt, Prof. Dr. Derecik (c) Andre Bertram

On September 23rd, 2015 David was invited to the podium „Freeride, Parcour, Slacklining: Trend Sports with or without Expiration Date?“ by the Academy of Sports in Lower Saxony (GER). The panel dealt with trend sports and their influence on youth life styles and organized sports (General report in German). David was supported by Axel Hake (IG Klettern / DAV-Landesverband Niedersachsen).  Weiterlesen

Firnenburgbrothers – Video Portrait

Finally!!! We are very happy to announce that our first professional film is online. In this 10 minutes film we get portrayed talking about how everything started, our passion for climbing, the experiences we made, training, competition and rock climbing and many other things. During the film we climb „The Essential“ (9a) in Frankenjura while testing Vertics.Sleeves, one of our hardest co-ascents on a rope to date. We don’t want to say too much here. Follow the link below and enjoy ;-) Cheers David & Ruben

Link: The Firnenburg Brothers climbing „The Essential“ (9a)

David’s plans for the rest of the year

Invitation "Red Bull High Five"

Invitation „Red Bull High Five“

After coming back from the Rocklands, South Africa (Scorecard) by begining of August David will participate in Red Bull Five Blocks which is held in Galtür Silvapark in Austria.

Following the Boulder Worldcup in Munich David will instruct younger climbers on the Petzl Junior Rock Camp in Frankenjura. Weiterlesen

Flatanger Norway

cave in the background

Flatanger: Hanshallaren cave in the background

Last month we finally had the opportunity to go to Norway for the first time and to climb in Flatanger. There is a huge cave of finest granite which is surrounded by beautiful nature. In addition to the hard routes that we wanted to climb in Flatanger, we also had the opportunity to get to know new friends which graded up our two weeks even more. With an international crew on site, the nature and first class routes in the cave this climbing trip turned out for both of us to be one of the best we ever had.  Weiterlesen