A Sunny Ticino Weekend

As you have already guessed, I enjoyed my time back in Germany and went to all my home crags with my old friends. We had weekend trips to Austria, Frankenjura, Alsace, Black Forest, Danube Valley, Basel Jura, and the Ticino.

This short blog is about a fun weekend in Ticino. Although it's already late in the season, you can still climb topless in sunny Southern Swizzy a.k.a. Ticino. I met up with Julia, an old friend of mine,

and together we picked up Sibe.

Then we went on a sunny weekend trip to Cresciano and Sobrio!

That weekend I was even able to send a route I tried before I went to Canada. This time Ghandi (7b+) even worked out on the first go!

But as we all know, climbing isn't about grades, but about having a good time with friends. And definitely there's nothing that can top a sunny breakfast at Chironico!

Buon Giorno, Ticino!

Fun Times in Stuggi and Alsace

What's the best about work in a large company? Free time, right! So starting on Thursday until Monday noon is weekend time and thus time to do whatever, for instance, slacking in Stuttgart downtown with a bottle of beer ;)

Or one could stay the weekend in the cottage of Katrin's parents in Alsace, France. We've been there countless times the last years and I just have good memories of the biking, climbing, and bouldering there. The pic below shows me in my favourite boulder spot Rocher de Laurenzo close to Saverne, just taking off and launching for the lip... such a great place!

Of course, I had to go there again after one year abroad in sandstone-free Canada.

And it was fun again! Crimping, hooking, targeting the final sloper, launching, and catching! So great!

Katrin worked on her bouldering skills in Calgary, remember? If not then consider this link. Anyways, she also had fun manteling les blocs des falaises de grès.

Well, and there are also all the magnificient trails in the Vosges de Nord around Saverne, Lutzelbourg, Phalsbourg, Mamoutier,... always worth a trip. Below is Kat high above the Loire valley mimicing a howling wolve :)

One of the great bike round trips we discovered in the last years connects the ruins of various old castles, such as Chateau de Haut-Barr.

And now comes the amazing and truly outstanding proof to the theory of everything: The ancient dukes and castle-lords of Alsace knew about the power and the magic of π. And here is the proof found in the ruins of Chateau-Barr:

π - this makes me just going nuts and upside down


Yeah, each weekend trip to Alsace was just a wonderful experience, right guys?

But it's also always fun to return to Stuggi, go slacklining in the Schlosspark, visit old friends, and hang out with Katrin!

Here you can see Kat standing in front of her new apartment, what's the house number again?

Especially for slacklinig, Stuttgart is just a great place. I never realized it before, but now it seems to build for slacking:

Oh yes, Katrin is also making progress on the line :)

Not to forget: Not only the Canadians have an Indian Summer but also we in Germany do! Here's a pic of one of my home crags, the Donautal (Danube Valley), or short Däle.

I had a fun weekend there with Achim working on bold and "semi-trad" routes... but that's another story and we were way to frightened to take pictures.

Hasta pronto,

Florian