Need To Know - Introduction

Freeclimbing?

What is Freeclimbing? Extreme sport? Attitude to life? Sport for everyone? Leisure activity? School sport? Therapy? Surely a bit of all of that. Fascination for freeclimbing has reached many people and is even spreading further. It doesn’t matter if you are looking for a sportive challenge, nature adventure or an antipole to our hectic consume society – freeclimbing is always wholistic, and the only thing that counts is the enthusiasm for the experience in movement. Freeclimbing can offer senses of delight, stimulates self-conquest and forms understanding for nature. Young and old can do freeclimbing, it’s particularly suitable for pedagogic programs and helps you to keep fit. At the same time climbing makes high demands on technique, endurance, strength and concentration. Competent guidance, proper training, training facilities and practical experience are essential to ensure fun and success.


History of freeclimbing

Which new frontiers are to be discovered? – At the beginning of the 20th century climbers asked themselves and started to climb without techniqual implements – 'free'climbing was born. The 'Elbsandsteingebirge' was the birthplace of the sportive thought to use implements (rope, ladder, etc.) only for belaying and not for climbing. A few years later emigrants took these ideas overseas, where they where followed up consequently in the american Yosemite Valley from the 1950’s. 'Freeclimbing' was born. In the 1970’s the american climbing-philosophy (accompanied by chalkbags) came back to a receptive climbing-scene in Germany.

What started with an outcry from the traditionalists grew to an explosion in the development of climbing technique. Kurt Albert started to climb the routes in the 'Fränkische Schweiz' in a free style, which before were exclusively climbed technical (with implements). He marked every route he had climbed with a red point – the beginning of redpoint-climbing, the way it is still done today. Reinhard Karl and Helmut Kleine climbed ‚Pumprisse’ (the names climbers give to the routes make more or less sense) in the 'Wilder Kaiser' in 1977 – and graded this route with VII , a climbing grade which didn’t exist in the UIAA scale up to this date. But soon the UIAA (Union Internationale des Associations d’Alpinisme) opened their scale, and the climbers boosted the highest possible grade further and further. An exeptional talent and dazzling character in the chase for extrem grades was Wolfgang Güllich. 1991 he climbed the 'Action directe' in the Frankenjura which was graded 11, a route that couldn’t be done by any other climber for the next four years. Wolfgang Güllich died 1992 after a car-accident.
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Today, freeclimbing is established next to other sports. International competitions have been developed – the first official climbing world cup was in 1989. But besides competition sport another basic thought fascinates in freeclimbing: How far can you push your personal capacity – no matter at which level you climb? Experts even carry this thought to the big walls of the high mountains – and again: man is searching for new frontiers.

But freeclimbing also developed as leisure activity. If therapy, play school or club sport – freeclimbing is everywhere. More than 350 public climbing facilities and commercial climbing halls in Germany became a home for the infected climbing-community.
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