Pfalz Update

• Pascal Schouwink repeated "ZEC" 8a+/b at Burghaldefels and flashed(!) "Heidelbeer-Horizontale" 8a+ at Felixköpfel.
• Loic Fossard repeated "Gordischer Knoten" 8a+ at the Retschel roof. The tour combines "TNT" with "Gamba".

New Boulder Article in Klettern-Magazine 6/04

		Klettern magazine published "Sentiero del Boulder", a bloc article about Brenta/Dololmites bouldering. Text & pics: AlexW Topos and detailled info will be on palatinum.info soon. Since Brenta is still full of undiscovered bouldering problems, it is for sure a rewarding spot with comfortable temperatures in always around 7500ft above the sea.
photo: archive AlexW

New Tour in Pfalz and Boulder Update

• Ingo Bald cracked an old Alex Wenner problem at Sternfels. Alex had bolted the tour in 1992, but hasn't been on site ever since."Im Gleichgewicht der Seele" 8a (je nach Grösse 9+ bis 10-) starts left of "Y-Riss" 7 and follows tiny grips to the exit. The difficulty is caused by three moves at the first bolt with a horrible finger twisting crux - the remainder is relatively easy.
• Ingo bouldered two new fun boulders at Hortenkopf/Hermersbergerhof. One is rated Fb. 7a, the second Fb.6c.
  

Alsace Guys on the Rocks

photo: Alex Wenner

Thomas Leleu repeated"Hookipa" 8b in Pfalz.

• Loic Fossard climbed "Le perfs" 8b+ in Sardinia.
• Olivier Froideval did "The Flow" 8a in Frankenjura.
• Pierre Bollinger repeated "The Flow" in Flash and "Smith and Wesson" 8b+ in Franconia.

Info: Yann Corby

Interview with Alex Wenner at mountains2b.com

		Florian Schwarz of mountains2b spoke to AlexW about the new palatinum DVD and about palatinum.info. Read the interview (in German).
Screenshot: mountains2b.com

Elsass Short News

• Pierre Bollinger repeated "Insolence" 8b in Kronthal.
• Olivier Froideval climbed "Carmina Burana" 8a, in Kronthal, tool.

Info: Yann Corby

Wet PK Party

Three days of pourring rain, 4.5°C, not 1000 people like last year, but at least 100 hard core fans of the outdoor event at Bärenbrunnerhof joined in. The rain came down as fast as the levels in the beer kegs - nobody felt like climbing.
Excerpt of the guest list: Rotpunkt legend Albert of Frankonia, who stopped by on his trip to Bleau, Pfalz crew Julius Westphal, Pascal Schouwink, Lutz Limburg, Ingo Bald, Jens Richter, Scharfi and Dieter Klan, to name only a few. The rime&Passion band was rocking in the evening and not even the rain was strong enough to take out the annual wooden fire on the meadow. All in all a family style party that went on until late in the evening. Nice...

		Boulderer Alex from New Zealand and Larie Fee Wenner warming up at Jurassic Park
photo: Alex Wenner

Pfalz- and Boulder Update

		Christoph Gabrysch repeated the stamina traverse "On a walk about" Fb.7b+ trav. at Mühlenberg as well as "The Flow" Fb.7b in IGB.
Foto: Alex Wenner

• Youngster Nicholas Altmeier bouldered "The Flow" Fb.7b.
• Frank Augustin found the solution to the jump at Kippkopf right hand of "Grande Passion" Fb.7b+-8a. The new test piece checks in at Fb.7c+ and was named "Toaster". With "Fossil" Fb.7a another new boulder was done at the rear side of "So much to give". On the way to the main massive an third new one, named "Banane" Fb.6a+, was established.
• In Jurassic Park three new boulders can be found:
  "Zahnstein", "Big up yourself" Fb.7a and "Der grüne Daumen" Fb.6b+.

PK-Feier

• Tomorrow night, May 5th, one of the best outdoor parties in Pfälzerwald will take place - the PK-Feier. We can only hope the Gods of weather are with us...

Bouldering of Bomb Shelters in Dänemark

What's Pfalz dude doing when he's sick of red sandstone slopers? You´re right, fishing in the North Sea or bouldering bomb shelters.

• Klaus B. from Graben-N. sent us a few impressions of his last trip to the block of concrete on the beach of Sondervig in Danmark. As you can see below, it is even possible to do some tricky moves when not going to the sauna or enjoying tasty local fish.

all photos: Dina & Klaus Biehn

New Article Online

• Published in the March 2004 issue of Klettern Magazin, in his article "Keine Atempause-Geschichte wird gemacht" Alex Wenner shares his views about politics, partnership crisis and bouldering in Pfalz.
  If you are literate in German, feel free to read the story here.
  
To the story

Pfalz Locals in Zillertal

		Axel Kunzmann could do his first Fb.7a+ problems with "Verschärft" Fb.7a+ and "Moonwalk" Fb.7a+ in Sundergrund.
photo: Alex Wenner

Climbs

		Andi Ziegler climbed "Mach mal Pause" 9- (fr. 7b+) (3 stars), a new direct start to Ringkampf. At Luger Geierstein, he finished an older project in the left side of "Streckbank" 8+ (fr.7a+). "Gefühlsecht" has been graded 9+ (fr.7c+). Ingo Bald has repeated this route in the meantime.
Foto: Alex Wenner

• "Dodgy Vita" is a new climb of Jens Richter. The arete starts right of the classic "Ceromax" at Klosterfels. Jens graded his Dodgy 9/E1 (fr.7c). E1 stands for risky.
• Dieter Klan climbed a new route the "Metropolis" 9 (fr.7c) at Jungfernsprung, secured with 7 bolts.
• Ingo Bald did the first free ascent of "Lustgarten" 7+/a1, first done by Oliver Jacob. "Lustgarten is now rated 9+ (fr.7c+).
  Ingo also repeated the famous Pfalz-classic "Mekka" 10-/10 (fr. 8b) at Nonnenfels.
• Alex Wenner climbed "Still waters run deep" 10- (fr.8a) in Zillertal/Austria.
• Julius Westphal & Pascal Schouwink did "Siberie" 10- (fr.8a+) Geissfels/Alsace.
  

Retschel & Geierstein are open!

No hawks!
Retschel and lovely Bruchweiler Geierstein can be climbed again.

Alsace Update

• Olivier Froideval repeated the stamina-climb "Decadenzia" 8a+ and the classic "Sublime" 8b in Basler Jura. In addition, he redpointed "Paradis sur la terre" 8b in Soyhieres.
• With "Irwana" 8b/b+ and "La belle vie", Loic Fossard climed two top-climbs in Jura.
• Olivier, Pierre Bollinger und Thomas Leleu repeated "Ivan" 8a+ at Sängerfels/Pfalz.
• Fred Abel did "Dark Obsession" Fb.7c Heidenkopf/Alsace.
• Isabelle Bihr bouldered "le Mur des Lamentations" Fb.7b+ in Bleau.

Info:Yann Corby

Sandstein-, Granit- und Kalkrocken in den Mai

		Ingo Bald managed to repeat "Liquid Sunshine" Fb.7c+ In addition, he solved the boulder "Impurity" Fb.7a+ without the broken hold. It´s now rated Fb.7b+.
Pascal Schouwink bouldering "Liquid Sunshine" Fb. 7c+ photo: Archiv Schouwink

• Lutz Limburg climbed "Ape-Index" Fb.8b, fist done by Andre Behr in Frankenjura.
• Pascal Schouwink & Julius Westphal have opened a new Fb.8a, located in a secret spot near Hermersbergerhof/Pfalz.
• Pascal got the first repition of the new AlexW boulder "Bulle von Calw" Fb.7c+ in Waldeck/Black Forest. He was also brim over with this boulder, mentioned it as a excellent problem.
• Julius Westphal repeated the famous Thon problem "Cerberus" Fb.8b+ in Frankenjura. Congratulations!
• Julius & Pascal spent a few days in Maltatal/Austria. Julius climbed the Klem Loskot problem "Wrestling with an Alligator" Fb.8b
• Pascal legte mit "Pluto auf der Jagd" Fb.8a+ nach.
• Ingo Walde did the 2-move max-power problem "Schwinge des Adlers" Fb.7c / Mühlenberg.
• Andi "Dirty" Barth did the 3rd ascent of "Exorzist" Fb.8a in Arena/Heidelberg.

New Boulders

The crew around Ingo Walde have opened a couple of pleasurable boulders in Jurassic Park:

v.l.n.r:

	Littlefoot 4+ the left arete to the top Falcon Crest 6a+ the right arete to the top Spike 6a at the neighboured bloc dynamically to the top
photo & info: Ingo Walde

In the canyon behind "Schöne Kante Fb.7b+ 2 new boulder from Pascal & Julius:

1. 1963 7a+
2. 1492 7a+
   the arete to the top

Dreamtime chippt

Foto: no comment - ricroc pictures

Klettern Magazin reported: "On the internet the message has been circulating for some time when we met Bernd Zangerl in Swiss Averstal. He was ice climbing, not bouldering, but the issue remained the top talk:

After e.g. the Brite Malcom Smith repeated Dreamtime recently and suggested to downgrade the boulder to fb.8b+, Fred and Bernd had another look at Dreamtime. They realized that some grips of this new high -end classiv had been enlarged with brute force. Some other boulders were modified as well. In one of them, an obviously artificial grip had appeared.
In one of the next issues of klettern the two will give an in-depth statement about this scandal. For the tim ebeing we can only ask people not to damage further boulders."

You can meet Bernd Zangerl at the Pfalz boulder days next weekend.