Yesterday
was a great day for those of us who perform the dark art of dry-tooling: We initiated
our new training facility. We call it DBKK Dry-tooling.
Last year
when the revered Danish Alpine Club acquired a new bigger and very modern
climbing gym they (we) more or less abandoned the good old gym at Sundholm. About
the same time, the smaller ice climbing club CPH-ICE struggled finding a place
for their (our) dry-tooling facility. Frankly, the fusion of the two was not among
our first thoughts, but now it seems like a logical decision.
But what is dry-tooling, you may ask. Well, you know that mountaineers need ropes, crampons and ice-axes when scaling the summits. When we need these tools as we negotiate ice, we call it ice climbing and when dealing with dry rocks, we call it dry-tooling. What do you think we call it when it is a mix of the two? Yes, you are right, it is mixed climbing. When in steep terrain this not a trivial past time - it is slippery, high up and you wear pointy things.
That is why we like to train strength and technique in a controlled environment of a gym.
Peter at the old dry-tooling facility, CPH-ICE (at Carlsberg of any place). |
Yesterday,
we were eight who met up in DBKK Dry-tooling to start setting up the first
routes for dry-tooling. We started by sorting climbing holds discarded for sport
climbing but perfect for dry-tooling. Then we fixed ropes to climb on and began
screwing the holds onto the wall with bolts. It is a stimulating task, as you
have to figure out things like a climber’s reach, balance and strength in combination
with friction and geometry of the holds and at the same time make the route fun and challenging
to climb.
Sorting climbing holds |
Anders HP bolting on a climbing hold. (note all the holes in the wall - they have threads for the bolts) |
Andreas climbed up the rope as he bolted his route. Now he is figuring out which hold to choose for the next placement. |
We produced
4 routes and a traverse circumnavigating the entire gym. Then we ate some
pizzas before climbing our brand new routes.
Morten, climbing his route. |
Andreas climbing his route using all means. |
Mathias cruising up in elegant style. |
It was a great evening in. From now on, we will hold club evenings every Wednesday. Can't wait until next week when we are going to make and climb more new routes.
Cheers!