Our new dry-tooling facility

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.

Csaba, climbing the traverse.

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!