3RD ROCK Athlete Meeting

What’s the best bouldering spot in Europe? I guess Fontainebleau would be the answer for most of the climbers. Thousands of excellent and challenging boulders located in the forests near Paris. Even though Fontainebleau is the non-plus-ultra for bouldering in Europe, I have only been there once in a cold and rainy Easter week. This time I was lucky to see the bright side of Bleau at a sunny autumn weekend …

The weekend was organized by 3RD ROCK, an eco-friendly climbing clothing company from the UK, which invited all its sponsored athletes to team event in Fontainebleau. I guess most of the people reading my blog already were in Bleau (if not you should definitely visit it as soon as possible), so I want to write this blog entry about my connection to 3RD ROCK .

My connection to 3RD ROCK

First of all, let me tell you that I am very happy about the connection to 3RD ROCK . For me it’s a perfect match: I love climbing and spent an unbelievable amount of time at various climbing crags and gyms in the last 26 years and for me, it’s a great honor that a brand like 3RD ROCK decided to support me. On the other hand side, 3RD ROCK has the mission to produce sustainable, eco-friendly and stylish climbing clothing. A good mission on which I want to support a super small climbing brand from the innermost of my heart especially when you see that they have to compete with huge climbing clothing brands e.g. Black Diamond, E9, Patagonia, etc.

The 3RD ROCK team

The 3RD ROCK meeting in Fontainebleau was a huge chance for me to get in touch with the other athletes from Europe (mostly from the UK, except Daniela Ebler from Sweden and me from Germany). And it was a great opportunity to meet some of the heads behind the brand again – Guy, Jess, and James. I met some of them already on a trading show in Friedrichshafen and even though they are based in the UK it is super cool to have this personal contact …

The weekend in Bleau

The weekend itself was awesome – I really enjoyed the climbing in the endless forests of Bleau with the warm autumn sun shining through the trees. One of the highlights was ‚Noir désir (gauche)‘ (7b) and another one spotting Jerome at super impressive highball. It was super cool that not only the athletes but also the 3RD ROCK team are all climbers – so it was great to hang around with them and to touch all kind of boulders from super easy to super hard …