Climbing a lot in the Palatinate and the Vosges, we are constantly searching for new spots, routes, and boulders to provide some variety. The Odenwald is not too far from Karlsruhe and provides a bunch of granite boulders and sandstone quarries – perfect to discover some new places at the weekend.
The actual master was to climb in a small sandstone quarry next to Heubach, which provides enough routes in all grades. But not looking at a map in advance, we did not recognize that it was further away than expected and way too far for one day of climbing. So we had to adjust our plan a little bit and the second choice was a small quarry next to Abtsteinach called ‚Stiefelhütte‘.
The quarry surrounds a small meadow is a quite nice place to spend the day. Most of the routes were very powerful with long moves on good holds. My favorite route on this day was ‚Kraftwerk‘ (8+) – a long route through the headwall of the quarry. I finished the day with an ascent of the ‚Fliegender Odenwälder‘ (9+/10-), but this route is more scary than technically challenging – I can only recommend it to a limited extent.
The quarry ‚Stiefelhütte‘ is a quite nice place to spend a day and I liked it very much. Please note, that the quarry is on private ground and you have to leave before 6 pm.
