The route ‚Schlendern ist Luxus‘ (8a) is one classic of the Palatinate. The crux on that huge sloper hold makes this route unique. After taking down ‚Magnetfiner‘ at the left side, I wanted to climb it next. I could climb ‚Magnetfinger‘ quite fast, nevertheless ‚Schlendern ist Luxus‘ was a real drama for me …
Act I: Flo’s quick ascent
After climbing ‚Magnetfinger‘, Flo and I were super psyched to figure out how to climb this sloper crux of ‚Schlendern‘. We tried a lot of variants, but at the end of the day, there was only one beta that seemed to be the best one: using a toe hook, grabbing the sloper to move on to the good jugs and then cut the feet. Flo dealt with it in short order. He used his height and after some super far moves he topped out the route. Looked easy and I was quite impressed. I could not climb it on this day, but I thought with more tricks and tries I could climb it one day for sure …
Act II: Near-death experience
I returned in the next week with Julian to try again. What I did not remember was that Flo was the one who had clipped in the quickdraws the last time. The Palatinate is feared for badly placed bolts and the first one at ‚Schlendern‘ is really stupidly located. I spent no thoughts about it, climbed up on a small 30cm wide ledge in about 3m height and balanced to the left without holds. Normally, this would not have been a big deal, but I was really scared to lose balance and to fall down before the first bolt. And then I stood there directly under the first bolt way too small to clip it. The ring was laying directly on the rock, so striking in the quickdraw was impossible. Yeah … and then I stood there for a long time unable to move back and forth. I feared falling down – Julian feared me falling down …
After an endless time, I somehow clipped in the quickdraw. I did not climb ‚Schlendern‘ on this day.
Act III: The struggle
I kept returning. A prepared quickdraw was the trick to survive the first bolt and I checked out the moves again. After endless tries and variants, I had to admit that it was impossible to climb ‚Schlendern‘ in the way Flo did it. The only chance for seemed to be a dynamic move into the jugs and catching the whole swing afterwards. I tried it multiple times until my toes hurt too much from the toe hook. I could not stick this move. The year was over and winter was coming soon – ‚Schlendern‘ had succeeded. But I wanted to return much stronger in the next year and then climb it.
Act IV: The Ascent
On our team trip with the Felskader BW, we visited the Burhaldefels again. I had already done most of the hard routes there except ‚Schlendern‘. So I tried it again and figured out a new way to climb it using fancy hooks on the big sloper. And finally, I could climb it at the end of this day …
Act V: Trauerflöte
Of course, I wanted to try ‚Trauerflöte‘ (8a+ former 8b) which is the combination of the classics ‚Magnetfinger‘ and ‚Schlendern‘ and results in an amazing line with lots of hard moves. With the new beta this should not be a big deal – that was what I thought. I climbed ‚Magnetfinger‘ about six times and kept falling when I slapped the big sloper. Ah … this was exhausting, but a good training. After checking it out again and returning another day, I could even climb ‚Trauerflöte‘. Finally, the last chapter of ‚Schlendern ist Luxus‘ was closed for me. What a drama …