Two years ago Flo and I checked Mekka out for the first time. Mekka – the most iconic 8b in the Palatinate and an amazing line in a 20m overhanging shield at the south side of the Nonnenfels. It’s one of the lines you will all in love with when you see it for the first time. But two years ago we couldn’t do any of the crux moves. We clipped the first three quickdraws and were not able to do the crux or to look at the upper part.
In the last two years, we often talked about Mekka, but we never tried it again – until last week. We checked out the moves again and it worked much better. For Mekka you have to climb an easy start, catch some small side holds, do a dyno into a bad jug (at least if you are not so tall), grab a two finger pocket and then climb up a scary edge to the top. The end is not really hard, but pumpy, badly protected and you may hit the slap on the left side if you fall there.
Last Saturday I could do the crux dyno – but stuck it just one time out of ten tries. I tried it often but always was fell on the dyno. Flo could do the crux move very easily in the first tries and I even expected him to do it in the second go – but then it got worse every go.
But we didn’t want to wait another two years for Mekka. Last Wednesday we drove to the Palatinate again to climb two hours in the last sunlight of this day. I didn’t expect me to climb it because with once every ten tries my chances were very bad. We clipped our quickdraws into the route and did some moves of Mekka just for warm up. Then Flo made his first go – and simply stuck the crux and made it to the top. This was pretty surprising but super cool (Flos first 8b ever and then Mekka). Then it was my turn and I felt a lot of pressure. I just sunlight for about two goes and if I would fail, I may wouldn’t come back for months until I found someone to climb with me there. So I tried my best – and stuck the dyno. I was super happy. What a funny day – we did two goes sending Mekka and drove home again …
