50rp-climbers-posts - imschatten: Visual Storytelling

#22 Flo Haubner

5/27/2025

Flo Haubner and Kühlloch go way back. It’s one of his home crags and at the same a place with a rich tradition. Flo began his journey here in the usual way: on the left of the wall, on routes like Demian and Falscher Hase. He still remembers throwing glimpses to the right, at the “big” climbers, locals of the Amberg area, and the impressive lines they were doing.

He had been introduced to climbing by his father. Their family has always spent time together outdoors, be it hiking in the Fränkische Schweiz, easy via ferratas in the mountains, or the occasional climb in the Lautrachtal, round the corner from home.

#21 Lara Neumeier

5/20/2025

“For me, it’s not so much a single route in Franken but the whole package that’s in the front row here: relaxed atmosphere, climbing hard and good company”, Lara Neumeier says when asked about her favourite line. She has lived in Nürnberg for a few years and she enjoys her sessions in the Frankenjura; though she doesn’t get to spend a lot of time on these crags - for her heart lies in the mountains after all.

Born in Allgäu and having grown up in Oberbayern, a stone’s throw from Austria, the Alps have shaped Lara’s everyday life since childhood. Her family has always done all sorts of mountain activities: hiking, skiing, mountain biking; in the summertime also climbing, mostly on Italian and French crags: that’s where it all began for her.

At the age of 11, a school climbing program pulled Lara into a gym, where she’d train and play with her peers. Two years later she was already climbing in her first competitions, though even this early in her life she soon noticed that what really interested her was the nature experience of outside cragging rather than competing on plastic. Throughout her teens she moved towards the outdoors again, which also meant gaining some multipitch experience on easy routes that she’d climb with her uncle. By now her focus lies completely on rock, mainly on proud alpine walls.

Lara was 18 when she discovered the world of more demanding alpine climbing. She had just done her A-levels when friends showed her what doing difficult lines in the mountains can be like. During this period she also got to know the prodigy Babsi Zangerl: an important friendship for Lara’s development. Babsi gave her a crash course in trad climbing, which has gone a long way, a skill that Lara has perfected and used extensively since.

A couple of years of hard multipitch climbing combined with trad adventures were the perfect basis for big walls. In 2023, Lara stood at the foot of El Cap in Yosemite National Park for the first time. Her partner for the upcoming climb: Babsi. The ladies climbed El Corazon together, which Lara describes as the perfect introduction to this mythical granite rock formation - and big wall climbing as such. For Lara, it’s still one of her most unforgettable ascents - all the way up there together with El Niño, also an El Cap line, and a still fresh tick: the nails hard trad route Psychogramm at Bürser Platte in Austria - hers being also the first female ascent of this 2014 Alex Luger line.

“Who’s been there once, knows: Yosemite doesn’t let go of you”, says Lara, who keeps a sharp focus on trad, big wall and alpine routes, while casually ticking off some of Franken’s harder climbs, whenever she enters the forests. Such well-known routes as Cringer, Battle Cat, and Mr. Incredible - to name but a few - are already on her list.

Her favourite crag in Franken has to be Hängender Stein, which she has been sweeping steadily between studies, training sessions in the gyms and big days out in the mountains. The reason? It’s a long wall, where one can climb hard and get decent mileage done both at once.

While Lara doesn’t really have a favourite route in Franken, in her opinion you can’t really go wrong with the classics here. Chasin’ the Trane. her 50RP route, is one of Franken’s finest and a nice memory of Lara’s from long before she moved to Nürnberg for her studies. As most of her other ascents here, it was a spontaneous one, ticked off in one short trip, without much projecting effort, but surely with grace and confidence characteristic to her style. She wanted to climb Chasin’ because of its historic importance and it worked out during a short outing with a friend, leaving behind a memory of a day well-spent.

Such days are exactly what Lara associates Franken with: loose atmosphere and good times with friends in the beautiful forests, plus flow in the renowned routes.

A little behind the scenes insight: the black and white photos on the left are early poster tests.
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What keeps her so in love with climbing and the mountains are the intensive experiences: the adventure, the unknown, the deep connection to nature. She is motivated by long days on the walls, during which she can push herself both physically and mentally, which is in turn rewarded with unforgettable moments that stay with her for a long time and keep the stoke high for training in the city.

Thank you, Lara, for being
a part of 50RP!

#20 Moritz Welt

5/1/2025

“Each day out in the Frankische Schweiz is like coming home to me.”

For Moritz Welt, the Frankenjura is above all homeland. He has visited almost every crag here - a decent feat, considering how many small climbing spots Franken consists of! He knows it very well and enjoys that he can always go climbing without any pressure here. With a couple of special projects to return to whenever he fancies, the motivation for his home crags isn’t likely to run out.

#18 Jonas Bauernschmidt

4/20/2025

Cake, beer and finger pockets - these are Franken’s symbols for Jonas Bauernschmidt. You can’t really go wrong with these three! He’d better not forget coffee next time, though, otherwise Wolfgang may never let him through the Schwarzenegger part of his classic 10- at Richard Wagner Fels - one of Jonas’ home crags!

Richard Wagner Fels belongs to Franken’s absolutely most important historic crags. Having grown up in Obertrubach, Jonas can easily walk down to it on a whim, as well as to a range of other climbing spots - and some pretty famous ones at that.

#17 Sarah Kampf

4/11/2025

It's impossible to talk German climbing scene without mentioning Sarah Kampf. She got into this sport as a teen and it didn't take her long to start ticking off notable routes - all the way up to securing the first female 8c ascent in the Frankenjura… and beyond, for she hasn't slacked off since.

Sarah's ticklist today includes nine 8c lines, a three 8b+/c and over 540 routes graded 8a and above! She's also stood on the podium on many German Cups, as well as coming second in the overall qualification in both lead and speed... although she's never enjoyed competing as much as she loves climbing outdoors.

#16 Johanna Schindler

4/4/2025

For Johanna Schindler it all started with a harness and a broken hand. The prologue to her climbing took place in Chamonix; and no, she didn’t go there for a summer course that would teach her the knots and how to belay.

It was winter, a bit more than 10 years ago. Johanna and her then-boyfriend went snowboarding to the French Alps. Before the holiday, Henric had bought a harness; he wanted to ride down a glacier in the Mont Blanc range and she mocked him for having to buy extra equipment specifically for it. On the second day of their trip, Henric had the inexperienced Johanna ride over a snow mound. She broke her hand in the attempt and the snowboard holiday turned a valley station and lumumba (a drink of hot cocoa and rum or brandy) one. What lasted beyond the trip and hand rehab was the harness.

#15 Katha Franke

3/23/2025

There was a time when camping under the stars in Franken wasn’t taboo and Katha Franke used it well. She and her friends would sometimes only emerge from the sleeping bags at the foot of a route as the first morning climbers arrived to try it. Normally there are enough rain-sheltered spots in Franken, but downpours happen. Before one such cloudburst, Katha and her friend found a box of red wine and a pile of Hustler magazines at a parking spot. Soon the rain got so heavy that they were forced to retreat to the car and look for somewhere dry. They took their find with them.

The search led them to an empty chapel, their only hope not to soak. If you’ve been to some of Franken’s smaller villages, you know places of worship can be tiny here; this one could barely fit their boulder mat bed. It had a roof, though, and that was the only requirement. They stayed for the night.

#14 Andi Hofmann

3/15/2025

Andi Hofmann sent his first 9th grade (UIAA) route in autumn 1986. This brought about the idea that he “may be able to achieve something” on rock. From then on, climbing filled his head completely; he thought about it 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

“To go climbing all the time, do some exercises on some boards…” Andi remembers. He and his friends may not have had much of an idea how to train but what they lacked in knowledge, they made up with spirits. “The border between healthy enthusiasm and disturbed behaviour wasn’t always clear."

#13 Christoph Kölbel

3/9/2025

“For me, Franken ist the nicest climbing and bouldering area in existence”, states confidently Christoph Kölbel. “It always holds some surprises ready and the possibilities here are endless.”

He is a native Franke, born in Lauf an der Pegnitz. Born here by chance, he stayed by choice - or rather moved closer to the Franconian crags and forests. Christoph loves having friends from all over visit him at home, to have them stay with his family and to show them the richness of the local crags, share his love for Franken with people that matter to him.

#12 Chris Hanke

3/8/2025

Chris Hanke knew climbing from a very young age. “My parents dragged me through the mountains already as a small child; I could climb sooner than walk.” Both of his siblings climbed as well.

However, it didn’t become his “main sport” straight away. As a youngster he tried different activities, like athletics, gymnastics, skiing… He was into gymnastics when he got noticed by a climbing coach who was responsible for a children’s group in Munich (his hometown). The coach invited him to join a session or two with the group. Chris accepted and really enjoyed the “proper climbing”.

Having experience in different sports, especially gymnastics, Chris approached climbing in a structured way from the word go. He already had an idea about what systematic training looks like and having access to a coach helped as well.