If you like strength climbing on jugs you’ll be disappointed, but if you enjoy friction climbing you’ll be delighted. Close to Poland, 2.5 hours from Wroclaw. A nice option for a weekend getaway, especially for climbers on a more or less fives level.
Oderwitzer Spitzberg is a mountain located in Germany, near the border with Poland and the Czech Republic. There are almost 100 climbing routes in the area. In the sectors at the bottom, these are mainly fours and fives, a dozen routes on the sixth level and single more difficult ones. At the top there is a small rock with routes mostly on the 2 or 3 level.
So the region may seem great for beginners, but after the visit I found that it is not a place for complete novices. The sector at the top is indeed good for them, but the fours and fives at the bottom are not so trivial. Even the plaque on the rock informs about it.
“Conside it’s different outside”. I understand that the point here is that rocks are different than a climbing gym (I don’t know what the text about climbing only top rope means, because the routes are normally bolted).
As mentioned above, these are rocks for those who want to climb on the slabs. Everything is a slab there, except for short sections on single routes and a few climbing routes on the level higher than 6+.
Climbing requires frequent friction climbing and dealing with slabs on which there are no holds or steps. If you can easily do fours and fives on the climbing gym, you may have problems here, because it’s a completely different climbing. Even a three is not climbing stairs.
An additional difficulty is the ban on the use of magnesia.
Mosses and lichens are another obstacle. On the rocks in the sunny sectors it is still fine, but the more shade, the more greenery on the rock. I made one five in such a sector and I do not recommend it. It was crumbling under the hands and feet and some routes are actually impossible to climb because of the moss.
What equipment to take to Oderwitzer Spitzberg?
Many climbing routes are 25 – 30 m long, so a rope of at least 60 m is necessary. And it will be useful even … a hundred meters. Seriously. Some routes according to thecrag.com are 50 m long in one pitch.
I don’t know what the routes authors’ intention was. We did one of these as a team. In the middle there was the pigtail anchor for the rappel and two ring bolts next to each other, so it looked like you could do one short pitch and lower off or do the whole route in two pitches. I leaded all the way as one pitch, but there wasn’t a belay station at the top that I expected. Only one kind of ring and the pigtail 1.5 meters lower, which I used as a second point.
Maybe the premise is that you climb one pitch alone and then rappel two pitches. Or that you’ll have a half rope to make a long descent. We rappeled a few meters from the other side of the rock and went down the hiking trail.
On another route there was no intermediate anchor for 35 meters and there were at least a few more meters to the end of the route (maybe a dozen or so, because you couldn’t see), so I used the ring bolt from the neighboring route to lower off (on some routes there are ring bolts, and on others spit bolts).
Rock prtection gear will not be useful in Oderwitzer Spitzberg. The climbing routes are bolted and that’s quite good, i.e. there are 3-5 meter gaps between bolts, but on easy fragments, and where it is more difficult, they are more dense. At least that’s how it is on the routes I’ve climbed. The only concern is the rusty screws on some spits…
A few quickdraws are enough for most routes, but on the longest there are a dozen or so bolts. The routes end with pigtails, so you don’t need to do lowering off procedure.
The guidebook of Oderwitzer Spitzberg
I do not have and do not know a guidebook to this area. You can more or less get your bearings on thecrag.com, but we used the rock captions the most.
For ease of use, some routes are also color-coded, for example, on one route the bolts are painted yellow, and on the next one blue.
Other information about Oderwitzer Spitzberg
- Parking for several cars is at the base of the mountain, alternatively the other at the top by the restaurant (only for guests). The approach to the rocks from the parking lot at the bottom is just a few minutes away. From the restaurant it is 100 m to a small easy rock at the top. The approach from the bottom to the top takes about 10 minutes.
- At the top there are viewing platforms and from them quite nice views :)
- By the rocks at the bottom there is the “Basis-Camp”, that is a shed with benches, a place for a bonfire, a grill and even beer bottles and a box where you can put the fee for beer. If you’re thinking of bonfire sausages, you don’t have to take ketchup ;)
- Two via ferratas (visible here on the right side of the rock) also lead to the top. I wrote more about it in the article Via ferratas close to Poland (Czechia and Germany).
Finally, some photos :)
Thank you :)
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