Giessen, Germany

Drytooling at the Spitzbunker

What a crazy place for drytooling – right in the middle of the city, in the centre of Germany!

At the Spitzbunker, we climb a 20-meter-high listed concrete air-raid shelter in the middle of the city, which provided shelter for up to 400 people during air raids in World War II. There are eight of these air-raid shelters in Giessen. One of them came into focus for the regional climbing scene in 2001, and was converted into an outdoor sport climbing facility as part of a project by the University of Giessen (Department of Sports Science, in collaboration with DAV and GSW), equipped with belay anchors, bolts and climbing holds.
There was no drytooling scene at that time. However, a few ice climbers used illegal opportunities for drytooling on exposed buildings in the region to get in shape for the ice climbing season.

Difficult times for creative freedom

Twenty years later, in the winter of 2020 and during the first Covid lockdown, I had the idea of developing the Spitzbunker for drytooling. Together with Bärbel Wullenweber, we both grinded and drilled the first drytooling routes. This resulted in a very productive winter with lots of climbing. The local climbing gyms were closed due to the high number of Covid infections and there were travel restrictions at the time, so most climbers were stuck at home. We, on the other hand had a great project, we climbed outdoors at the bunker, had plenty of time and were creative in creating new drytooling routes. This allowed us to gain something meaningful and positive from this difficult time. Since then, it has been our goal to continue promoting drytooling in our region with ever new ideas.

The drytooling community is growing!

A major improvement in subsequent years came with the addition of stainless steel placements, which enable complex and athletic movements and make drytooling on the Spitzbunker more technically demanding. As there are no overhanging areas on the bunker, we achieve the difficulties through the smallest of placements, often in the millimetre range. In some places, tiniest placements are pulled with the entire body weight, resulting in mentally challenging routes with a fascinating mix of delicate and brutal climbing movements. With so many interesting possibilities, a drytooling community emerged and grew steadily. After we had set up a number of beautiful routes, the idea for a drytooling event came up.

DRYTOOLING WINTER OPENING

What a crazy event! In 2021, the DRYTOOLING WINTER OPENING took place as the first and only drytooling event in Germany. Looking from the outside, it is certainly one of the strangest climbing events across the country: over the course of a weekend, 60 to 80 climbers climb a concrete bunker with ice tools and crampons – having an incredible amount of fun doing so. Over the years, the event has developed from a local one-day climbing festival into a two-days climbing event with workshops, a drytooling competition, equipment rental and a nationwide get-together of the drytooling scene – with guests from the Netherlands, Austria and Switzerland. The event is now a fixed date in the calendars of many climbers.