Finger Pockets and Janssen Adventures

Last weekend we went to Belgium for a little climbing expedition. It's always a crapshoot with weather, but we lucked out and it was absolutely beautiful. It was also kind of an adventure. A Janssen adventure.

Janssen Adventure:

A glorious, action-packed adventure where things to slightly wrong, but not so wrong that it isn't beyond type two fun;

An expedition where something doesn't go as planed. Usually there is some sort of unexpected adventure, often involving a sketchy approach, trad lead, or poor decision making. All in all a memorable experience where nobody dies but you might think you're going to get hurt for a second or two. 

We were very, very excited to get on the train to Freyr, the "most important climbing area in Belgium." This was largely because we really, really were looking forward to climbing, but also because we haven't had the opportunity to travel by train yet. EasyJet is really cheap.

So we got on the train with our stuff. We had a lot of stuff, between sleeping bags, tents, and climbing gear, including 2 ropes (climbing with 3 people it's easiest to trail a rope up with the first follower).

Yup, I always make that face when I'm psyched

The only good part about hauling around all that gear is that people get out of your way when you're barreling through the train station trying to make your connection. Unfortunately, the parting of the people effect didn't do us any good in Brussels Central since the train arrived late and we rushed to our next platform only to watch the doors on the train close and it drive away. Thankfully we only had to wait an hour until the next train.

We arrived in Anseremme, Belgium around 9:30pm and proceeded to walk, in the dark, to the Freyr climbing area. Or at least that's where we hoped we were going, since the signage was scant and it was pretty dark. Thanks to my awesome navigation skills (using a screen-cap of Google Maps), we made to the Belgium Alpine Club site and alpine hut at (what we assumed was) the Freyr climbing area. After trying to figure out where we could set up our tents, we gave up and spent the night in the alpine hut. 

Saturday morning was beautiful, if a bit dewy. We decided to walk back into Anseremme to find some food and, hopefully, a copy of the Freyr climbing guide. We had no luck on the climbing guide front, but did pick up some fresh bread from a bakery. It really is a nice little town. 

During our excursion into town, we learned that the cafe where guidebooks used to be sold had burned down in a rather impressive fire in 2013. However, we were informed that the frite shop (that's fries to the non-Europeans) across from the climbing parking area sold them, but they didn't open until mid-day.

By the time we were back to the climbing area, the sun was out and the rock was well en-route to dry, so we shrugged and made our way down the trail towards a formation. A couple guys hiked down a few minutes behind us, and were kind enough to let us look at their guidebook. Unfortunately, it wasn't much help, since we, quite frankly, had no idea where we were or what we were doing. So we wandered around the formation a bit and picked out what looked like a fairly easy route. Figured we'd do a quick route and get the feel of the ratings there.

Ev took the lead and up we went on what turned out to be some incredibly smooth, glassy rock. Which Freyr is famous for. 

Yeah, that didn't quite as planned....

The limited beta available on the climbing websites said that the classic routes are "polished." That is the understatement of the century. Polished doesn't even begin to describe the smoothness and total lack of friction of the Janssen Adventure route. 

There was a lovely looking second pitch after the first, so we said what the hell and climbed that, too. But then we couldn't find a rap point. Welp, guess we're topping out. Our super easy first attempt turned out to be a 4.5 pitch "where's the route? Oh god, that's gotta be a 5.11 crack, abort! Go left! Go left! Man, I really wish we had a guidebook..." 

Ev took two leads, I took two leads, and thus our quick and easy climb turned into an all-day Janseen Adventure.

But the view from the top was pretty amazing, and it was still quite satisfying. 

To celebrate surviving our little adventure, we got some delicious post-climb beer and food. 

Sunday morning we decided to climb for a couple hours before catching our train back to Rotterdam. After all, the rock was big and tempting. 

Once again it was a beautiful day, so, with our newly acquired guidebook, we found a 6b (that's a 5.10d, boys) slab and I led a quick 5.6 to set a top rope.

Ev really enjoyed the pockets on the rock, especially since they were pretty much the only thing of any help on the route. In true slab form, it was barren of any holds, ledges, or particularly good friction (although the route was way less slick than what we climbed on Saturday). 

After Ev took an attempt, Deva gave it a shot. 

Then I took a run at the route, cheated the first crux, then made it within 1m of the top before the slab kicked my butt.

Ev took another try and managed to finish it (the only person of the day to do it!), then pulled the top rope and we called it a weekend.

Unsurprisingly, our train into Belgium Central was canceled due to track maintenance (boo), so we took a bus to a neighboring town, then hopped a train. Naturally, we missed our Belgium-Rotterdam train, so spent 1.5 hours hanging out until the next one.


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On a completely unrelated note, I should probably congratulate my parents on their 30th wedding anniversary. They're kind of awesome.