Europe trad climbing advice?

If you’re considering Switzerland, the Swiss Alpine Club has just released a new guidebook called “C(h)lean” which is full of trad routes that require gear in Switzerland. Haven’t seen it myself but I also haven’t seen a collection of Swiss trad routes anywhere else.

In French and German: sac-cas.ch/fr/shop/livres/e…

The filidor plaisir series has some gear or mixed routes. The plaisir selection is worth a look for Switzerland and surrounding areas.

Lofoten is absolutely worthy of the hype. It has some of the best trad climbing I have ever done, on amazing rock, with easy access, and unbelievable views.

However, I think that given your limits it would be better to find a place where it is easier to find partners, and doesn't require so much time and $$$ to access.

There is also a Facebook group many traveling climbers use to find partners:

https://m.facebook.com/groups/1397118133710191?multi_permalinks=2289699074452088¬if_t=group_highlights¬if_id=1561974369549400&ref=m_notif

Thank you all for the suggestions. I think I'm gona go to the elb and if I can find a partner then great if not maybe hire a guide or just hike around. ill probably head to the dolomites after a week or two and do the same thing.

Any websites besides mp, ukc, and that Facebook link above for finding partners would be appreciated. 

Hey Danny, if you insist on Czech sandstone, go to HudySport in Hřensko. It is like a Czech version of REI, but with knowledgeable staff. They can help you with info, pro, and how to read Czech sandstone guidebooks, which don't have topos and are always organized clockwise. I ended up tying a bunch of monkey fists before going, and brought plenty of slings and cordage. Unlike in Germany, you can climb the bluffs in Czech. These routes are mostly runout sport routes with modern bolts that you can supplement with threads. 

the schmuck wrote: Hey Danny, if you insist on Czech sandstone, go to HudySport in Hřensko. It is like a Czech version of REI, but with knowledgeable staff. They can help you with info, pro, and how to read Czech sandstone guidebooks, which don't have topos and are always organized clockwise. I ended up tying a bunch of monkey fists before going, and brought plenty of slings and cordage. Unlike in Germany, you can climb the bluffs in Czech. These routes are mostly runout sport routes with modern bolts that you can supplement with threads. 

Sweet yea my loose plan was to find a climbing shop and ask around for info/partners. Any specific areas you would recommend to check out? It looks like the elb/saxon switzerland is pretty dang big.

Good campground right outside of Hřensko with good access to Labák (bluff sport climbing) and Rájské Údolí (towers). The classic areas are Český Ráj and Adršpach. These are a bit of a drive from Hrensko (1.5 to 2 hrs) and extremely traditional in style (no chalk, no metal pro & permits may be required)

If you want to come to Switzerland the last week of July, I’m happy to meet up and climb. Not working that week and pretty flexible.

And if I get my new passport before then, happy to meet you in Germany or Italy, but if not then I can't leave CH.

The Italian Dolomites are great. Espeicially for more moderate long, bolted routes. I've been able to go climbing in various destinations in Europe for week-long trips as part of a work related conference. The one thing that helps the most is a guide. I've climbed with Guido Bonvicini for 7 trips. We go to Chamonix next spring. He is amazing. He speaks perfect English. Send him an email or give him a call, he can meet you at many differet desitations with gear.
Guido Bonvicini: guido.bonvicini@scinthilla.com, +39 335 8239808

I wanted to revive this thread to see if anyone else had more to add to the great info already posted. I just returned from a trip to Europe and we planned to stay a week in Arco (first wk of sept), and do some dolomite day trips. Unfortunately, like people predicted here, a ton of rain was coming the latter half of the week, so we only climbed the first three days and actually left early to move elsewhere.

I can confirm the difficulty of finding partners in Italy was verified by multiple locals we met. We talked about showing up to popular crags in Arco before our gear arrived with other friends, and the locals said that Italians would never share a rope with a stranger, maybe another tourist would. Later, in Rome, when inquiring at a climbing gym about finding partners for a nearby crag the employees said it would be unlikely.

Wish I had found this thread before going, but we still had a great trip. 

Mel Cwrote:

I wanted to revive this thread to see if anyone else had more to add to the great info already posted. I just returned from a trip to Europe and we planned to stay a week in Arco (first wk of sept), and do some dolomite day trips. Unfortunately, like people predicted here, a ton of rain was coming the latter half of the week, so we only climbed the first three days and actually left early to move elsewhere.

Hopefully you didn't base that decision to move on a US weather service forecast. We nearly rearranged our entire trip to Italy (going to Chamonix and Briancon instead) at the end of Aug/start of Sept based on the Weather Channel forecast (which powers the iphone weather app, WUnderground, weather.com, the weather channel, and the google weather widget). I actually saved a screenshot of the forecast it was so miserable:

Fortunately, a local pointed me to meteoblue.com, which is I guess purpose-built for accurate forecasts in that part of Europe. Meteoblue accurately predicted that, rather than the week straight of heavy, all-day rain that WUnderground was predicting, we'd see maybe an afternoon shower or two (with insignificant accumulation). I think the Weather Channel model has a hard time predicting cloud patterns in that region (it'd generally over-predict both cloud cover and rain from those clouds). We stayed the course and had a beautiful week (with, indeed, a late afternoon shower or two). This was from around noon on a day that WUnderground, morning of, was still insisting we'd have an 80+% chance of 1/4" of rain or more starting at 9am (it never ended up raining or even getting meaningfully overcast):

Just remember that September has the least precipitation of the entire Dolomites climbing season (~8 days on avg), mostly from afternoon/evening showers, so if the forecast is saying 7 days of heavy rain it's probably not accurate. The rock also dries incredibly quickly - we were climbing completely dry rock (not even sun-facing) at 9am on a day with some overnight rain that stopped around 5am.

Time lapse at Sella Pass today is stunning:

Passo Sella webcam

Interesting to compare Meteoblue to a few other products.

I've always like www.yr.no.  I've found the hourly forecasts pretty useful especially for rock climbing.

This spread of webcams is pretty sweet:

Dolomiti webcams

Pretty cold and snowy...I think this season, late August and early September has been kinda challenging for climbing weather.

Maybe RKM can chime in...

In the Dolomites now and for the past 11 days. Two days rain - the rest perfect weather, or occasional afternoon showers.

According to the apple weather app we were in for constant rain. Meteoblue is the way to go for Euro forecasts.

Snow last night but clear if a little cool next week. Arco is just down the road if Dolomites weather craps out.