Ghettoblaster

In 1986, after a winter spent writing the landmark Sportklettern Heute, Wolfgang Gullich left his mark on Rabenfels with his ascent of Ghettoblaster, hailed as the first upper-tenth grade route in Germany, and one of the hardest routes in the world at the time (Gullich had established Punks in the Gym, the first X+ or 5.14a precisely 51 weeks earlier). Prolific Frankenjura route developer Mylan Sykora said at the time of Gullich’s first ascent that Ghettoblaster “was a route on which no other German climber had even the slightest chance.”

The route follows a streak of 1-pad deep water pockets up a 6-meter stretch of 25-degree overhanging flawless blue/gray limestone on the west face of Rabenfels. The climbing is technical and bouldery, requiring long precise deadpoints between pockets. The crux is a huge lock-off or deadpoint from one deep mono to another.

On the far left side of the tower, up the hill and in the trees, is a ring bolt at ground-level on the west buttress of the formation. Belay at this ring bolt, and follow the left-most of the two bolted lines that begin here (the right line is Westside Story).

4 bolts to a 2 bolt anchor.