Every year our climbing group in Oetztal attempts to go away on a climbing trip together. This year suggestions included Turkey, Oman and Spain. But when Israel became an option, I knew immediately that it would be an experience, impossible to miss. On the 26th of December it was time to go for Stew, Babsy, Kathi, Heiko, Hens, Eli, Gabriel, Kili, Anna and me. We found ourselves at airport Munich terminal 2 F ...a lonely terminal far away from the main airport (reinforced control). After a very thorough check by security we sat on the plan, with travel guides in our hand and minds full of excitement and slight trepidation. This was my first time visiting the middle east and I did not know what to expect, one thing was for sure there will be a lot of sightseeing to do between days on the rock. During the time we spent in Israel, Or Wechsler an Israeli climber, guided us around. He showed us many interesting places. Below I have documented some information from the areas we visited:
Keshet Cave: This was my favorite crag. I climbed in the sector Apollo’s wall where the routes were up to 35m long and slightly till strong overhanging with difficulties ranging from 6a to 8b+. The rock was similar to the most crags we went to, orange limestone. A local told me that this area was only a few month old and climbing was still prohibited due to nature conservancy law. But since a few month a group of strong Israel climbers try to negotiate with the government to ease this regulations and open up more areas for climbing.
Gitta: Gitta sector Fuel is the oldest area for hard sport climbing in Israel. Here I probably had my best day of the entire trip. The routes were ones again overhanging and steep, but not as long as in Keshet Cave with the most climbs in the 8a region. I dried a lot of different routes but only manage to climb the interesting route called Cornflake 7c+, but I thoroughly needed the restday after.
Nezer Cave: This is probably the craziest crag I have ever seen. You enter through a hole in the ground were a massive fig tree grows out and inside you will find the steepest wall in the world, a bloody horizontal roof, hence the name “madness” of one sector. This was an interesting experience and proven my incapability of climbing in overhangs.