Day Trippin' in Belgium

Yep, there's climbing in Belgium and it's fantastic!

On a whim...well, with the help of our "Rock Climbing in Europe" guidebook :) we drove to Freyr, Belgium for a day on some pretty sick limestone.  We rolled in late at night and found what they call "The Refuge" a cabin-like building that houses 20 climbers at a given time in large bunks.  There were three Dutch guys and one kooky Belium guy staying there...soo, I was a little apprehensive but they ended up all being way cool and really helped us get our bearings the next day.

Digression-Adam has what is called a Tactical Pen.  Basically it's a really strong pen made of some crazy strong metal that he swears he can use on pressure points of a would-be assailant and turn them into crying babies on the ground begging for mercy...um...not betting the farm on that, but it does put my mind at ease a little :)

Leading on the slick Limestone

Anywho, Adam put me in charge of picking our routes which I was really excited about.  I ended up choosing two classic ones that Belgium kings had climbed almost 100 years ago!  The rock is about 400 feet tall in some areas and so polished from having been climbed so much that some foot holds were way too slippy to even put your weight on...scary fun!  Oh yeah, and all the lizards running around didn't help :)

We climbed some freaky traverses and really exposed areas...I friggin' loved it!  And, since I picked the routes I picked which pitches to lead...which...was ALL the good ones.  We capped off the day with delicious Belgium beer and fries, regaling our climbing tales with our Dutch friends.

Another great day of climbing, eating and drinking with new friends in new, exciting places.

Lovin' life these days :)