Bengt

Climbing

A solo climbing micro adventure

After 8 weeks of Covid-19 lockdown the local rules finally allowed me to get out and do stuff again. And after having looked at the Na Penyal tower for a while now I racked up for some solo exploratory climbing close to home.

Climbing

My first year of climbing

While sitting at home due to the Covid-19 mandatory social isolation in Spain I got the chance to look back at my experiences during my first year of rock climbing and I would like to share what I learned, what went well and what could have been better.

Hiking

New trails in the friendly mountains

Any chance I get to get out into the mountains is much appreciated and sharing the beauty of the Tramuntana with friends even more so. On this short overnight hike we took some new paths (and non-paths) in den central part of the range and discovered new ways to combine known ones.

Climbing

Good Friends, Climbing And Steel

There’s always something new: In August of 2019, I met up with three friends for my first attempt at sport-climbing. However, instead of going into the mountains or a climbing gym, we chose a retired quarry and a steel mill situated right in the metro area of the Ruhr valley. How’s that for flavour?

Climbing

Walking Iron Ways in cliffs, rubble and sky

Adventuring is always best with a good partner and I (Bengt) was luckily joined by Jost from Hamburg on a four day Via Ferrate trip to Austria. Better yet he agreed to write a report on this trip in which he shares his insights and (from what I can gather) diplomatic comments on my performance.

Cycling

Hitting the road in 2020

To stay on track with my ongoing commitment to do a trip at least once a month I headed out for a two day road bike excursion from the East coast of Mallorca, into the Tramuntana mountains and back in January - and was convinced again that this place just keeps being awesome.

Climbing

An epic day out on the Sa Gubia wall on Mallorca

After starting out with rock climbing in April 2019 I would not have guessed that I would be high up on a multipitch climb later the same year. But in December 2019 a good friend and I tied in at the bottom of 250m Albahida route on Mallorca and started what was to be an epic day out.

Hiking

Sleeping under the stars on the peaks of the Sierra Neveda

The Sierra Nevada range in Spain is close to major urban areas and very remote and rugged at the same time. It offers great multi day trekking tours above 3.000m n.n. on almost non-existing trails. This is the story of our five day trek in June 2019 traversing some of the highest peaks in Spain.

Climbing

The Watzmann traverse

In the summer of 2019 I was in the Berchtesgarden area and amended another trip to see what the fuss is about. Spoiler: Yes the traverse is definitely worth it and no you do not have to be Reinhold Messner to do it.

Cycling

La Grava del Pla

A gravel cycling overnighter on Mallorca Keeping true to one of my goals (doing at least one trip per months be it short or long) I packed ye olde Fargo in late April 2019 and went on a two day exploration of the farm tracks and gravel paths of the

Climbing

Off path scrambling up the Talaia Moreia

A midweek adventure in the rain and wind While the real mountains on Mallorca are all clustered on the west coast, there a a few peaks on the north-east coast that rise right out of the sea up to 550m and are quite rugged with imposing rock faces. For this

Cycling

The Galatzó loop

A bikepacking weekender in the southern Tramuntana mountains To kick of the new year I went out on the mountains again for a two day exploration of the southern Tramuntana. A bit unknowingly my route was a big loop around the Puig de Galatzó, one of the higher peaks in

Cycling

Hunting trails on an aluminum horse

Exploring the Oise region of France on a lent MTB Every self-respecting bike nerd will have a vision of riding in France: Mount Ventoux, the Tourmalet or the cobbles of Roubaix will come to mind and going to France and NOT riding would be a travesty. When I set of

Hiking

We should have brought an Ice Ax...

A winter ascent of the Krottenkopf in the Bavarian alps After getting into hiking and scrambling up mountains this year I met up with Torben in Munich to do a bit of easy walking in the wintery December weather. However in now almost traditional fashion the easy walk turned into

Hiking

As high as you are allowed to go

Scrambling up Puig de Massanella on Mallorca If you have been following our antics you might have noticed that there are quite a few trips that happened on the mediterranean island of Mallorca - this place just keeps on giving and I still have not seen all of it. This

Cycling

Weisswurst Worlds Tour ´18

A two day road ride to Innsbruck to watch the road cycling world championships Having visited the cyclocross world champs a few years ago I pitched the idea to Torben that we should have a look at the road cycling world championship in Innsbruck in October 2018. And being who

Cycling

Äppelknyckar

1300 km of gravel cycling and camping in Sweden In the summer of 2018 we set out for a two week gravel cycling trip through southern Sweden. This multi-part article narrates our experience. Sweden, the North, lakes, woods, moose and fermented fish - those were our first thoughts while coming

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 11: Always too short...

Uppsala to Arlanda Our flights would leave at Arlanda that afternoon and we made sure to have plenty of time at the airport to pack up out stuff and get through security (it would turn out nearly not enough). The ride toward the airport was just 40 km and we

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 10: There be vikings and blast beats

Into Uppsala The day started off weird. While preparing to leave for Uppsala a guy with a giant backpack came right out of the woods. It turned out he was training for a expedition into the mountains on the border between Sweden and Norway and was carrying 35l of Water

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 9: Wasp infestation

Köping to almost Uppsala The next morning while having breakfast on the lake shore it dawned on us that this trip might actually come to an end soon. This would be the last day of real riding towards Uppsala and in two days we would be back in the plane

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 8: The coldest lake

Karlskoga to Köping Our general heading for the last few days would be east towards Uppsala and finally Arlanda airport. We started the day with a visit at Alfred Nobels villa which is noteworthy as this would be the last bit of civilization for the day. The day continued with

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 7: Cannons and Mister Nobel

Göta canal to Karlskoga After a few days of sleeping outside and it being quite hot we decided that we should find a hostel or similar for the next night to shower and reset everything for the last third of our trip. Our initial searches online in the next towns

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 6: Bikepacking vs Cycle touring

Hjo to Göta canal Leaving our shelter in the woods we headed towards the Göta canal. This man-made waterway connects coasts of Sweden and makes use of the two great lakes of Vänern and Vättern on its way. We would be riding alongside the stretch of the canal that connects

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 5: 50% Vätternrundan

Gränna to Hjo This day was spent circumnavigating the southern half of Vättern following more or less the route of the Vätternrundan, a massive yearly cyclosportive going around the complete lake. As it turned out the day was quite eventful. The first part of the ride brought us to the

Cycling

Äppelknyckar Day 4: Tinned ravioli

Kisa to Gränna, lake Vättern Our general heading for the day: West until we hit lake Vättern. With thunderstorms forecasted around the lake for later that day we kept a close eye on the weather the whole day and we paced ourselfs to make sure we would not be riding