You can boulder on sandstone in various places in the Ruhrtal. Kamouraska is like a small version of the bigger bouldering area nearby: Avalonia. The area is located to the northeast of the town Herdecke. Daniel Pohl has devoted countless hours to developing the area. With his own hands he cleared the rocks, laid out terraces and decorated the area.
You can climb here all year round. The place is relatively shady in summer but for the best conditions you should visit in winter. The rock is quite fast drying and the roof stays mostly dry during rain. After lots of rain the place is a bit humid. Watch out for ticks during the season.
The roof is and the path are in quite good shape after some recent cleaning. The wall section (La Belle) needs some cleaning on the top of the rock because it is starting to get overgrown.
By Daniel Pohl:
𝘼 𝙢𝙚𝙢𝙤𝙧𝙮 𝙛𝙧𝙤𝙢 𝟮𝟬𝟬𝟴:
"It must have been autumn 2007, when mountain biker and boulderer David told me about a rock cave in the Muttental valley... I had actually overlooked it, because when I was out at the natural cliffs, the property was still firmly locked... But RWE terminated the lease with the bird lovers, and their former favorite hut was demolished. On December 23, 2007, I submitted my master's thesis and began rebuilding the cave in a 16-day digging project. It came at just the right time, because 2008 was indeed the big turning point in bouldering: from niche to hype.
Layla (Mammi) stopped here for a lovely time on her way from Ticino to the Frankenjura, and Udo (Neumann) helped me with his film and the climbing article into a new life: instead of a doctorate in geology, building bouldering areas as a vision of the future. Yes, memorable days came, like in April 2008 when Udo organized his invitational in the Bronx and subsequently invited Mayan Smith-Gobat to Kamouraska. 2008 was a wonderful year!"
For more history, you can watch the award-winning clip 'Felsenbauer' on Youtube: https://youtu.be/OmuextbHBA4?si=hAcb4-GJn9vTnb8u.
𝙁𝙞𝙡𝙢 𝙙𝙚𝙨𝙘𝙧𝙞𝙥𝙩𝙞𝙤𝙣:
Daniel Pohl has created fantastic bouldering areas throughout the Ruhr Valley where there was nothing before! The rocks were already there, of course, but the terrain underneath was absolutely horrific. Daniel is a stonemason AND a qualified geologist, which means he can build wonderful natural stone walls to secure the terraces. The whole thing is a mixture of landscape art and what BMXers and mountain bikers have been doing in secret for a while now. As a boulderer, you can assume that wherever the Ruhr River once flowed, something good for bouldering has also emerged! That's the good news.
The bad news is that the Ruhr Valley is also located in Germany, and thus is embroiled in a colorful conflict of interest between hunters, self-proclaimed conservationists, and, as in the case of Kamouraska, simply private property. While the development of bouldering rocks in the Ruhr Valley continues, discretion is recommended!
