Recently I was invited by friends to go climbing in Duisburg, Germany. Little did I know what I signed up for. An amazing experience!
Duisburg is located in mid-west Germany, close to the Dutch border. It’s easy to reach the park since there are many big roads going through this area. Just be aware that every car going off the highway in that area needs an emissions sticker. If you don’t have one you’ll risk a steep fine. I linked a page below with more information about that.
Where to stay
I only visited for one day, so I didn’t look into any overnight options in the area. But since it’s a big city there should be loads of options if you would want to stay for multiple nights.
Climbing
The style of climbing can be divided into two different styles. Some portions of the walls have been equipped with climbing holds glued into place. The rest of the walls is natural deterioration of the walls and holes chipped out. A unique experience to climb on, I have to say. It feels natural but not quite.
In the sectors you’ll find a simple topo guide on the wall with names and grades of the routes. Don’t be fooled by the grades, since they use German grading. The topo’s are also on the climbing garden page of the DAV website.
You do have to pay an entrance fee if you want to climb here. If you’re a member of DAV, NKBV, OeAV or AVS you’ll get a discount. You’ll pay at the crag. On top of the entrance fee, due to corona, you need to reserve a spot for climbing. I’ve linked to the page where you can sign up and reserve your spot. Once you’ve reserved you’ll receive an email with a personal PIN number. With that number you can enter the sectors you like to climb at.
Gear
You need to provide your own rope and draws. Most routes don’t need more than 5 draws and the longest routes are up to about 22m long, so with a 50 m rope you’ll have more than enough. (Almost) every route ends at a pigtail anchor for easy lowering.
If you do have a via ferrata set, bring it! They set up a crazy long via ferrata in various difficulties. I had a lot of fun, climbing it for about an hour. Most people were wearing helmets and gloves on the via ferrata, while in the climbing area nobody had a helmet on.
What else to do
The park offers so much more than climbing. The most obvious is to stroll around and explore the park. If you want to learn more about the park, you could also sign up for a tour. It also offers a restaurant, for a moment to relax. If you’re into diving then you could do that in one of the old holding tanks.
Photographers and models use the park for photoshoots. On top of all that and more the park is also used for festivals and the like. So it really is an all in one experience.
Moves by Nature 
Exciting adventure
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It sure is!
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