Honigfels

Overview

Honigfels north and west faces

Honigfels - "Honey Rock" - is one of the most impressive sandstone formations of teh Südpfalz Area. In the north you find a "massif" a long stretched cliff sticking out of the tree covered steep slope of the neighbouring mountain. In its south, separated by a narrow gap there is an anvil-shaped - some say hammer-shaped - tower, which rises for 25m above the access path, an old military dirt road. The anvil is overhanging on its western and eastern sides and though none of the routes is longer than one pitch all are very difficult.

The tower has been first climbed in 1922 by Südpfalz climbing pioneers, brothers Fritz and Theo Mann. They established what is now the normal route, a line which goes free at a solid VI, though most climbers aid it in one section near the top which is rated A0. All other routes are more difficult, some of which have become Südpfalz classics like Flug des Albatross, VII+ or Pfälzer Sanduhrendrama, IX-. The massif has one easier route across slabs while the rest equals the tower routes in difficulty.

Honigfels E face

Honigfels S face

Honigfels W face

N face

Honigfels also is one of the most popular cliffs in the whole Wasgau area. It is located at the end of Bärenbrunner Tal, a valley which runs from its mouth at Schindhard to Bärenbrunner Hof, a farm at its end. On all sides of the valley you can find sandstone cliffs, most of which have popular routes on them. The biggest cliff is Pferchfeldfelsen near the mouth of the valley but the most important ones are grouped in a circle around Bärenbrunner Hof. The farm has become the starting base for climbs in the valley and openly caters to climbers, food, drink, campground and all. While Klosterfels, Nonnenfels, Schandarie and Sternfels draw the bulk of the climbing crowd due to their longer routes, Honigfels will be the destination of choice for short and nasty climbs.

Climbing Routes on Honigfels

Honigfels is one of the most popular climbing destinations in the whole Südpfalz area. Thanks to the proximity of Bärenbrunner Hof, which serves as a base for all cliffs in Bärenbrunner Tal, both the standalone tower as well as the "massif" to its north are often crowded. However, there are no real easy routes onto the rock, even the normal route to the tower - climbed in 1922 is rated V, A0 (VI).

The following table has links to the tour database of the PK, where you can find the grades for the free routes plus additional information. Here is the link to the complete route database.

Feature	Routes link	Summary
Standalone Tower	Honigfels Hauptgipfel	10 routes with variations ranging from 6 - 9+
Massif	Honigfels Massiv	10 routes with variations ranging from 3 - 8+

Getting There

Honigfels N and W faces

Honigfels S face

Honigfels W and S faces

The shortest access to Honigfels is a short hike from Bärenbrunner Hof, a farm at the end of Bärenbrunner Tal. You can reach it by a narrow road from Schindhard.

From Frankfurt

There are two possible routes which both take equally long

1. Via Ludwigshafen
   • From Frankfurt take motorway A5 southward to Darmstadt.
   • There change to A67 south.
   • At Viernheimer Dreieck turn onto A6 west. Leav
   • e it at Frankenthaler Kreuz for A61 south.
   • At Mutterstädter Kreuz take A65 south until you reach Landau.
   • At Landau turn on B10 west.
   • At Hinterweidental turn onto B427 south which will take you through Dahn to the exit (left) to Schindhard
2. Via Kaiserslautern
   • From Frankfurt take motorway A3 west
   • At Mönchhofdreieck turn onto A67 south
   • At Rüsselsheimer Dreieck take A60 west
   • At Kreuz Mainz Süd take A63 south
   • At Kreuz Kaiserslautern turn onto A6 west
   • At Kreuz Landstuhl turn onto A62 south
   • At Pirmasens turn onto B10 east
   • At Hinterweidental take B427 south to dahn and Schindhard

From Stuttgart

• Take motorway A8 to Karlsruhe
• At Karlsruher Dreieck turn north onto A5
• Tke the next exit to head for A65
• At Kandel you can leave onto B427 which will lead you to Busenberg. Right after the village a narrow road turns off right (north) to Schindhard. In Schindhard turn right onto the narrow road which leads to Bärenbrunner Hof.

Red Tape

The sandstone of Südpfalz forms lots of caves and overhangs. Though this makes it most interesting for climbers, two species of birds of prey compete for this habitat: the peregrine falcons and the eagle owls. Both are endangered and wherever there is a eagle owl pair found nesting in the sandstone the crag will immediately be closed. Generally this closure lasts from the beginning of each year through Aug. 1st. If breeding is not successful the closures will be canceled even before that date. For a list of closures see the Closure List of PK.

The use of magnesia is not allowed in the whole Südpfalz region. This is rather a directive or an arrangement than an outright law. Thus you probably will get away with using it but do so only when absolutely necessary. Magnesia closes the pores which you find in the sandstone and together they form a smooth surface which will get very slippery in wet conditions. The rule of thumb is to use magnesia in the highest difficulty sections and only extremely sparingly.

A list of guidelines can be found here (in German).

Accommodation

You can camp at Bärenbrunner Hof, right beneath the climbing rocks of Bärenbrunner Tal. There also is a youth hut (think ymca) next to Bärenbrunner Schandarie, but I have no idea how you can obtain the keys.

In the villages of Bruchweiler and Bärenbach as well as the town of Dahn you can find pensions, apartments and restaurants.

• Bruchweiler-Bärenbach official site
  
• Dahn tourist information site

There is a campground in Bruchweiler-Bärenbach, and the one at Neudahner Weiher, north of Dahn is not far.

Weather Conditions

Maps & Books

Maps

As for maps there is a good overview map (1:50000) by Kompass Verlag but the best ones are the official topographic maps by the state government of Rheinland Pfalz, scaled 1:50000, 1:25000 and 1:5000. All official maps can be found on the web page of Landesvermessungsamt Rheinland Pfalz

1:50000

• Naturpark Pfälzer Wald
  Kompass Map WK766
  ISBN: 3-85491-523-3
  
• Pirmasens Süd<
  LVA RLP Map L6910
  ISBN: 3-89637-193-2

1:25000

• Dahn
  LVA RLP Map 6812
  ISBN: 3-89637-147-9

Books

There are a number of climbing guidebooks on the region of Südpfalz. The best ones, however, have been published privately and are sold only in selected bookshops of the region.

Hiking
• Pfälzerwald
  B. & J.-Th. Titz
  Rother Verlag
  ISBN: 3-7633-4268-0



Climbing Guidebook


Climbing
• Klettern im Buntsandstein
  U. Daigger, H.-J. Cron
  Westpfälzische Verlagsdruckerei St. Ingbert
  ISBN: 3-00-0155457-4
  
• Pfalz ++, Klettern im Buntsandstein
  R. Burkard, P. Weinrich
  Published privately
  
• Klettern im Naturpark Pfälzerwald
  Naturfreunde Lambrecht
  Published privately


• Pfalz & Nordvogesen en bloc
  A. Wenner, Y. Corby, I. Bald
  Panico Verlag
  ISBN: 3-936740-19-4

Images

View Honigfels Image Gallery - 16 Images