The field is marked out, the tasks are distributed. On Monday, the first excavators rolled onto the university’s former tennis courts and dug the pit for the foundation. At 7.5 by eleven meters, or as Lothar Lukoschek, chairman of the regional association of the German Alpine Club, which is the client, explains: “the size of a housing estate”.
Once the concrete slab has been poured, the company TWall from Offenbach/Main, which specializes in climbing wall systems, rolls up. She first erects a skeleton and then a cladding made of wood. The tower should be up by the end of October or mid-November. Then there is the remaining work, such as attaching an impact protection to the ground, laying the turf and paving stones and attaching handles and hooks. In the spring, it should be possible to officially climb the tower for the first time, explains Lukoschek.
Unique in Germany
From the DAV point of view, he is just as excited about the tower as his partners, with whom the idea came about together. “Once the tower is up, Kaiserslautern will have a decent climbing infrastructure,” he says. And Norbert Lau, teacher trainer at the HHG, DAV state trainer and responsible for scouting, puts it even more clearly: “There is no competitive sports training with connection to school and boarding school anywhere in Germany.”
The fact that the idea of climbing as a main sport at the elite school of sport was such a hit surprises and still delights Jan Christmann, head of the HHG branch. “Climbing immediately became the most popular sport.” 18 climbing talents are currently being promoted in competitive sports at the school, have had their first nationwide successes and have already started internationally. “This is a model project, a unique selling point in Rhineland-Palatinate and, as far as the cooperation is concerned, unique nationwide,” he says.
partners from the city
The idea was so well received that sponsors were quickly found. The state, the DAV state association and the HHG, which contributes 40,000 euros, are responsible for more than half of the building, which has been calculated at 640,000 euros. The main sponsor is the software company TopDesk, which sees the tower as an opportunity to “provide reasons for people to come and stay here. Lautern needs things like that a lot more,” announced Managing Director Michael Kraft and explained that his company, as a Lauter company, wanted to support everything that made Lautern better.
The RPTU Kaiserslautern-Landau is one of the cooperation partners when it comes to climbing towers. A leasehold right had to be registered for the DAV, which delayed the schedule. The idea was well received by the university from the start. Those responsible there saw the opportunity to make “interesting, trendy offers for top-level sport, school sport and popular sport accessible” on their site, as explained by Kurt Sendldorfer, the Chancellor’s representative.
Events planned at the tower
Max Sprenger, Head of the Center for Sports Health and Wellbeing at the RPTU, is pleased that the project has now started. Because the university has its own plans on how to benefit from the tower. She is the operator, takes care of the booking system and admission. “We’re professionals there,” says Sprenger, referring to the climbing wall that existed at Unifit, the climbing team with licensed trainers. Students could not only benefit from the tower as climbers, the RPTU also wants to organize events there.
The first could come sooner than expected. Lau: “Preliminary talks are underway to organize a national competition next year.”
The tennis courts at the university are giving way and making room for the climbing tower, which is supposed to rise up where there are now small, yellow-marked sticks. Photo: huzl
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