Rock Climbing

The boy scouts not only turned me into a songwriter, they also made me a rock climber. When I was 14 we met with a group of scouts in Rhineland-Palatinate. They don't have mountains there, but many 60 to 200 feet boulders which are ideal climbing walls. My fellow boy scouts taught me how to use rope and hook and overcome the fear of heights. After a few days I wanted nothing more than to become an extreme rock climber. A year after that summer camp my family moved from Stuttgart to Munich, and there the rock faces of the Alps were just right at our front door. It was a God given chance to perfect my new passion. I soon got to know my own limits. Though I spent, alone and with friends, many a weekend of my teenage years in the mountains, I never became very good at climbing, hardly made it to grade V. But I am still fascinated by that sport, and tend to admire great rock climbers as much as great rock musicians.