About us
Tobias Reichert
Tobi was introduced to climbing by his father at the tender age of 9. He spent his youth on the rocks in the Northern Eifel and not a single route remains that hasn't been climbed by him. Later on he spent a lot of time in the Franconian Jura and Fontainebleau. Tobi has been a core member of the Wupperwände crew from the very beginning and is chief route setter of the climbing centre. He developed the basic concept of the HardMoves Boulder League together with Thomas and Arndt.
Christian Popien
Christian began climbing at the age of 11. At a time when there were no climbing gyms in his area he spent a lot of time at the Stenzelberg in the Siebengebirge or bouldering at the Riemberg in Siegburg Wolsdorf. His sufficiently extensive studies of social pedagogy allowed for a large number of trips to the world’s climbing spots. Over the past years he has been particularly inspired by long trad climbing routes in Australia and, most recently, Norway. He is one of the managing directors of Climb-Inn Klettersport and runs the DAV Kletterzentrum Wupperwände.
Arndt Wilmanns
Arndt found his passion for climbing via gymnastics and triathlon. By now he has been dedicated to the sport for over 10 years full of fascination and enthusiasm. Before he became managing director of Climb-Inn Klettersport, he spent his time in particular in Spain’s climbing hot spots. During peak periods he was never more than a few weeks at home before he was drawn back outside to the rock. Arndt is the founder of Climb-Inn and did not only co-develop the HardMoves but also the complete range of the Boulder 2.0 series of the Climb-Inn Climbing Wall Manufacture.
Jonas Baumann
Jonas Baumann is no longer an unknown in the world of climbing and bouldering. He is the most successful German boulderer, impressively proving the point with his 1st rank during the 2009 Boulder World Cup in Vail, USA and the 2nd rank at the legendary Arco Rockmaster. Since 2006, Jonas regularly exercises at the Wupperwände. Increasingly, he spends his climbing time outside, as he recently did with Udo Neumann and Tobias Reichert in Fontainebleau. After winning the HardMoves twice, he decided to help evolve the concept and to do the problem setting for the Boulder League this year. For more infos, see
Florian Kops
Florian supports Climb-Inn Klettersport since 2006 in all matters regarding design and layout. As graphic designer he is, among other things, responsible for the HardMoves logo. By now his enthusiasm for climbing has led him to add his skills as a presenter to more and more competitions; in 2009 he presented the BronxRock Invitational together with Udo Neumann. Most recently Florian worked for the Boarderweek in Val Thorens.
For more infos, see: www.dasministerium.com
Thomas Schulte (†06.05.2009)
Thomas discovered his passion for climbing rather late but made up for this fact by living it all the more intensively. In climbing crowds in Cologne and later on in Wuppertal he was well-known. Occasionally, he spent so much time in climbing spots outside that many of the Cologne clique called him only „The APEostate“. His favourite places were in Mayen and the Pfalz. Thomas supported us as a friend and colleague in establishing Climb-Inn; he was chief route setter in the Wupperwände and creative head of the HardMoves Boulder Competition. In May 2009 Thomas died following a heart attack he had suffered on 1 December 2008.
