A few weeks in Fontainebleau, France

Hey y'all!

It's been a while since my last post. But since then, nothing really happened? So you guys haven't missed anything.

This spring I went to Fontainebleau for the first time and it was magnificent! There really is nothing like it! We were quite a few people from Finland, so that made the climbingscene even more enjoyable. Great friends and perfect climbing climbing. What else do you need? :P

I also went to Melloblocco in the beginning of this month. It was a amazing happening! I've never seen so many climbers in one place at the same time. Incredible :D. And to top the good weather, beautiful scenary it so happens that I came 3rd on the competition by climbing 5 out of 8 boulders and flashing 3 of them. It was a total surprise that I managed to do so well!

Here are some pics from random Fontainebleau boulders:

Vin Rouge 7A

Tigre et Dragon 8A, Photo by Nalle Hukkataival

Random boulder at Isatis

Concentrating on the small holds of Duel 8A, Photo by Kuutti Heikkilä

Trying Karma, Photo by Kuutti Heikkilä

Here's also a short flick my friend filmed during the trip! Check it out! :D

Monkee Family: Anthony Gullsten in Font from Alvi Pakarinen on Vimeo.

No comment...

It's been a long time since I haven't written anything, at all. You could say that I've had a "small" writer's block after the summer, but I'll try to be more efficient during this winter period. Although, I don't think much is going to happen at least in the climbing scenes in Finland. But I figured that I could do something, now that my hard time at school has ended and I'm impatiently waiting for my final results and my trip to southern Switzerland!

FA of Dark Sakai 8B in Magic woods, Photo by Clemens Arndt

A lot has happened since the last post. I went to a 2 month roadtrip to Magic Wood and Ceuse and all I can say that it was great! But somehow I almost liked being in Ceuse the most! Really nice french, austrian, australian, italian, norwegian, slovenian and german guys there with whom I got to climb.

The french generously borrowed me a rope and some quickdraws since I left mine with my finnish friends who left for Nice and then went back to Finland. My excuse for this, was that I wasn't sure if I'd stay in ceuse for that long. I'm glad I did! ( I also didn't have a tent... :) heh... )

Here's a small clip of what happened in magic wood during the first 3 weeks.

And here's a pic taken from Bah bah black sheep in Ceuse by one of the friendly french guys in ceuse!

Photo by Pierre Delas

After this magnificant journey I got back home, to Finland. Accompanied by some bad weather and depressing feelings. I had a lot of schoolwork to do at the moment and also I had to study for the final exams but that didn't work out so well... Instead of studying reall hard for my exams, I decided to have fun and climb. I went to the European Championships in Innsbruck and also to the Nordic Bouldering comp in Stockholm. And I sure don't regret that.

The final boulder in Stockholm, I came 3rd (pic by Daniel Väisäinen)

And just last weekend I had yet another comp. The Nordic lead comp and it was held this time in Helsinki, my hometown. The comp went well, I topped both of the qualification routes and in the finals I lost to Magnus Midtboe. I'm really happy about my performance! I mean, it's not an easy task to beat Magnus :).

Here's a link to a site where you can see some pics of the comp.

I'll probably post something when I'm in the middle of the action in Swizzy! I hope the weather will be in our side.

Myllis

Today we went bouldering in Myllis hoping that it would be dry. The past week had been pretty dry and hot so there was a good chance that it wouldn't drip water like it always does.

I warmed up with the usual routes like Potsmoker, 72 markkaa and the nameless next to them and then I had my eye on the project between Potsmoker and Endless hangover. The friction felt surprisingly good even though it was around 20 celciusdegrees.

The project is very simple. It starts as a sitdown from the same holds than Potsmoker and then you have to do three really easy moves until you get a small crimp. Then you take another small crimp and jump to a relatively good but sharp hold. After that you do the same last moves than in Endless Hangover. Even if it has some same moves than the problems next to it, it's still a clear line. I named it Hattivatti and gave a grade of 8A. But the ones who will repeat it can give a better opinion for the grade.

After the proj I gave a quick burn to the traverse called Eskimo, 8A+, which has around 30 moves and ends with a 7C+ boulder. Luckily the moves felt good and I did it on my first try this season. I got quite pumped and I was really surprised that I managed to do it with such a bad endurance.

Not long after that I started working on Koopa, 8A, which is a huge dyno from two crimps to a "meathook"- jug. That didn't take long either. I think it went on my 5th try or something.

I had a very good day today and I'm psyched to go to Swizzy this summer. I hope that I'll have the same drive in Switzerland than here!

Working on Globalist

At last the good weather is starting to show here in Finland. These last days have been quite sunny and dry so almost all the boulders are starting to dry out. I've also been checking out the weather forecast and for now it's very promising. Hopefully this dry season ables us all to crank hard and send everything!

Today I was bouldering in Sipoo with Anssi Laatikainen and Sami Saxell. The drive felt really short and the walk to the boulder didn't feel either. Although we accidentally turned to the wrong road thanks to me... Sry guys :).

But after we got the rock we started warming up right away. There was some snow below the boulder so it was hard to even stand on the pads let alone falling on them. Keeping your shoes dry was clearly not an option.

Mikko Manninen attempting "Whacking day", 7B+

After some intense warm up I managed to climb one of Nalle's routes there which is called "Whacking day" 7B+. It has some cool moves with some slopy holds and a precise heelhook. After that I was psyched about trying Globalist, and it felt hard... That didn't come as a surprise but still. I managed to do all the moves to the crux but then I got kind of shut down. There's a deadpoint to a small 2-3 finger crimp and then around 3 other moves which are also really hard all the way to the top.

Brushing the holds of Globalist, 8B+

It's really cool to have a great project nearby. And this one feels really hard. I'm still a bit more enthusiastic about Hypergravity because I think it's more my style and it's also a little easier than Globalist. But yea, have to go there another time and maybe with some more skin and strenght.

Doing the first moves


Just about to deadpoint on a really small crimp.

All pictures taken by Anssi Laatikainen and his iPhone.