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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.

Pictures from Myllis

Here are some shots taken by Anssi Laatikainen from Myllis.

Supermario 8A+








Unusual Suspect 8A






It has been raining now for a couple of days, but today was finally dry so I hope tomorrow will be a good day for climbing outside. I'm planning to go to Liljendal with some of my friends and we will probably try a problem called Pukaron paroni. I've seen a couple of pictures of the route and it looked really good!

Hope it's going to be sunny tomorrow so we can chill on the pads and climb a little if we're not too tired ;)

One Love

I climbed this problem a while ago, but we decided to film it with Sakari McGregor and I can tell you that it was EPIC! First try was in a smooth rain and I had my shoes constantly wet and the friction was sh*t. The second time, which was the "succesful" day of filming was in a good +25 celciusdegrees warmth and with constant sunshine. Not so cool... But here's the clip

One Love 7c, Sipoo Finland from Sakari McGregor on Vimeo.

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!

Åland update

I came back from the island of Åland a couple of days ago and now I finally have enough energy to write something on my blog.

Flashing a new Highball called Luonnonvalinta in Kasviken,
picture by Alvi Pakarinen

The trip went very well and I had a lot of fun. There was a lot of nice people whom I got to know and I got to climb a lot. I climbed every day for 5 days and the result was a couple of hard ticks, fatigue and of course bloody fingers.

Mikko Manninen doing the FA of Luonnonvalinta 6B, picture by Alvi Pakarinen

I managed to do almost all of the routes from my want to do list, but some of them I just couldn't do. Perhaps I'm just too damn weak.

Sending Hello Africa 7C+, picture by Alvi Pakarinen

I was really close climbing Normipäivä 8B, but I fell from the very last move. It is the hardest move, but it was soooo close. Unfortunately after my best try a friend of mine broke a hold from Normipäivä. He did the last moves and got to the topjug when it suddenly came off. Luckily he didn't hurt himself. The breakage was quite predictable because it had some cracks around it, so it was just a matter of time when it would be ripped off. Later on I managed to come up with some kind of a new beta for the ending but it felt a little bit harder than before. So I'll use this as an excuse on why I didn't climb it :).

Giving a good burn to Normipäivä 8B, picture by Sakari McGregor

Saturday was probably the best day of my trip. I went to Kasviken really motivated and the climbing felt really good. I started working on Dodo assis and I did the moves quickly and then started to try it from the beginning. It felt good but I still managed to fall from the last moves... The route is really simple and clear and you can see the beta from the video below. All you have to do is stick the heeltoe. After I sent Dodo I went to Mongooli and tried to figure out a good beta for it. Luckily there was a local called Tomas Johansson who gave me some good hints for it and then I succesfully flashed it. That was definetly one of the highlights of my trip.

Dodo ss 8a+, Kasviken Åland from Sakari McGregor on Vimeo.

Here are my hardest climbs of the trip:

Dodo assis 8A+
Mongooli 7C+, Flash
Hello Africa 7C+
Supermartikainen ss. 7C+
Uskonpuute 7C, Flash

I had a really good time there and I'm hoping to go back soon and try to climb the problems that I didn't do this time.

Off to Åland

Today we are leaving for Åland, an island between Finland and Sweden. It's going to be really fun because there's a lot of people coming from Helsinki.

I'm so motivated to go there because I'm starting to run out of projects here in Helsinki. So it's really cool to go to another area with lots of hard climbing.

It's raining today so there's a fat chance that we're going to be able to climb tomorrow. That kinda sucks, becauseI have many problems that I want to send and all of them are hard. So I have my hopes real high. I really wish it's going to be dry enough to climb at least most of them.

Here's my want to do list:

Mongooli 7C+
Supermartikainen ss. 7C+
Hello Africa 7C+
Drakguld 8A
Ålandsbanken 8A
Dodo assis 8A+

and of course the most important problem Normipäivä 8B

Nalle climbing Normipäivä 8B, picture by Marko Siivinen

A day in Sipoo

Yesterday I went climbing with Kuutti Huhtikorpi and Markus Fogelholm and we decided to go on a sundaytrip to Sipoo. We weren't sure yet on which block we would climb on but we figured that we could choose the area when we'll get there.

When we arrived in Sipoo we got to the conclusion that me and Kuutti will go try Feel Good Inc. and Markus would go try One Love, 7C+. Markus did some quick work on One Love and climbed it in less than 30 minutes. At the same time me and Kuutti were cranking hard on Feel Good Inc. It felt really hard at first and it had two moist holds so we had to dry them up before every try. That didn't help at all...

Crux move of Feel Good Inc.

After some effort and a little bit of luck I managed to do all the moves except one. A big move from two underclings to a pretty good hold. That partivular move is the third move and the two moves before that aren't that hard so I thought that I could just start working it from the beginning.

That definetly paid off :). I took some tries from the start but fell on the big move. But then I figured it out and sent the whole problem instantly. Luckily no mistakes were done on the crux section nor the ending. So cool! Another 8B on my ticklist.



The same day we went to check out a highball project that Nalle had tried last spring. When we got there Nalle was fixing up the camera and then he did the first ascent. It looked amazing and also really scary. We were really motivated to try it also because it had some tricky looking moves and cool holds. We began to try it and Kuutti did a quick repeat to it thanks to his steel nerves. He didn't look down at any time and he just kept on climbing all the way to the top. A couple of minutes later I did the 3rd ascent.

Pictures taken by Anssi Venho