Blog open

Hello everyone. I finally decided to start writing a blog. I'll try to write here frequently about my climbing and travels and post a lot of pictures.

Right now I'm back home in Finland to spend Christmas here. There's not much climbing going on because the weather is pretty cold and wet, not to mention today is the shortest day of the year giving us only a few hours of daylight. I've been training in the gym for the first time this whole year really, and it seems to be exactly what I need after such a long time climbing on rock.

I'm setting of for Hueco after the turn of the year to get the season started. Then there will be something to actually write about.

I wanted to post this picture from the best place for bouldering in the world: Rocklands. Happy Holidays!

Rain and First Ascents

The weather in Finland has been very rainy lately, but I’ve managed to put up a couple of new problems. One of them, located near Vihti, I named Optical Illusion, because it looks really easy, but in fact the difficulty is around 8A. Another FA I did, has been a project for a long time. My new problem is the full line climbing an 8A+ called Hottentotti (8A from the stand start), but instead of dropping off, you climb all the way up. I named it 1up, because it is THE line from the obvious sit start straight up to the top. 1up is 8-9 meters tall with the landing dropping away, so it adds quite a lot to the scary factor, but I'm not sure if it actually adds a full grade to the 8A+ difficulty.

First Ascent of Optical Illusion, 8A

We had night filming session, with a film crew plus two photographers, so there should be some cool footage of the ascent. The short film we made, might premiere at the Reel Rock Tour in Helsinki 13.9. We’ll see. Right now, I’m on my way to Arco Rock Masters in Italy and after that to hopefully not too hot Switzerland.

Let there be light

1 A.M. Bouldering session

Photos by Heikki Toivanen