Finnnish boulderin champions & shipment for Moon

2010-03-23T14:57:00.000-07:00

The Finnish bouldering championship was held last Saturday at the new Tampereen Kiipeilykeskus. I couldn’t take part of the competitions because of my over shape so I went to set up the problems with Anton Johansson. We drove to Tampere on Thursday morning and started to work on the routes straight away. We ended up doing eight qualification routes for the men and women, and four routes for the finals. So over 20 routes altogether in the end. The vibe was great and I had a great time with Anton and the crew of Tampereen Kiipeilykeskus. During the evenings after work, we spent a lot of time just skateboarding and slack lining, so the time spent organizing the event and also the event itself was a lot of fun.

Men's results:
Nalle Hukkataival
Anthony Gullsten
Tomi Nytorp

Women's results:
Roosa Huhtikorpi
Anna Laitinen
Matilda Nordman

Boulder SM 2010: Men's and women's first final routes from Jarkko Linkosuonio on Vimeo.

Boulder SM 2010 2nd final routes from Jarkko Linkosuonio on Vimeo.

Nalle Hukkataival

Tomi Nytorp

Anthony Gullsten

Shipment from Moon

Today I got a package from England, Moon climbing if I must say. It was my first shipment of my sponsor gear from the 2010 collection. I have to say that I am super stocked and grateful of all the new clothing I got. Thanks a lot Ben.

Check it out at moonclimbing.com

Boulderkeskus Konala & Kiipeilyareena

2010-03-02T10:15:00.000-08:00

I haven’t had anything to write about lately, as I can’t climb or do any training now. But just a quick update about what is happening here in rainy Helsinki.

There are two new climbing gyms opening here in Helsinki soon. Boulderkeskus is opening a second branch at Konala, there will be around a thousand square meters bouldering walls. There are some wicked profiles, from a 17-meter overhanging wall to a huge sphere. The other place is called Kiipeilyareena and is located at Salmisaari, and they will be specializing in sport climbing.

I visited Konala last Sunday, and it looks really cool. I also made the first route to the place as I was visiting, it will also act as a competition route as they are holding Konala Open there next Saturday. It’s always great to make routes with brand new holds to a brand new wall. I’m sorry that the photo doesn’t have colors but Jarmo wants to keep the wall colors as a secret until the opening day. So if you want to see the place, climb some cool routes, and see you’re mates come around in three days. More info to boulderkeskus.com

Sakke climbing first boulder at Konala © Jarmo Annunen
sakarimcgregor.blogspot.com

So on Sunday it was Konala, and yesterday it was Kiipeilyareena’s turn. They still have some time before they open so at the moment the competition wall was the only one that was high up and almost finished. Joonas gave me a tour of the place, and explained how it will all be done, and what kind of profiles can be found in each corner. From the sound of it, it’s going to be a cool place. The comp wall has a lot of different angles, arêtes and is wicked steep. We hopped on a cherry picker and took a closer look of the wall, after the ride I was psyched to get pumped when climbing the this wall. Kiipeilyareen’s grand opening will be held sometime next month. More info to kiipeilyareena.com

I really look forward to i can start training again, as there are two awesome gyms opening close by.

Salmisaari

Should look like this when it's ready

Traveling in Europe

2010-01-15T04:30:00.001-08:00

In the beginning of June 2009, Anthony Gullsten, Roosa & Kuutti Huhtikorpi, and myself started our climbing trip around Europe. At the start we didn’t know what the duration of the upcoming trip would be, except in Andy’s case who would only travel with us for the next two months as he would have to return back to Finland to attend his upcoming fall semester in high school.

Before the trip I was really worried about my condition, because during the winter months I had trained hard to get in to really good shape. But in February I started to feel really bad, and the doctors came to the conclusion that I was really over trained. I became sick for a long period of time, and for the last four months before the trip I was mainly just resting and trying to get better. I was still feeling sick as we started our journey, but I had decided to climb no matter how I felt.

June

Our first destination was Magic Wood in Switzerland. During the first days I decided to take it slowly and mainly climbed really easy stuff between the grades 7A and 7B, and have a lot of rest days. But after four climbing days I flashed a couple of 7C’s and did my first 8A boulder on my third try. The problem was called Muttertag, it’s a one move wonder that really fits my style. I started to try some harder stuff and even if I felt bad and my pulse was sky high it didn’t matter the only thing that mattered was that I wanted and was able to climb harder stuff.

Kuutti's burned legs

July

After spending a month in Magic Wood, we started our journey towards France and ended up staying in Ceuse for the next month. I decided to take it slowly when it came to sport climbing, but even with my health condition I undertook one hard project, and after a while I had climbed my first 8b sport route. It was a classic and a really cool one called L’ami de tout le monde.

Ceuse

After spending time in Ceuse we drove to L’argentier and took part in a bouldering competition called Tout a bloc just for fun. Andy climbed really well, and finished second in the youth category (90-91). After the competition we said our farewells to Andy who was heading home, and the rest of us started our drive back to Magic Wood.

Said and didgeridoo

Tout a blocs after partys

August

The whole month was so fucking hot, every day the temps went over 20 degrees Celsius, so it was almost impossible to climb anything really hard. But i did lot of 8a's and 8a+'s in this month. During one weekend Kuutti and me drove across the border to Austria to visit Silveretta. An area just a two hours drive from Magic Wood. During the first day I did Niviuk 8A and Neveo 7C. On our second day in Silveretta I managed to link the two problems, which then holds the name Nepomuk it is an 8A+ and has 28 moves. The area was really nice but there is a massive walk and the rock is really sharp there.

Jack's broken heart 8A+ © Raul Sauco

© Raul Sauco

September

In September we drove to Spain and spent the whole month in Rodellar. I mostly climbed in the Ali Baba cave, as I wanted to maintain my strength level as we were going to return to Switzerland once again when the conditions there would be better.

© Luis Vellella

During the first days in Rodellar I climbed Manus 8b and after that I wanted to undertake a couple of hard projects. I did all the moves to M.Y.D 8c+ in 15 minutes, and I was really surprised. But then in the following days when I tried to link them I found the route really hard. After trying MYD, I started projecting Los cuarenta ladrones 8b+/c. It is around 30 moves long of really cool roof climbing. First I felt really good about it, and I was quite sure I could do it. During the first week of projecting I got really close to sending it, but then as usual the conditions got bad as the hot weather arrived to Rodellar, and on top of that I lost my liquid chalk. Bad mistake! The next two weeks of projecting the route didn’t go too well.

Los cuarenta ladrones 8b+ © Luis Vellella

Our last week in Rodellar started and during one day I managed to do the crux but ended up falling from the really last move! I took a pretty bad fall as my toe hook stick and I fell headfirst and was really close to hit the ground. During my next try that day I couldn’t do the crux move anymore. I had a rest day and then went back, it was our last day in Rodellar and I was really nervous about the route, and again I managed to do the crux move but then I fell. I rested for a good hour, and during that time I met a girl who had liquid chalk on her. She was my saviour, I borrowed the bottle of her, went back, chalked up, and did Los cuarenta ladrones 8b+. At the end the route took around 20 tries, and I had a continuous mental war in my mind.

Los 40 ladrones 8b+ from Jarkko Linkosuonio on Vimeo.

Los cuarenta ladrones 8b+ © Luis Vellella

October-November

It was time to return to Swizzy once again. We expected that the friction would be better during this time of the year, but the conditions were still not that good during the first week. But then it happened! The cold weather arrived and the conditions got better, perfect! I climbed Free for all 8A+ and I also tried out the moves from The Riverbed 8B, which felt pretty good.

Body count 8A+ © Raul Sauco

I also opened a new problem called From the darkness to the sunshine 8A/+. The line holds 24 moves and is a quality problem. Life in Magic Wood was quite rough as we only had a tent. And the temperatures were dropping below zero during the nights. After two weeks spent in Magic Wood the weather got worse and it started snowing, we ended up driving to Ticino.

From the darkness to the sun shine 8A/+? FA from Jarkko Linkosuonio on Vimeo.

We were really lucky to find a perfect little house that only cost seven Euros per night per person. It was really nice. It had a real bed, a bathroom, a kitchen, and even a television! Life was perfect again. We climbed a lot in Chironico, and it ended up being my favourite area. But still I wanted to return back to Magic Wood as Riverbed had felt possible to do. A couple of more days in Chironico me and my good friend from Germany Fabian Bulh decided to take a risk and drive back to Magic. The next morning we woke up really early and drove to Magic Wood, but for our bad luck everything was totally wet. After that I had a really good day back in Chironico, first I did all the moves to Komilator 8A and after three or four tries I did it, during the same day I also did No mystery 8A+, which is a super cool line. The first move is really hard for short peoples. It was nice to finish both of them in one session.

Never ending story part 1 8A+ © Micu Bodgan

The trip was starting ending, and our last week there started. We checked the weather forecast and it was the last chance to go back to Magic Wood, I decided to take the risk again, and Kuutti joined me. We parked our car on the upper parking lot, got out of the car and were greeted by cold air, and sunshine. All the boulders looked dry, and the conditions were perfect.

First we went to The Riverbed, warmed up a bit, I did all the moves and then gave it a try. The warm up try felt really good but I managed to forget my beta and gave up. After a small rest I gave it another try, felt really good but I fell to the second last move!! Then I knew I could do it, but I was really nervous, as it was our last day in Magic during this year, as the weather forecast had promised snow that night. I took a long rest and we walked up to Kuutti’s project, which was Deepthroat 8B, Kuutti brushed and dried the holds, tried the moves and then gave it a try. Kuutti walked up his first 8B, and it looked so easy. We returned back to The Riverbed, and I gave it a try, but my heel hook came off. After a little break I gave it another try and that is when my dream came true, my first 8B boulder. I was super psyched, the perfect ending for this trip!

The Riverbed 8B

After this we went to Pura Vida and One summer in paradise 8B. I was pretty close to do Pura Vida too in my first session, but after too many tries I had lost my strength. After walking back to the car I felt really lucky, because as we walked past Riverbed it had become totally wet. It had snow on top of it, and the ice had started to melt down.

A perfect day, two guys, two first 8B’s and a pizza waiting for us at the house.

The Riverbed 8B from Jarkko Linkosuonio on Vimeo.

Here is my tick list from the trip:

Boulders:

The Riverbed 8B

No mystery 8A+
Serre moi fort 8A/+
From the darkness to the sunshine 8A/+ FA
Free for all 8A+
Jack’s broken heart 8A+
Never ending story part 1 8A+
Nepomuk 8A+
Body count 8A+
The left hand of darkness 8A+
Sofa Surfer 8A+
The bizarre ride 8A+

Komilator 8A
Niviuk 8A
Octopussy 8A
Nothing changes 8A 2nd go
The right hand of darkness 8A
Muttertag 8A

Son of a gun 7C Flash
Man of a cow 7C Flash

Routes:

Los cuarenta ladrones 8b+/c

L'ami de tout le monde 8b
Manus 8b

Sueurus froides 8a+ 2go

Les colonettes 8a
Makoki 8a

La femme noire 7c+ OS
Sans peur et sanglier 7c+ Flash
Le privilege du serpent 7c+ 2nd go
Pieds nus sous les rodhodendors 7c+ 2nd go

La piton 7c OS

Proofreading by Sakari McGregor, thanks for that!

Octopussy 8A © Henning Wang