Northern Light – chilled thoughts from the top of Europe

Reading Orwell in (north)eastern Europe.

2011-11-01T23:44:00.000+02:00

I don’t know why but I decided to read George Orwell's The Road to Wigan Pier. Besides a few of his shorter essays, I guess I haven’t read any of his books since school. Anyway the following paragraph jumped out.

I am not a manual labourer and please God I never shall be one, but there are some kinds of manual work that I could do if I had to. At pitch I could be a tolerable road-sweeper or an inefficient gardener or even a tenth-rate farm hand. But by no conceivable amount of effort training could I become a coal-miner, the work would kill me in a few weeks.

He clearly holds the miners in awe but is also perhaps being somewhat modest. An odd thought struck me about how lucky Orwell was to be born British considering when he was born. Perhaps because I have read some excellent books this year that deal with the terror of Stalin’s rule (most notably “Bloodlands” by Timothy Snyder and, in fiction, Sofi Okasanen’s “Purge”) it crossed my mind that had Orwell been born in what became the Soviet Union, or indeed in many other places between Berlin and Moscow, he may well have had an opportunity to find out how correct his premonition was.

"No, not him": the new Tiitinen list.

2011-10-15T12:14:00.000+03:00

Of course throughout the Cold War, Finland could never admit that there was a Cold War. That was something the nasty superpowers did; studiously ignored or denied up in the north where neutrality supposedly meant good relations with all. Those who were involved in the Finnish end of that conflict (or who looked on from the sidelines) are still very much with us. They fill the upper echelons of political, economic, media and cultural life in the country, and whilst things stay that way, stories around the Tiitinen list aren't going away. Until the list is made public, or another generation or two retire and die, the story will hang around Helsinki political circles like a bad smell.

But this week saw the publication of Alpo Rusi's book about the list - the book being the result of his legal battle to refute the story that his name was on the list. Rusi announced that a former Finnish prime minister (now deceased), Kalevi Sorsa, was on the list. This was one of the first bits of political gossip I heard when I started working as a researcher, on the outer fringes of the Helsinki political life, a decade ago. I had always presumed that if a fresh-off-the-boat foreigner had heard such a thing it was one of those open secrets that most had heard but no media would publish. Now Tiitinen (previously the head of the Security Police, now Secretary General of the Parliament) has denied that the former-PM was on the list. This must be a great thing for Sorsa's friends and family - in effect exonerating him, but an odd way to go about things.

Can we expect journalists now to suggest names to the secretary general every time they corner him in the corridors of the Eduskunta (parliament) in order to collect his denials? Perhaps they should start with the President, every current government minister over the age 40, the heads of the ministries of state and perhaps the editors-in-chief of the biggest papers and TV channels. If Sec. Gen. Tiitinen denies that those people are on the list, the next journo can try the ministers and prime ministers of the last few governments.

Alternatively, they could just publish the list, end the rumours and let people make peace with the past.

Road biking in the Helsinki hinterland

2011-09-29T15:43:00.001+03:00

Old bike

Shortly after washing up on Finnish shores about a decade back I decided I wanted a road bike. I'm not sure why, watching Greg Lemond beat Laurent Fignon on the Champs-Élysées in 1989 probably. I went to Velosport, at the time probably the only serious shop for road biking in the capital. The guy there who served me looked suspiciously like 'Il Pirata', an impression that I'm sure he was only too happy to cultivate. Nevertheless he was great, talking me through everything with no hard-sell, despite my budget was the bottom of their range. I was sat on the jig and measured up before all that info was faxed off to the Olmo factory in Italy where (I would like to think) a little man called Giovanni built by hand the frame of my bike. My red, all Italian beauty did a decade a grand service, working impeccably over many thousands of kilometres and seeing me comfortably through my first long sportive rides last year (see here and here). But this summer revealed that really its whole drive train needed replacing - along with the wheels - and the cost and hassle of doing so actually made getting a new bike a consideration.

Bikes have moved on, road riding has increased hugely in popularity with rise of the MAMIL of which, I guess, I am sadly now one. My Olmo was probably at the end of the era where hand-built steel frames were more common. Now aluminium and carbon frames are the norm, with most of them I've been told coming from the same few massive factories in Taiwan. Unless you have a lot of money to spend, bikes are off the peg, so buying off the internet is a bit of a worry with educated guess over what size to order. But on the other hand, huge competition between so many brands and shops in different countries means that you are getting a lot of bike for your money - mine was a more than a third off in an end of season sale, letting me get something much nicer than I would have been able to afford at full price.

New bike

Road biking has definitely gained in popularity here in Finland as well; the Tour de Helsinki had another record breaking year for numbers doing it earlier this month. Out here on the edge of the city its quite normal to see groups gathering to head out into the countryside for evening rides, and through the summer it was normal to see a few other riders out when I went out to ride. Ten years back it was quite different, other riders would come for a chat if they saw you because road bikers were pretty rare - I remember at least a couple of guys, despite my lack of Finnish, invite me to club rides and the like as they were just pleased to meet other roadies. It's a very similar situation to climbing that I've watched rise massively in popularity here over the last decade and a half.

Typical rush hour in the Helsinki hinterland

Nevertheless, I think road biking could/should be more popular here. The Helsinki hinterland is just such a great place to ride. Firstly, unlike further inland, there are lots of roads. Secondly, most of these roads are paved - no need for cyclocross or hybrids. Thirdly, and most importantly, there is virtually no traffic on them. The five motorways radiating out from Helsinki take a huge percentage of the traffic leaving or entering the capital region, leaving a big network of well paved country roads with next to no one driving on them - and making them just wonderful for cycling on. You get to notice all the 'old Finland' of human history that is still there; sagging barns, elevated cow sheds, the plentiful volunteer local fire stations and small schools - stuff you never notice zipping up and down the motorway - alongside the natural environment. Expect all the birds, from tiny songbirds up to storks and hawks high above, or currently - fields full of geese getting read to migrate. You'll see squirrels and hares, and might see badgers and deer - I have. Best of all, I almost ran into a moose once, free wheeling nearly silently around a forest road corner. It's all out there, and for the vast majority of the time you'll be completely on your own to enjoy it.

Anyway, from a few pics and some video - all taken from my phone so please excuse the low quality - I've made a little film. It's my bit to help out Helsinki's tourist board to promote the quiet lanes of Helsinki's hinterland to the world road biking community. Enjoy.

Scotland: one wedding and two hill walks

2011-09-27T12:41:00.001+03:00

The Firth of Clyde

The last couple of years of school in a small English town weren't really bad, but for loads of us sixth form was just a waiting room. Pass your exams and get the fuck out of there; young men and women with better places to be. It's nothing personal against small towns, its just what being young is about. I choose Glasgow, or maybe Glasgow choose me. I wanted bright lights and the big city, but with snow dusted mountains on the horizon. I got it all and more. Perhaps I should have never left, but life moves on and other cities yet further north beckoned. How a decade slipped passed since my last proper visit I don't know. Looking out of the plane last weekend, the crumpled green of Northumberland and the Southern Uplands evened out as the Central Belt stretched below. Sun glinted on the bridges of the Firth of Forth and Edinburgh to the east before we banked left running north of Glasgow along the Campsie with Loch Lomond and its Ben above marking the edge of the Glaswegian sprawl. The plane swung south as we approached GLA and looking down the Firth of Clyde nostalgia washed through me like an adrenalin jolt. Dumby in the sun - how many afternoons were spent amongst the boulders summoning up the balls to try any of the routes? The cycle track along the river to Balloch and then out onto the moors before dropping back down to Milngavie - really the first mountain biking I ever did. Sitting in the wind-shelters on Helenburgh seafront, eating chips and laughing with the most beautiful girl I had met at that point in my life.

Glasgow

The happy occasion: a mate's wedding, dragging the old posse back together from all corners of the UK (and indeed world), made Glasgow all the more glorious. Things change, but many don't. The underground is still laughably small. Saturday night: the gallus townies still pack the wine bars and restaurants, all togged up, showing someone, anyone, themselves, that this is Glasvegas now rather than no mean city.

Things of great beauty can still be injurious to your health

Up in the west the students are as students do, just younger looking than I remember being. We drink too much and lose our voices yelling happily over the din of a heaving bar. I have a 2.30 am doner kebab on Great Western Road, it just seemed the right thing to do, although in the morning I would be disagreeing.

Sunday was the wedding day, and it was everything a Glasgow wedding should be; kilts and a piper, plenty of Stellas at the reception and a wedding band that did ceilidh numbers and Auld Lang Syne next to the Glee theme and Deacon Blue's Dignity. By the end, men in kilts were doing one armed push-ups on the dance floor. I don't know why but it all made sense as these things do at the time. It was cracking wedding for a cracking couple. Have fun together guys.

Matt, former MRT member, is disapproving of Ed's alternative approach to hill walking gear

Monday, Ed, Matt and me headed out to Arrochar. It rained. Of course. Somebody has fixed the path up the Cobbler, the first 300 mtr slog isn't quite the hellish mud squish I remember, but by the time we got to the dam, it was officially pissing it down so we beat a retreat back down to the tea shop. I notice "the Moorings" in Arrochar village has gone - now somewhere else must hold the title of the worst pub in the UK. Perhaps its formica and hostile grimness has gone forever.

Arrochar, now minus the worst pub in the world

I dropped the guys for the train back into Glasgow, and head northwards solo. There is a touch of sun around the top of Loch Lomond, by Tyndrum the drizzle is back, and it's hammering it down by Rannoch Moor. Glencoe passes in rain lashed greyness, but the westerly gale running up Loch Linnhe blasts a few gaps in the rain. Fort William deserves its name - a tough hold out against never ending inclement weather. I remembered why Northern Norway feels so familiar, Tromsø is just Fort William with more ambition and a richer, better dressed population. Nevisport Bar is no longer called Nevisport Bar yet remains a pub that still plays its old role of the site of much prevarication and hiding from the weather. But a man with no accommodation can only prevaricate for so long, so eventually I head out into the night and drive up to the top of Glen Nevis.

Blustery showers and utter darkness meet me on getting out of the car. My tiny headtorch doesn't light much beyond the sign at the trail head saying something about fatalities having occurred in the canyon ahead, but I shoulder my pack and head up into the dark and dank forest. I've only been on this path once before, as I remember it, going the other way with skis strapped to my pack after Matt and I had done a telemark traverse of the Aonachs then skied down into Glen Nevis in stormy weather. It's warmer this evening but otherwise the weather isn't much better. After a km or two the path comes out of trees. Pitch black wet forests provide plenty of fodder for the irrational mind to play on, but coming out of the shelter of the trees it is the rational mind that starts to worry as driving rain soaks you. I needed to find somewhere to camp pretty sharpish but with the wind barrelling down the glen and not being able to see more than a few metres with my little torch, this isn't the easiest of operations.

Eventually some flatish non-soaked ground with a small rock buttress giving some protection appears, beyond that I'll worry about it in the morning. I get my little tent up in record time, pull its scant guylines as tight as I can, double peg the corners and then dive in, zipping myself away from maelstrom outside. I don't get the best nights sleep, wind and rain wakes me once and I remember the story of an old UKC mate with the same tent as mine. He said he had to break camp in the middle of night once when the weather threatened to destroy the tent. Mine was working impeccably, but still every time it flexed in a gust, Douglas' story came back to me.

The next time I woke up it I was sure the roar of the river nearby was louder. A relatively scary experience in the Indian Himalayas taught me long ago how fast rivers can rise, it didn't make any sense as it hadn't been raining that much in days before, but the noise was definitely there. I got out of my bag pulled on my headtorch and went out to look. The wind was blasting around, but the river looked relatively placid and low, so were was the roaring sound of water coming from? I went back to bed and tried not to think about it. In the morning, on unzipping my tent to some sunshine, I was greeted by the majestic sight of Steall Waterfall cascading down the hill side just a few hundred metres away across the river. I had been completely oblivious to both that and the nearby cable bridge that I simply hadn't seen in the dark of night.

I quickly packed up and jogged back down to the car to dump my tent and sleeping bag, wolfed down an excuse for breakfast, then headed back up through the gorge, across the cable bridge to start the "Ring of Steall", a classic hill walk around a series of Munros that ring that side of the head of Glen Nevis. Getting to the start of the ascent included a boots-off fording of one burn (haven't done that in a long time) and then a few hundred metres of boot sucking bog before the ground dries out as you start to climb.

Raw Egg Buttress on Aonach Beag

The views were spectacular - Aonach Beag was free from cloud at some points, although the brooding bulk of Ben Nevis never cleared completely. White streaks of fast running streams, strengthened by the rain of the day before, painted the sides of the hills all around. I realise I don't hate walking uphill as much as when I was younger. Stronger legs from cycling? Or a better attitude to being in the hills? A bit of both most likely.

Steall meadows

At about 700 metres the next rain came in and the views went. I pulled on full waterproofs and kept on trudging upwards.

Summit grimness

Reaching the summit of An Gearanach, 985 mtrs, the weather was officially foul. Winds were hammering me, rain blasting, and I needed to swap out some wet underlayers to combat the first shivering. My fingers got cold despite two pairs of gloves that weren't water resistant enough for the conditions. Nevertheless, I scrambled on along the fine ridge to the next top, An Garbhanach, but the weather hadn't improved by that point, and all the summits along the ridge that I could see were in the cloud and the gust were enough to blow you off balance - not ideal on a narrow rock ridge. The full traverse will wait for another day - it does look mighty fine - but I turn around and head back down.

Plans rarely survive first contact with weather in the Scottish mountains. Needing to play on their terms is what perhaps make them so rewarding. My feet didn't dry out on the walk down, nor whilst having a coffee and cake in Morrison's cafe, nor whilst driving back down to Glasgow.

Loch Linnhe

My newly married friends wouldn't hear of me sleeping in my hire car that night, as had been my original plan, and with great grace insisted I bring my slightly smelly and muddy self to their spare room for the night.

Towards Ardgour

The road back into Glasgow next to Loch Lomond used to be one of mixed emotions; Sunday nights - leaving the privation but purity of the mountain behind and heading back down into the busy, complex world of people and relationships under the orange glow of sodium street lamps. But that evening there were none - happy faces of friends, a shower, hot food, a pint in the pub and then clean sheets and no dreams of tent poles snapping and rivers rising. Still Glasgow's miles better.

Sunlight breaks through over Blackmount

Marmot Plasma 15: revisited.

2011-09-13T11:59:00.000+03:00

Some one left a comment on my original first look post at the Marmot Plasma 15 sleeping bag asking about the stuff bag size. Hence the photo above shows the sleeping bag in its stuff sack against a 1 ltr nalgene bottle and an average sized paperback for comparison. It's easy to put the sleeping bag into the stuff sack, and it is not very compressed in there - it will squash down quite a lot smaller than the size it is in the stuff sack if you need it to.

My full review of the Plasma 15 can be read on UKclimbing.com

Photoshoplooter

2011-08-10T18:33:00.000+03:00

As ever, laugh or you'll cry.

"Good choice"

Lots and lots more at photoshoplooter.

After Utøya: the politics of a monster

2011-07-24T01:33:00.002+03:00

The news from Norway is horrific. What sort of monster could do such a thing? Placing a bomb and running away is one (terrible) thing, but is perhaps easier an act to commit than coldly walking around a small island shooting kids dead at close range. Anyone who has visited this blog over the years knows that I have researched terrorism for quite a long time now, but one thing I've always thought about "terrorism studies", if there is such a thing, is it too often focuses on the political ideology of groups and doesn't consider the psychology of individual actors. We use our difference (most of 'us' being white secular Europeans or North Americans) from them (the brown, religious, Arabs or South Asians) to focus on their political/religious rhetoric and not ask the simple question: in comparison to all the other people like 'them' who don't viciously murder innocents, are they just fucking nuts?

Is Anders Behring Breivik just totally fucking nuts? Perhaps it is easier to comprehend or accept if he is. Definitely that is how Finland has dealt with its mall bomber and school mass murderers - just freaks, nothing to learn here, please move along. Surely Breivik was in some way mad, but there was an awful lot of careful method and planning for his ultimate act of madness. And therefore we have to look at what he has said, the politics of his dispicable actions. It is not enough to just say he is mad.

Even as I write this, what looks like his 'manifesto' and is coming to light, and the translation of the collection of his comments on a Norwegian "immigration critical" website show exactly the political background that he comes from. He is a product of the "Counter-Jihad", the transatlantic anti-Muslim, anti-immigration movement. He quotes leading 'thinkers' of the Counter-Jihad like Fjordman and leading blogs like Gates of Vienna. This is a specific political trend that isn't classic "far right", in terms of fascists and neo-Nazi. For instance a BBC article on the Norwegian far right completely misses this point. It isn't the old far right of Jew hatred and hating non-whites. It is a hatred of Muslim immigrants who come from a different culture and an ever-spiralling hatred of European politicians and general people in European societies who feel that actually we can live perfectly well in countries made up of people of different colours, religions, political persuasions and the like.

I've written about this movement here and elsewhere for a few years now. I always feared their impact on European electoral politics, sowing distrust and fear in diverse societies. But this is just sick; they have bred their own monster - not just a fire-bomb against a Mosque wall, or an angry street protest hurling abuse at British Asians - but a man who killed almost a hundred kids from his own fucking country because he didn't like their politics.

Billy Bragg on the Dirty Digger.

2011-07-14T00:26:00.000+03:00

I've not got much to say about the whole New International farce, besides told you so. I might often disagree with their editorial line, but having been a "Guardian reader" since I could read and wanted to, well its easy to be smug currently.

Take it away Billy.

BILLY BRAGG - NEVER BUY THE SUN from Billy Bragg on Vimeo.

There is bike touring and then there is BIKE TOURING

2011-07-12T11:33:00.000+03:00

This video of a bike and packrafting expedition in Alaska is just wonderful. Absolutely inspirational and beautiful. Grab a coffee, sit back and enjoy for ten minutes.

Crapping on paradise

2011-07-08T13:54:00.001+03:00

I went canoe camping last weekend on Hiidenvesi, a biggish lake in southern Finland, not too far west of Helsinki. It was a sort of last minute thing - the weather was so hot it seemed being in/on/near a lake seemed like a good idea. Anyway, if you need a canoe at short notice and for a very reasonable rate, along with a totally relaxed - "oh just leave it over there somewhere whenever you get back" - attitude to returns, visit the nice people at Welhonpesä in Klaukkala.

We didn't have any real info in advance (although it turns out there is loads at www.melontapooli.fi including maps) so just took the standard 1:50,000 map and figured we would find somewhere to camp. There are lots of summer cottages around the lake so headed for some islands in the middle that the map marked as uninhabited.

One was hilly with little flat ground on it, but it's smaller neighbour was perfect with a great little beach and a nice flat spot for a camping.

Unsurprisingly some other families were already there by motorboat and it was clearly a regular stopping point, with a number of fire rings already built including one big one with logs laid around as benches and the like.

The Everyman's Right in Finland gives you legal right to travel through or camp just about anywhere that isn't land under cultivation or a someones garden (although there is no right to have a fire without the landowners permission). So there is no reason why this little island shouldn't be well visited, it is a beautiful spot after all, even if the fireplaces aren't technically permitted. But what I wasn't prepared for was the huge amounts of litter that was lying around - including maybe two metres squared of piled up rubbish mainly in plastic bags - and then used toilet paper stuffed down every little crevice or into bushes all over the island. I actually watched a fat bloke (he was in pale blue Speedos just to complete the delightful image) down the last of his cans of beer from a box of cans, and carefully collapse the cardboard box before leaving it propped up against all the other rubbish as he and his family got back onto their speed boat and buggered off.

I then spent maybe 20 minutes with two sharp sticks going around the island collecting up toilet paper and burning it in one of the fire rings. I've cleaned other people's shit up before, but in a professional capacity where I was at least getting paid to be shining toilets. It's not something I would choose to do as hobby.

Who do people think is going to go to some little island in the middle of lake and clean up the crap (literal and metaphorical) that they have left behind? Some sort of magic, floating dustbin truck? And if we, in a canoe, can pack our small amount of rubbish into a plastic bag and take it back to the dustbins at our starting point, why can't the fat bastards in their motorboats do exactly the same? Take a look at the any Finnish tourist information website or brochure and you can bet it will be going on about the unspoilt wilderness and beautiful lakes. Plus guidebook writers or other myth makers tend to go on about how Finns are still close to nature and the environment yadda, yadda, yadda... The guidebook writers clearly never go cycling around the outskirts of Helsinki where there is significant and continuing fly-tipping going on, or indeed visit the idyllic little lake islands and spend a quarter of an hour picking up other people's used bog-roll. Finland seems to have exactly the same proportion of selfish shits as anywhere else in the world and folk should stop being so smug about their supposed love for nature.

And of course eventually one of my kids needed to, ummm, use the facilities for a number twosie. We canoed over to the other island where no one seems to camp, found a spot where I could scrape a hole in the dirt, burnt the toilet paper and buried the business. It's so NOT complicated (although if you really need instructions...). Why does anyone think that leaving shit covered toilet paper flapping around in the breeze could possible be a decent way to behave?

Right, glad I got that off my chest.

Historical quote for the day

2011-06-29T11:50:00.000+03:00

'As a nation, we began by declaring that "all men are created equal." We now practically read it "all men are created equal, except negroes" When the Know-Nothings get control, it will read "all men are created equal, except negroes, and foreigners, and Catholics." When it comes to this I should prefer emigrating to some country where they make no pretence of loving liberty -- to Russia, for instance, where despotism can be taken pure, and without the base alloy of hypocracy [sic].'

Abraham Lincoln, letter to Joshua Speed, August 24 1855

Now that's a quote.

It's 150 years since the start of the Civil War so the American media is bursting with some really good historical discussion on the Civil War. I hadn't heard this quote before so thanks to Prof. Adam Goodheart of Washington College, on a recent Diane Rehm Show from NPR.

Bohuslän climbing: a trip report.

2011-06-28T18:24:00.003+03:00

Bohuslän landscape

(All photos clickable for bigger versions) Trip reports are a bit old school, the type of thing people used to do back in newsgroups days. But lots of people have heard of Bohuslän in Sweden, whilst fewer non-Swedish climbers have actually had a chance to visit, so I thought that a trip report might be of interest to some.

First, thanks to Tomás for agreeing to come on the trip with me, and for roping in his friends Mishi and Martin to share the driving and climbing with. Tomás was the fella who agreed to go head-torch climbing with me on a dark, cold, damp November night in Stockholm last year, so he was just the guy for a mission like this one. It was a top weekend, I got to visit an area I’ve long wanted to go to, and the guys got a crash course in trad climbing. I wasn’t particularly ambitious in the climbs I did, but it was ferociously hot all weekend making all climbing a rather sweaty affair. Additionally, for Tomás, Mishi and Martin this was their first time trad climbing so obviously they wanted to focus more on placing and removing the gear than on cranking hard. Nevertheless we did some 5+ routes which I guess would be British HVS, and for a climber of moderate talent such as myself, no pushover.

Swedish climbers; almost certainly cooler than you are.

Firstly, where to stay: we camped at Klättertorpet (website in Swedish and doesn’t have any English on it so you’ll have to trust me). We were there on a long weekend around two public holidays so it was very busy - just loads and loads of climbers. You can camp or stay in a rather endearing bunkhouse.

A climbers' bunkhouse, obviously.

The facilities are basic - compost loos and just cold running water, but its a nice area an only 50 kr a night per person. The Swedish climbers were all absurdly athletic looking and decked out in fancy gear, making me feel like a typical tatty, fat Brit in comparison. Try not to let that psyche you out.


Möhättan

On the first morning we went to Möhättan for a route called Flaket, which I presume means “flake”. This is odd as its a 50 mtr high corner. Anyway it gets lots of stars and is an easy classic. The crag is a bit different from most of the Bohulän crags that are vertical lumps of granite bursting from the ground. Möhättan is a series of slabs up a hillside, looking like a miniature version of many mountains in the Narvik region.

Mishi's first trad lead - doing an excellent job on Flaken.

The route is very obvious from the road (being a 50 mtr corner and all), but finding the base of it was a bit of a nightmarish bushwack with us either ending up too high or two low to traverse to the base. Once found, the climb itself is very nice - a bit reminiscent of the crux corner pitch of Vestpillaren on Lofoten - just a slightly easier angle. We had a 70 mtr single rope and got down in a short and long ab. With 55 or 60 mtr doubles you’d be back down in one. We then did one more “sports route” on a lower tier - I say “sports route” as it had one bolt in 20 mtrs of climbing.

This is not a sports route...

At 5+ it is straightforward enough slab climbing to lead you quickly and easily into pant filling terrain, where sliding 15 mtrs down a granite slab makes you consider the wisdom of climbing shirtless and in shorts.

The big wall at Välseröd

We then went across the valley to Välseröd, one of the classic crags of the region. The heat was sapping our drive but Tomás and I did the excellent easy classic Jungfrun, that starts with an easy but quickly exposed up to a pinnacle belay and then super classic hand crack to the top of the cliff. A sort of Swedish version of Valkyrie at the Roaches, although easier and I’ve never got sunburn at the Roaches.

Looking down the hand crack of Jungfrun.

The routes on the big wall at Välseröd look very impressive - a guy was shunting one when we there and looked quite lonely in the middle of the 50 mtr sheet of rock. The crag classic Villskudd (6-) looks very nice. It has been called the best route of its grade in Sweden, but the heat and top ropers scared me away from trying - for Finns though I would note that it doesn’t look any better, and indeed perhaps not as good as the big Olhava routes of the same grade. I think its easy to forget just what an amazing crag Olhava is.

Naked German. They are just at their happiest that way.

In the evening we went for a wash and swim in a lake before back to the campsite for a BBQ. The swimming as well as being refreshing was a good chance to check for ticks - one of the few unpleasant “objective dangers” of Bohuslän climbing!

Brappersberget, where one is easily reminded that one is mortal.

On the second day, we went first to Brappersberget, a monolith of rock behind Lyse Church. The mainface is tipped back so interesting slab climbing is the theme of the cliff and it seems that you can climb the slab almost anywhere at about 5+ if brave enough, but most of the recorded climbs all follow natural cracklines. I led Big Ben, 5, and St Pauls, 5+, only Big Ben gets a star but actually I think St Pauls was more enjoyable - longer and with more varied climbing. Tomás led Kyrkråttan, which is a fantastic easier climb at 3+. Its worth noting that Brappersberget is open and close to the sea. On a breezy day it was much more pleasant climbing there than on the stiflingly hot more sheltered crags. Presumably the opposite is true in colder conditions.

Tomás leading Kyrkråttan

The last Bohuslän crag visited was Fedjan. I wasn’t particularly impressed with this crag - definitely not one worth travelling for. It looks like it spends much of the year wet. I led a route called Bideford Dolphin. The guide gives it a star and says well protected, but compared to unstarred routes elsewhere its not brilliant and neither is the gear. I was OK with a double set of cams as all the gear is shallow greasy breaks, so quantity rather than quality is the order of the day.

Me onsighting a granite 6a+ at Ågelsjön, something I rarely manage on Finnish granite.

It’s a pretty big drive over from Stockholm where Tomás lives and I had flown to, so both on the way over and way back we stopped at a crag called Ågelsjön, near Norrköping where we met and dropped off Mishi and Martin. This is a lovely spot by a lake, I didn’t have time to really explore the different areas but did some nice, if a bit polished shorter sports and trad routes on the little wall not far from the car park.

I’ll definitely head back to Bohuslän sometime, probably in the autumn when the conditions (cooler) suit me better, and would give me a fighting chance on some of the classic mid-grade routes at the “big” crags of Häller and Hallinden. The area gets called “world class” by some - I guess it is in the same way that you can argue “Gritstone” is; none of the crags in their own right might reach that status, but put such a huge selection of routes and cliffs in a relatively small area and you can’t really go wrong. It is also interesting to note just how many crags there are as you drive around that appear so far to have been completely ignored by climbers. Hence, there are many thousands of new routes still out there waiting to be done.

Bikepacking the 7 Brothers Hiking Trail/Seitsemän veljeksen vaellusreitti

2011-06-14T10:28:00.001+03:00

Bikepacking the 7 Brothers Trail

I've thought about trying to ride the 7 Brothers Hiking Trail for some time. It starts not too far from home so was a logical target. I think altogether the route is a bit over 50 kms but it depends where you finish. I rode about 40 kms of the trail ending on the Kytäjä road (Kytäjäntie), but I think you can do another 15 kms or so into Hyvinkää. I didn't start riding until mid evening, so rode the majority of the route late in the evening. I got knackered and camped at about half past midnight, just pitching my tarp where I was. Although it never gets really dark in Southern Finland at this time of year, with only a small head torch and riding in forest, the last hour or so had been a little too dark for fun, especially for single track riding, so I had done about 30 kms on the trail before stopping for the night.

Typical forest single track, and a trail marker

Feeling a bit fresher in the morning, I enjoyed probably the most technical part of the route as you leave Nurmijärvi and cross over into Hyvinkää district. It's proper single track mountain biking, I had to dab a few times, and even crashed off once or twice - but then I'm not a particularly great rider. I had commitments in the afternoon and knew I had 50 kms of road riding back to Helsinki, so finished riding the trail a bit before it ends: you are also at this point only a couple of kilometres from Hyvinkää ABC, and the lure of coffee and donuts played its part.

Trail life. Waiting for my morning coffee

There was an article about riding the trail in a recent edition of the Finnish cycling magazine Fillari, but that was only so much help with my limited Finnish, so for here is some hopefully useful info in English for other mountain bikers. A found a tweet with someone categorically saying the path is not ridable. I presume this person was expecting the good gravel cycle paths you get in Helsinki's forest paths. Actually it is the lack of such path and road riding that makes the 7 Brothers Trail fun for mountain biking. Much of the trail is forest single track - perfect for an XC mountain bike, but probably ridable on a cyclo-cross or tough hybrid. I was glad to have decent, knobbly tyres as it was soft in places despite generally dry weather this spring.

Overnight camp

You can download usable trail maps in PDF format from here. Because they don't show topography, the bits that are just lines through forest or fields aren't much help. Keep looking for trail markers (which illogically change colour from red to blue once you are in Hyvinkää!), and I checked my phone GPS/Google maps a couple of times to check my position. One section of path, perhaps one or two kilometres of trail has been destroyed by forestry work (see my maps below), and is hassle. Around Myllykoski at the start and for a few kilometres just after you cross in Hyvinkää there are duckboards. You need to get in touch with your inner Danny MacAskill to ride the Myllykoski section (lots of steps), but the northern section is easy and flat.

There are normally good signs where the trail crosses the road

I've also taken the free trail maps and have added some of my own comments to them that might be useful for other mountain bikers and put them on a free hosting for PDFs site here (the southern sector); here (for the centre section of the path); and here (for the northern sections). I hope those work OK, as I've not tried that hosting service before.

Trail destroyed by forestry work. Hard work pushing and carrying the bike over the clear cut

If you started in the morning, the whole trail would be easily ridable in a day, although the road ride back to the start would be a drag. For Helsinki-based folks, getting a train home from Hyvinkää would make sense. I did it with an overnight stop for fun as much as anything; and was comfy with tarp and mosquito net. I had the tarp/net and sleeping bag on my seat post rack, and then got the rest of my gear in a small backpack. For supplies, you ride through Rajamäki, I went to a petrol station there that was helpfully still open at 2330 when I got there. At more civilised times all the normal shops will be open. Otherwise finding a shop would require some deviation of the trail.

Anyway, I hope the above info proves useful to someone and perhaps inspires somebody to point their bike northwards and enjoy some of southern Finland's quiet countryside and enjoy some top quality XC riding. Have fun!

A Swedish underwear endorsement for the Slate Culture Gabfest

2011-06-09T10:03:00.000+03:00

If you don't listen to the Slate Culture Gabfest, the following won't make much sense, but I need to put it here as it wouldn't fit on their Facebook page.

Just for Steve and the Culture Gabfest's distant voiced producer - a Swedish underwear endorsement. And you have to understand Biltema, the Swedish-based but now trans-Nordic automotive, DIY (and just about everything else one needs) big box store that sells these very comfortable, hard wearing and excellent priced (€9 for a pack of three!) undies is not some fancy-pants hipster brand that will have a shop in lower Manhattan. No! Biltema is the natural environment of the troubled Nordic working man and will be found next to the motorways, in the drab, industrial outskirts of numerous Scandinavian cities.

If Biltema ever comes to the US, I presume they would open their first store somewhere in New Jersey. To understand Biltema is to understand the crisis of the Nordic welfare model and the crisis of Scandinavian masculinity; whilst simultaneously getting comfortable and excellently priced underwear. And in this sense I thought would appeal to Steve hugely.

Bikepacking: first attempts

2011-04-26T00:32:00.001+03:00

Out on the road

I've been thinking of doing some cycle touring for years. I like camping and like cycling, so why not do the two together? I'm thinking of cycling the King's Road from Helsinki to Turku - I know the areas it passes through and they are lovely, but you see so much when cycling than in a car. I think I could do it in two or three days - so needed to find a way to put gear for that time on my bike.

Early morning in northern Nuuksio

There seems to be a newish movement/fashion(?) for "bikepacking" - which is mixing traditional cycle touring and ideas from ultralight backpacking. I don't know if its a rule but bikepackers tend to seem to aim at not using full racks and panniers as is traditional in cycle touring. If you are aiming at off road riding I can see the attraction of having all your gear clear of the wheels. For me it just seemed a sensible approach as then I wouldn't have to invest in panniers and full racks.

Arriving at my campsite in Nuuksio, just before sun down on a chilly, grey evening.

I did buy a couple of things, but decided I would make do with what was available from Biltema (for Brits think Halfords, B&Q and Wilkinsons rolled into one giant warehouse shop). Firstly a bolt on seatpost rack, and secondly a handlebar bag - as much as to have some sort of fitting for the bars as for the bag itself. Despite neither of these being perfect for my bike, they did the job and formed the basis for my packing. Everything else would be camping and biking kit I already had. Under the seatpost rack I could attach my rolled up sleeping mat and a ground sheet. In a dry-bag strapped on top of the rack I had a sleeping bag, tarp and a few bits of spare clothing.

Kettle's on - tea in bed

I had a stove, fuel, food, a pot, food, waterproofs and various other odds and sods in the handlebar bag and in another dry-bag strapped underneath it.

This water at the edge of the lake had been open when I went to bed the night before.

I was aiming at not carrying a rucksack at all. I don't like cycling with a pack on - a camelbak is OK for mountain biking but on my road bike or hybrid it just doesn't feel right and starts making my back ache on longer rides. My improvised packing system seem to work quite well, I want a few more things for a multiday ride, but there was still space available in my system so it should work ok.

The sun came out in the morning, but the end of winter on the lakes still looks dull

I decided my commuting bike - a Felt Hybrid - would be perfect. It's got no heavy suspension and goes pretty fast on smooth road, but its wheels and tyres are good for footpaths, dirt tracks, and other moderate non-surfaced riding. It's also super reliable, and the Schwalbe Marathon Plus tyres on it have proven to be puncture proof in something like 5000 kms of riding.

All the gear off the bike.

I didn't get to leave until the evening on the first day due to family commitments. But the evenings are long already and I got in just short of 30 kms, on a mix of road and unsurfaced roads, westwards from home ending up at the northern end of Nuuksio national park. I opted for one of the official camp grounds as there is wood ready for an open fire - which is always nice. Being a weekday there was no one else there. To save weight I had taken just a tarp rather than a tent. It was raining around midnight, not hard, but enough to know the tarp was doing its job. It cleared overnight and there was a frost by morning. Thanks to the great sleeping bag that I got as a review from Marmot, I slept like a log, although I was reminded that a Ridgerest on its own isn't as comfy as even my normal 3/4 length ultralight thermarest. I like the Ridgerest for its unpunctureable simplicity - mine is coming on 15 years old and is still perfect, but maybe I will consider taking the thermarest for multiple nights out.

defeated by snow still on the path

After breakfast I headed off for the best bit of the day's riding, south through Nuuksio - generally following Reitti 2000. The day started with a great 10 or 15 kms on tracks and forest roads, nothing technical, but quiet riding with no one else around through the forest waking both from the night and from winter more generally. There were plentiful birds and butterflies about, and I saw hares and toads on the tracks. Down at Solvalla the route heads off eastwards but turned out to be impassable due to snow still on the track. Most of the snow in the forest had thawed, but because the path is a major ski route in winter, the snow there had been packed down. I headed back for the tarmac road and the longer way around. I ate lunch by the thawing lake Bodom, then head the last 30 kms or so home.

Overall I only rode a bit less than 90 kms in an evening and then the short-ish following day, but really it was more about camping out and figuring if I could strap the gear I need onto my bike and whether it would all stay there. And indeed it seemed to work - I was worried that vibrations would work my packing loose but this didn't seem to happen.

I would want a few more spare clothes for a multiday trip, as much as to avoid being too stinky as anything else - but otherwise it seemed I had about the right amount of stuff. Importantly, even when fully load, the bike didn't feel too heavy. Could I go lighter? Possibly if I bought more specialist stuff than I was using. My tarp is just the one I happen to have bought some years ago; if I had a shit load of money I could get a lighter sleeping bag; etc. I experimented with making a beer can meths stove before the trip - it wasn't a huge success, so didn't take it but I might give that another go. My MSR pocket rocket is ridiculously light, but the gas cartridge isn't. Swings and roundabouts. With frost still around I wasn't bothered at all by insects but this become more of an issue as summer comes on - some sort of mozzie net that goes under the tarp is probably the answer although of course it is something else to try and pack. Nevertheless, not a bad start at bikepacking I think. Something I will do again.

Dispatches from the northern front. The Finnish general election of 2011

2011-04-19T00:48:00.001+03:00

What it's all about

So most people will have seen the Finnish election result by now. The success of the populist-right wing True Finns has made the headlines around the world, particularly in relation to whether they will enter government and block the EU financial assistance package to Portugal. But here are a few thoughts on the election from an outsider who has been watching Finnish politics for quite a long time now.

Firstly, this is PR – everyone’s a winner or loser depending on your outlook on life. Yes, the True Finns hugely increased their vote, but they still only got 19% of the vote. Less than one in five voting Finns agrees with them. If you think the True Finns are scary or wrong or silly, then don’t worry – 4 out 5 voting Finns agree with you.

The leader of the SDP said that “there’s no shame in getting silver”. She’s right – they came second, not too bad considering how poor the SDP has been looking in recent times. But let’s not forget, they came second by 0.1% - hardly clear blue water.

There's a foreign minister lurking in my local coffee shop! Seemed to work though, he got the second biggest personal vote in the country.

Likewise, the leader of Kokoomus, the National Coalition Party, was proud to announce that it was a historic night for them becoming the biggest party in the country for the first time. And this is also true, so congrats to Kokoomus, but they also lost votes from the last general election, and were only clear of the second place SDP by 1.3%.

So as I said: that’s PR for you – it’s fair but no one is even close to being a majority on their own and even the winner can only fairly claim to speak for one in five of the electorate. No party has a ‘natural’ right to be in government in such a system – if the second, third and fourth placed parties got together they would have a simple majority in the parliament, and could exclude the party that actually ‘won’ the election. This is unlikely to happen due to tradition and expectation, but it could happen.

Standing around in the rain, getting ignored. Isn't politics great?

At the moment it is suggested that Kokoomus, the True Finns and the SDP will try to form a government if they can agree on a programme. This is likely to produce all sorts of odd dynamics. Timo Soini, the True Finns leader, has said that he sees his party being close to the SDP, and economically this is true – both want to defend the welfare state and are happy to raise taxes to do so. It’s just that the True Finns don’t want any outsiders joining that welfare state (“this is a local welfare state for local people! There’s nothing for you here.”). The SDP have also been playing with Euroscepticism in the last Parliament – voting against the Greek bailout for example. There is nothing new about leftwing parties positioning themselves against the EU – as anyone with a passing knowledge of the history of the British Labour Party well knows. The SDP were from early 90s to 2003, under Lipponen’s prime ministership, very pro-EU, but the left of party such as President Halonen and former foreign minister Tuomioja always had their doubts. SDP watchers can perhaps correct me if I’m wrong, but I think the current leader Urpilainen and party secretary Jungner are identified more with the Lipponen-wing of the party, so are perhaps not particularly eurosceptic, but nevertheless the party has tacked that way, and it will make a government with Kokoomus and the True Finns ‘interesting’ when EU matters will be so central.

Anti-politics in Vantaa. I think we can put the perpetrator down as a "non of the above" type of guy.

The True Finns in government are the proverbial wild card. Tomi Huhtanen neatly puts it: “The True Finns’ party programme is actually rather mainstream; the problem is that hardly anyone in the party adheres to it.” So much focus was on Timo Soini (who as a result took the biggest personal vote in the country), less attention has been paid to those who came in on his coat tails. Quite possibly some will be hardworking, attentive MPs who regardless of their politics, will be doing their best for the people who voted for them. Other, well perhaps less so. A number of times in the past Soini has had to distance himself from the antics, at times openly racist antics, of others in his party. Now with more media attention, there is a good chance similar will be seen and even if they do keep discipline, virtually all are new to national politics and the media will be happy to show up gaps in their knowledge.

Perhaps more importantly are the tensions within the party. Jussi Halla-Aho did well in the elections with a strong personal vote, and is well known for his outspoken anti-immigrant, anti-Muslim views. Halla-Aho’s association with the True Finns is complex, in the past he has stood on their ticket, but without being a party member – but now he seems to be in the party with both feet. His internationally influenced anti-Islam politics is closer to the politics of Geert Wilders in Holland or Vlaams Belang in Flanders, than it is to the rural-populist tradition that Timo Soini comes from. There have been and remain some tensions within the True Finns between the young Turks (yes, there is some irony to calling them that) who are Halla-Aho’s supporters and I guess what you can call the old guard. Soini is the man of the moment, but as Taneli Heikka perceptively notes that whilst “Soini has said he is happy with the current state of affairs with immigration policy, […]seven out of 39 [new True Finn] MP's have signed a staunch anti-immigration manifesto, and they want more. A government with True Finns will have to go for tougher measures on immigration, or the party (and the government) faces collapse. Mr Soini knows this.”

2011 Rock On

2011-04-06T00:01:00.000+03:00

First rock climbing of the year today; well bouldering actually, but that still counts. Venue: Pihlajamäki, quick drying and convenient, which are probably the strongest points it has going for it! Actually, it was good fun, in a don't-fall-off-into-the-muddy-puddle-of-meltwater sort of way. Roll on summer and the real crags drying out.

The urban 'delights' of Pihlajamäki - spot the climbers above the give way sign.

I'm 'crag pack' reviewing this spring. The just arrived Black Diamond Demon Duffel gets it first outing.

Me actually about to send "Bungalow" 5+, which was nice.

Eärendel on a 4+, Tony and Erik try and spot the holds on their 7A.

Having found the holds, Erik now tries to hold on to them.

Trash, soggy snow, and views of tower blocks. You've just got love "Pihlis"!

End of the season?

2011-04-03T22:44:00.001+03:00

It's pissing rain now, and there hasn't been a frost for the last three nights. There are massive piles of brown and grey snow all over the place. Where the snow hadn't been cleared well and got packed down, its now ice, covered with a sheen of water and dirt. Lovely.

D at Kauhala

A week ago it was cold and sunny. Last Sunday Diana and I climbed at Kauhala in pretty good conditions. There was even an ice line on the far right that I had never seen before so had to try. It started with a few metres of very steep and very thin ice, up to some slightly thicker and easier angled ice above. I tried a couple of places to put my 13 cm stubby screw in here but it kept hitting rock. On about my third go I dropped it, and took that as a sign that the vibes weren't good for committing to the crux above with groundfall potential, so managed to climb back down. Oh well, maybe in another decade it will form again!

Life in the freezer

Wednesday night was the last cold one on the forecast and I wanted to use a sleeping bag that I'm reviewing near to its limit. It was actually colder than I expected at -14.5; the bag is rated to -15 and kept me pretty warm considering I was bivvying out with out a tarp or bivvy bag. Everything was covered in ice in the morning and getting up was kinda brutal.

Room with lots of view

I couldn't take any decent photos because although I had kept the camera battery inside the sleeping bag, as soon as I took the lens cap off, the lens frosted up and wouldn't clear. I had to resort to taking a few snaps on my phone.

Me on "Tappisolu Overflow" at Kurkelanjärvi

Thursday, I went to Kurkelanjärvi in Kisko with Eärendel to do some climbing. I led the first route of the day. It was fine at the bottom although the start was tricky, but higher up the ice was sun-damaged and the screws felt pretty shit. The standard late-season 'easy but dangerous' feeling. We decided to top rope the next few lines instead.

Eärendel on "Vipermafia"

It's been a good season.

Walking back to spring?

Down here in the South of Finland it looks like the ice climbing season might well be over - I know some people have been out rock climbing and bouldering at quick drying venues already. I've been ice climbing since November, so a four-month season isn't bad, including ice climbs in England, Wales, Norway and Finland, but roll on summer. It's one of the great things about being a climber who does a bit of everything; you've always got the next season to look forward to.

Respect My Authoritah!

2011-03-29T23:37:00.000+03:00

Monday's Start the Week from BBC Radio 4 is interesting, as it normally is. But what makes this week's edition particularly delightful is Madawi Al-Rasheed's response to Niall Ferguson's attempt at a bit of political analysis on Saudi Arabia's future. Her response to the history professor's, as-ever, self assured and slightly windy assertions on the Kingdom was: "this is absolutely inaccurate". Ferguson is without doubt a great scholar of 19th century economics, but he needs to hear responses like Prof. Al-Rasheed's a bit more often when he starts pontificating on matters he obviously knows less about.

And if you don't get the title.

Must all good things come to end?

2011-03-26T22:34:00.000+02:00

I just listened to the last episode of Politics UK on the BBC World Service. This program has been one of the victims of the cuts happening across the british government currently; the World Service is funded by the Foreign Office and they are having their budget cut just like the rest of the public sector. Politics UK has been perhaps the best programme on the BBC about british politics across all the radio channels both domestic and the World Service: half an hour long giving time for real interviews where people could really make a coherent argument rather than just knock out a few sound-bites. The final guests on the programme are typical of the sort of heavy-weights with decades of experience that have typified the voices that have been heard on Politics UK; Lord Hennessy - Professor of Contemporary British History at Queen Mary, University of London; Lord Howe - former Chancellor of the Exchequer, foreign secretary and deputy prime minister under Margaret Thatcher and Lord Donoughue - former adviser to Labour prime ministers Harold Wilson and Jim Callaghan and a minister under Tony Blair. And all agreed that the Foreign Office and BBC were shooting themselves in the foot cutting such an obvious 'weapon' of UK 'soft power'.

I for one will miss it, and want to thank the team at the BBC who have made such consistently good programme/podcast over the years.

When democracy protests become "sectarianism".

2011-03-23T21:26:00.000+02:00

Earlier, I listened to Marc Lynch being interviewed on yesterday's Fresh Air about the Libyan situation. Lynch is always worth paying attention to, but it was actually his discussion of Al Jazeera's treatment of the Bahrain protests that really jumped out.

Al Jazeera has been a long-term whipping boy particularly of the American right for its perceived anti-American stance. Particularly once it had launched its English service, it became - partly in response to being bashed from the US right - lauded by many on the left; in Europe and America. It clearly does cover stories that don't get much coverage elsewhere and often shows 'the other side' of stories that are covered by western media. Nevertheless, like any other institutions, it exists in its own political context - in this case being in effect owned government/royal family of Qatar - and that brings distortions.

Lynch points out that whilst it al Jazeera's coverage of the uprisings in Egypt, Tunisia and now Libya has been extensive and central to raising the Arab public's conciousness across the region, it is dealing with the Bahraini protests differently. The Bahraini protesters are, it would seem, predominantly Shia, mainly because being Shia in Bahrain is to be given the shitty end of the stick in life and hence make you more likely to protest. But the protesters have been careful to make their claims in terms of nationalism and democracy - it is only the Bahraini government and its backers in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) that wants everyone to see it as sectarianism, with the obvious unspoken assumption that Iran must be lurking in the background. Lynch points out since Qatar and Saudi Arabia patched up their differences, al Jazeera has been more reticent about criticising Saudi policy, and the Saudis are the superpower of the GCC, an organization that sent troops into Bahrain in support of the regime there.

Lynch makes the argument in greater detail on his blog at Foreign Policy - it is well worth reading. As ever, context is everything.

New for reviewing: bags of various types.

2011-03-23T00:14:00.002+02:00

Lots of packages arriving with new things to review for UKclimbing. Always a nice excuse to get outside. Firstly I'm trying out one of the new Sea to Summit down sleeping bags. It's got some really funky technology in it and the company is very excited about launching them - I think there are genuinely some novel ideas involved.

It's also very red and rather jolly looking which has got to make it work better don't you think?

Secondly, I'm going to be doing a group review of "crag pack for trad racks". I think cragging packs - rucksacks designed for getting your climbing gear to the cliff, but not for actually climbing with - are great.

So far I have an Arcteryx Miura 50 and a Mammut Neon Gear 45. First impressions of both are very good.

Both are kind of boxes with rucksack straps, which is exactly what I'm looking for.

Glimpses of a journey - Norway and back.

2011-03-14T22:53:00.000+02:00

Snaps from my phone of a climbing road trip. More later.

Triple rated ropes - and some spring sunshine ice.

2011-03-03T00:07:00.002+02:00

New ropes!

I've just started reviewing a group of ropes for UKC, which are (if you are a climber at least) pretty interesting. We are looking at triple rated ropes; that are tested and certified to be used as a single, double or twin rope. I've got to try a Beal Joker 9.1; a Mammut Serenity and an Edelrid Swift (both 8.9). I think these routes are pretty versatile and will become increasingly popular in the next few years.

Across the lake

Today was a beautiful day so Eärendal agreed to a quick trip out to Nuuksio for a few routes - a sort of warm up before our trip to Norway next week.

Here E is leading one of the easier routes using the Edelrid Swift as a single.

We then went down to the main sector I led Oikea Suora. Here the Beal and Edelrid are being used as doubles.

E descending after our ascent of Oikea Suora. The route is fantastic condition now. I was quite chuffed that I managed it without any great drama.

We then went and did the far-left pillar thats has a funky free hanging start currently. Here E is just reaching the belay.

Sari leading on the Mammut Serenity and her rope a couple of weeks back at Klöverberget

So fingers crossed for decent weather and condition in Norway next week, then I'll have a chance to really give the ropes a good use. And for the Helsinki climbers, people have been telling me that the normally super reliable One Point Gully has been ice free all winter, but it isn't any longer. I led it today placing three screws. The ice is thin and a funky - I guess the result of snow melt at the top rather than the normal spring feed. In fact a number of easier routes at that left sector are now climbable. I soloed the slab to the left of the line that Eärendal is leading in the picture above on thin but solid ice, for example.

Snowshoeing

2011-02-27T22:47:00.000+02:00

I've been a bit remiss in my blogging recently - I keep promising myself to write more but the days just seem to slip past. But here are a few photos from out snowshoeing today - just because they are quite pretty really. Uusimaa, the region that surrounds Greater Helsinki, is the Finnish equivalent of the Home Counties I guess. Less BMWs and stockbrokers, more moose though. It's not really wilderness as such, although in mid-winter the farmers' fields turn into wide open snowscapes and quiet, overhung rivers become hard highways for snowmobiles, skiers and the occasional snowshoer. In some ways, rather bucolic, yet still when it is -20 or colder - rural idyll or not, your toes will still go black and fall off if you don't look after them.

The bridges of Uusimaa county; new...

...and old.

But the winds have changed and the temperatures soared to a giddy -4 degrees. Today I was sweating and was quite happy hiking in a merino t-shirt and R1 pullover - a microfleece, or glorified sweatshirt really. Rather than full on snow boots, it was nice to wear some light fabric hiking boots with just some shorty gaiters to keep the snow out the tops. After some really cold hand experiences over the last few weeks, I was actually happy walking for some time with out gloves on and was getting sweaty inside my Marmot XT gloves when I did put them on. What a difference a few days can make.

There are animal tracks every where, from tiny little marks that might be mice or shrews, hare tracks everywhere and interestingly what I think must be foxes that seemed to favour the river as a quick way to move about. Then there are the people tracks - lots of skiers have been out and about a few other snowshoers. Snowshoeing is definitely picking up in popularity in Finland. A few years back you basically never saw snowshoe tracks at least in the parts of southern Finland that I tend to frequent, whilst this winter in particular I'm seeing more and more. It is in someways not as graceful as skiing, more plodding and pedestrian, but it also has its own advantages and rewards of being able to go anywhere - particularly through dense southern deciduous-mix woods - with minimal hassle.

More daylight - hurray! About 5 pm and the sun is still above the horizon

It's lucky I can never throw out odd straps, bits of velcro, elastic and the like as in my bits-and-pieces box I found the perfect ultra-light snowshoe holding system for my super light pack!

Deep winter

2011-02-16T13:08:00.001+02:00

At my house we haven't quite hit -26 degrees but are getting pretty close to it. It is beautiful outside in the woods, but life can feel hard when the temperature is this low; things don't work so well and the cold seeks out gaps in your insulation armour. But then, when it gets back up to just -10, you appreciate the warm weather!

The pharoah has gone - optimistic reflections on a revolution.

2011-02-11T19:30:00.000+02:00

When Anwar Sadat was killed in 1981, his assasin, after running out of bullets, is said to have shouted "I have killed the pharaoh, and I do not fear death!". The use of the word pharaoh was deliberate because Khalid Islambouli - the assasin - was a Jihadist (although I don't think that word was in use back then) and wished to connect Sadat to the pre-Islamic history of Egypt. That pre-Islamic era was consider to be Jahiliyyah, classically used to be mean 'before God's guidance', but adapted and perhaps corrupted by radical ideologue Said Qutb, the inspiration behind Islambouli's violence, to mean un-Islamic and therefore without worth or indeed worthy of destruction.

Until 30 minutes ago, that was the last time leadership was transferred in Egypt; bloodily, violently and as a result of a radical, exclusionary reading of a religion. Now once again the Pharaoh has gone, but he is not dead. Instead Mubarak appears to be retiring to the seaside. His non-assasins - the democracy protestor -; men and women, young and old, secular and religious, Muslim and Christian, rich and poor; have shown day after day in Tahrir Square that, like Islambouli, they were not afraid to die, but unlike him they would not resort to violence except in self defence (against hired thugs in uniform or not). And again, unlike Islambouli, their motivation has been democracy, self respect, and human rights. The army should respect their sacrifices and their liberal sentiments and quickly give the Egyptian people the democracy they so richly deserve.

Marmot Plasma 15: first look review

2011-02-09T13:23:00.000+02:00

Yesterday morning the UPS guy arrived through the blizzard to deliver a big box of very little weight. Inside was a very lofty, but very light Marmot Plasma 15 sleeping bag, which I am now reviewing for UKClimbing. But I thought I'd do a very quick "first look" here, as these bags are very new and there is very little about them on the net as of this moment. Oddly, even though they are for sale in the US already, they don't appear to be on Marmot's own website yet - although if you can take very cheery and enthusiastic Americans-in-sleeping-bags, you can see Marmot's Curly here discussing the bag (I'm sure he's a lovely, normal guy when not hiding in sleeping bags for company videos).

The Plasma range is two new style bags, made of top of the range fabrics and filled with the best goose down. Unfortunately they also come with a top of the range price, RRP for the "15" (named for 15 degrees Fahrenheit - slightly confusingly for us Euros) appears to be 480 bucks in the US. So expect a price around 300 quid or 350 Euros. A lot of money to shell out, so I imagine the likely user is going to be someone who really does a lot of backpacking or camping in pretty cold conditions and wants a bag that is about as light as you can find for its temperature rating.

Anyway, taking my reviewing very seriously, I decided I better bite the bullet and give the bag a go. The heavy snow had stopped by evening but it was blustery and cold whilst I put the tent up in my back garden after packing the snow down by snow shoe. My little Hubba tent isn't really designed for camping on snow, the wind seems to get under the fly sheet quite easily and the all mesh inner means a bit more airflow through the tent than one might necessarily require in winter! Nevertheless this guarantees you are testing the insulation value of your sleeping bag, not of your tent.

The bag looks quite slim, but feels fine once inside. One immediate plus point is that the poppers and draw cords on the hood and draft collar are very easy to find and use in the dark. Really nice design. After doing them all up I immediately felt snug and warm, so couldn't be bothered undoing them again to read my book. So instead I just went to sleep (BTW, the book is "Wolf Hall" that won the Booker a couple of years ago and is well loved in literary circles - which makes me feel slightly embarrassed to ask, but has anyone else found reading it a bit of a trudge? Come on Henry VIII! Just shag her and behead her already!). I was still snug and warm at 6.45 when I had to get up. Getting out a nice warm sleeping bag into sub-zero temperatures is as nice as it always is - i.e. not nice at all.

The thermometer had said minus 4.5 when I had gone out, and it was minus 5.3 this morning when I came back into the house. The bags is rated to -9 but as anyone knows, sleeping bag ratings even with the best intentions of the manufacturers are a very inexact science. What I can say is that wearing my normal winter camping 'pyjamas' of a merino base layer, hat and down filled sleeping 'booties', I was very warm all night in the Plasma 15. I normally feel warm getting into sleeping bags but cool down a lot through the night, often feeling a bit chilly in the morning - but no such problem with the Plasma 15, at least at this temperature. So looking good so far. Much more on UKC at the end of March.

Magical Muurla

2011-02-07T00:02:00.002+02:00

I've written about Muurla as a neglected summer crag in the past on this blog, but it's years since I've been there in winter and hadn't realised that it was such a neglected winter crag! Today it was simply fantastic - huge amounts of ice - lots of different lines, some hard some OK - and all in the sun and under a blue sky. What more could you ask for? Cheers to Dave and Jody for being great partners and hi to Juha and Erik (hope that's the right spelling), the only other folk out at this great crag on a perfect day.

Erik on the main pillar as the morning clouds clear


Jody making shapes up the groove

What goes up must come down

I do occasionally put the cameras down and do some climbing myself!

Juha puts in another great lead up steep thin ice. Juha is climbing basically the same line as this!

Happy belayer

Jody's big lead

Juha climbing another great looking line with some powerful moves to get onto the ice

Same route from below

The sun starts to get lower and the world goes magically pink

Just the tree tops in the sun now...

...and it's time to go home.

If you don't know anything about the EU...

2011-01-28T00:02:00.000+02:00

Through work and studies I know lots of people who know an awful lot about the EU, (don't worry though - it doesn't necessarily make them weird, or bad dinner guests. Well, not in every case.) but that is very far from the norm. Because of all the areas where the EU has some influence - for good or bad - most people have some opinion on it, but unless you really don't have anyhing to do with your spare time, most people don't know much about how and why the EU is now as it is. I happened to hear an interview with Paul Krugman today; the subject was really the future of the Euro - where he could do his whole Nobel-winning-economist-thang. Obviously this is worth listening to in its own right, but on his way to making those points he gave a very decent, clear and concise history of the EU, and being on American radio - it was aimed at people who are even less likely to know about why and what the EU is than your average European. Well worth 10 minutes of any inquiring mind's time.

Haglöfs: design fail

2011-01-27T01:25:00.000+02:00

Haglöfs have been around for ever in the Nordic region but are relatively new in the UK where they have garnered much praise. It's interesting that in Finland you can pick up Haglöfs gear in any high street sports chain - like Intersport - whilst in the UK they have cleverly branded themselves as a niche, top-end brand like Arcteryx or Patagonia only selling in good outdoor shops. Despite buying most of my Haglöf stuff on sale in Intersport over the years, I really think they do make some great stuff but no one is perfect.

Branding is all important, hence having your logo on the velcro cuff tabs is a nice little touch isn't it? Well, no...

...not really! This exactly the type of thing in design that is completely obvious in retrospect but you miss before the failure. I note that my jacket must have been the original Vipers, because on the Viper II they have gone over to soft cuffs. Nevertheless, looking on Haglöfs' site, a number of their more expensive softshells made out of branded materials are sporting the accident-waiting-to-happen cuff design. If you were thinking of buying one of those jackets, its worth knowing that the cuff tab might break after only moderate use. And on the off chance that anyone from Haglöfs stumbles across this post - building a structural weak point into your design for branding reasons is not a good idea folks!

Helsinki XC

2011-01-26T17:35:00.000+02:00

There is something quite special about being able to ski from your front door. It's not normal even in relatively snowy Finland. Currently on the quieter roads we've had so much snow and little thawing that they are just covered in a thick layer of packed down snow that is still white. No grit, no dirt, no ruts.

Life on the road

Hence, just pop on your skis at home and skate up the road to where the real prepared tracks start. My route takes me over a pedestrian bridge that crosses a motorway. It still amuses me skiing over the motorway, but perhaps I'm easily pleased.

At the ski area

Then down into the woods, and along a couple of kms of connecting track to the local, lit skiing area with its 1.5, 3 and 5 kms loops. The 3 and the 5 km tracks have amusingly steep hills that test out your willingness on skinny skis to just trust that your skis will stay in the tracks as you hurtle down desperately trying stay in balance whilst trying not to remind yourself just how unsuitable XC skis are for going downhill on!

Shroomin' the fresh groom

Today was perfect. The tracks had been groomed this morning and hardly anyone else had been out there. The sun was even shining brightly enough for me to wear sunglasses for the first time in 2011 - perhaps not quite worthy of a druidic festival involving dancing naked around some standing stones - but an important moment marking the passings of the seasons nonetheless!

Spikey things

2011-01-25T20:23:00.000+02:00

Please pass this post by if you are amongst the 99.99999% of people in the world not interested in the comparative spike length of CT Nuptse and Grivel G12 crampons. And if you are in that 0.00001%, just rest assured you are very special! ;-)

When I'm 76 I want to be climbing like this...

2011-01-24T16:41:00.000+02:00

Chris Bonington, 4 years short of turning 80, and here is tootling up Cascades de Lillaz (WI3+). Inspirational.

January ice climbing and hiking

2011-01-20T00:08:00.000+02:00

Various pictures from being out and about in a snowy southern Finland. Skis, snowshoes and crampons have all been involved so far.

Cliff checking in Northern Vantaa.

There is lots of ice in unusual places but not much in normal places. This mission was a bit of failure in finding ice, and the snow was just crusty enough to hold your weight in snow shoes for a fraction of second before collapsing downwards. Some poet said something like "in winter, every mile is worth two" - he had obviously been snowshoeing on insufficiently crusted snow that day...

In France you have to pay a fine if you dress like this now, well at least if you are a woman and brown...

This was the end of last week and it was ferociously cold before the next warm front rolled in over the weekend heralding the slight thaw of the last few days.

Jody cruising the steeps

We went to Salo on Sunday - Angelniemi is pretty fat. I led the same line as in the picture above leashless, and felt unpleasantly like I was going to fall off near the top of the vertical. I reckon I'm climbing 80% leashless these days, but as soon as it hits 90 degrees, I back to the 90s with wrist loops cinched!

You can check out but you never leave... Big Toni, back ice climbing again after a few years of pretending he had given up - hurrah!

For the non-climbers: no, his left crampon isn't meant to be hanging off his boot like that!

There is an American chap, Dane - I guess that's not his real name, but who knows with Americans! ;-) who is doing sterling work on his blog and through various climbing forums pointing out that modern crampon front bails don't fit modern boots very well. The picture above is Toni having some 'compatibility issues' between his brand new Sportiva Nepal Evo boots and BD Bionic crampons. We were mainly trying not to laugh too much at this point and rather offer words of commiseration like "bummer, dude! So what's your plan now?" Toni once laughed at me for falling through the ice into lake, and I have long memory....

More gear woes

The Sportiva Baturas have gained a reputation for being brilliant boots to climb in for the first day or two until they start falling apart. Jody's pair above were doing their bit to keep up this rep with zip breaking. Fortunately Sportiva's Finnish distributors are doing the decent thing and having his boots returned to Italy to have the new and reportedly hugely more reliable zip put in.

Eärendel seconding.

One of the greatest things about climbing is that you always get to meet new, cool people and then instantly trust your life to them and ask them to trust you with theirs! So in the last couple of days I have had the pleasure of sharing a rope with Eärendel and Mia for the first time.

The little falls at the right end of Angelniemi. Jody leads.

Angelniemi mixed - "Ukkosmyrsky", maybe around M4 or 5?

Mia's first 'proper' ice lead - Solvalla

Today I climbed at Solvalla with Mia. There is a whole new easy ice line on the right edge of the crag that I've never seen before - this Mia climbed in fine style as her first ever ice lead where she placed all here own screws as she went. The main fall is now huge - way bigger that when I first found it in climbable condition maybe five years ago, and pretty soon you'll be able to do a direct finish as well with steep ice right the way to top of the cliff on the steepest part.

Ice climbing and Brazilian economic history

2011-01-13T12:24:00.000+02:00

Ice climbing and This American Life from Toby A. on Vimeo.

Yesterday I went and did a bit of moderate climbing on my own. I was listening to the ever brilliant This American Life on my iPod whilst doing so. If you have ever wondered why the Brazilian Real is called the 'Real' (as opposed to the 'fake'); or how the Fed makes and destroys money; then download the podcast, grab your ice axes and go, climb and learn.

Happy New Year!

2011-01-01T23:31:00.002+02:00

Hi all, and Happy New Year! Life changes, life goes on - I think this year I'll have more time for blogging, so hopefully if you keep dropping by from time to time there will be more regular random scatterings of my thoughts and photos to amuse, bemuse or annoy you.

Thought for the day: isn't it a bit depressing that we have to have the following entire section in bookshops nowadays?

But never mind, the world is still lovely at times. Here for your delectation is a delightful, wintery, English rural scene. The ducks waddled off just before I snapped it though, so apologies for the lack of suitable waterfowl.

Southstone rock: a local cliff for local climbers

2010-12-28T21:58:00.000+02:00

If you don't live in Worcestershire and climb the following is likely to be of very little interest. You have been warned!

Frost crystals on the walk up to Southstone

Southstone Rock (pdf of the guide available here for a quid) has a bit of a shitty reputation even amongst local climbers - it is definitely not somewhere you would recommend climbers travel to visit, but it is a geographic oddity - flowstone limestone popping up in an odd place. It has also always been a spooky place as well - deep in dark wood, with strange religious or perhaps even occult paraphernalia left in one of the caves when I first went there some decades back. A place where an older England; of fear and superstition, brutality and ignorance, feels not so far away. The next steep stream system down the valley is called "the Hell Hole" according to the OS map.

Southstone's main face and the left-hand subsidiary buttress

Anyway I walked past the cliff yesterday and was surprised to see that tree clearance had taken away much of the 'deep, dark woods' feel, and a lot more light will now be falling on the cliff.

The main face containing the crag 'classic', Madonna's Groove, HVS 5a

The rock is still its old swiss-cheese-am-I-really-brave-enough-to-put-my-hand-into-that-deep-pocket?-self that Southstone veterans will appreciate, but at least when some previously unknown-to-science deadly spider bites you, you can fall off and lay there gasping for your last breath in warm sunshine rather than the deep, forest shadows. So that is nice...

A far left buttress with obvious overhanging bouldering potential

Years ago I soloed and recorded a bunch of micro routes there, normally climbing up to where I could grab some kind of tree at the top, stick a sling around it and then abseil back down. Re-visiting the cliff now, most of these now look to my contemporary eye as obvious, easy, highball boulder problems. There are also many buttresses that are not particularly high that look to offer huge amounts of bouldering potential.

The back wall in the 'canyon' - potential short sports routes using natural threads

So I reckon any adventurous boulderers in the West Midlands, looking for first ascents, could do a lot worse than bring their pads, brushes and some sturdy gardening equipment to Southstone in the spring time.

Extreme weather warning!

2010-12-21T01:04:00.000+02:00

I'm in England and there is an inch or so of snow, so of course all blogs posts will be delayed. We apologize for any inconvenience caused and completely unnecessary Wire references.

Happy Christmas Y'all!

When the North East wind doth blow there shall be a wee bit of snow and bloody Baltic temperatures!

Back in da' rather bucolic hood.

Ramblin' wid my homies.

Yo! Omar comin'! OMAR COMIN'!!!

Finland, NATO and terrorists

2010-12-18T23:39:00.000+02:00

I spent a lot of time at the start of week commenting on the Stockholm terrorist attack to the Finnish media. Of course they all ask the unanswerable questions like "will there be a terrorist attack here?" For various reasons my answer has evolved to "not likely, but you can't that it is impossible"; so it was quite surprising to hear the Finnish president say mid-week that it is only a matter of time before there is a terrorist attack in Finland. But by the end of the week, YLE reports the government doesn't agree with the President and is saying that the risk of terrorism is low, although they note that:

"...the embassies of large Nato members may become terrorist targets"

Which is odd, considering that whole not-being-a-NATO-member-saves-you-from-the-terrible-terrorists thing doesn't seem to be working so well for Sweden currently.

Gaiter-haters

2010-12-12T01:11:00.000+02:00

All you gaiter-haters out there - yo! You know who you are! With your little elastic boot straps on your softshells - thinking you look sooooo dope, sooooo fly. Well you don't, cuz'. You look like you've got wet feet, fool. So to all my nylon lower legged homies out there - still rockin' it old school - this one is for you. You know what time it is - dry feet time!

Sore shoulders

2010-12-05T01:34:00.000+02:00

But some good climbing today. Thanks to Diana and Toni for coming out; Diana for belaying and Toni for getting photos for an upcoming review. Below is some geezer in posh coat quite scared on his first steep bit of ice of the winter!

Glass houses, stones and all that.

2010-11-29T14:36:00.000+02:00

Republican Congressman Peter King is very very angry, and thinks that Wikileaks should be classified as terrorists. It's worth listening to Mr King as he knows a lot about terrorists, after all for many years he vocally supported one terrorist group and was involved in one of its overseas support organisations that according to the the US and UK government channelled money to that terrorist group for weapons. In fact, Mr. King has been "paling around with terrorists" -drinking in pubs with them for example- probably more than any other US politicians, so should know a thing or two about them.

Tracks in the snow

2010-11-29T00:08:00.001+02:00

Some pictures taken on brief stroll on snowshoes this afternoon in my local area.

Getting the snowshoes out for the first time this year.

The snow isn't actually that deep but the snowshoes helps limit how much goes into your boots.

Low winter sun, - 15 at lunchtime.

Snow in the birch scrub.

The first skiers have been out but not much base yet.

It would be nice if these were Lynx tracks but it was probably just a fox.

Hopperty-hop. Hare tracks.

I wasn't quite sure what had been digging in the snow here, perhaps a dog or a fox looking for a mouse under the snow?

Is it everywhere in the world that farmers feel they have right to chuck all their broken machinery into the corner of fields and leave it there?

First Ice

2010-11-28T11:22:00.001+02:00

The frost that started last week, carried on all this week - with many parts of Finland recording some of the coldest November weather for decades and in a few cases, a century. On Tuesday the wind to whipped up and brought more snow, but it was still pretty cold and the snow was light and feathery meaning a blizzard all day as the wind blasted it about. The trams were all in a total mess after a crash so I ended up having to walk the last coupled of kms to work.

The height of the storm corresponded with the office Christmas party that evening. This turned walking from the restaurant to the bar afterwards into something of an epic Arctic style expedition. Helsinki normally looks pretty and seasonal in the snow, but that night it just looked wild.

Waiting for the bus home was character building. Fortunately Helsinki buses are pretty good at running to timetable so as long as you know when the last one leaves, you can minimise your time standing outside at the stop!

But by the end of the week the winds had died away, the sky cleared and the temperature dropped further.

Friday morning dawn (which means 8.30 at this time of the year!)

So once the weekend arrived it was time to go ice climbing. I climbed with Sari, the two Janis and Ville. We started off trying Nuuksionpää. The easy left hand line was OK and I led it placing a few screws. There was less ice on the upper section than normal, so that was less pleasant climbing not very safe frozen vegetation rather than ice.

Placing my first ice screw of the winter 10/11!

Jani tries the main wall.

The main wall at Nuuksionpää isn't well formed yet (see the photo of Jani climbing). Jani tried leading it, but there was no protection possible yet. We all top-roped a couple of lines though.

Ville at Kauhala

After that we drove round to Kauhala. The left-hand fall was climbable and I felt the ice was thick enough to happily solo it a couple of times. The others put a rope down it and did a couple of different lines.

Heels down Sari!

I was climbing in the Climbing Technology Nupste crampons that I'm reviewing for UKClimbing. They aren't really designed as a steep ice crampon, more of an all-round mountaineering crampon. You have to really push your heels down to get the secondary points to engage, but actually that makes you focus on your feet in a positive way. So, with that in mind, Sari then had to put up with me continually reminding her to keep her heels down to get her crampons to engage better. I'm sure I would make a really tedious instructor... sorry mate!

A chilly stroll home

A foreign-born billionaire wants your country... but which one?

2010-11-23T10:43:00.001+02:00

Which billionaire, that is, not which country. Most of us live in countries that are just too boring for foreign-born billionaires to bother with... It's just so complicated this modern world. Surely puppets and arrows on a chalkboard will help me understand!

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

George Soros Plans to Overthrow America

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

The Daily Show on Facebook

I guess to many Americans, Glen Beck is a very odd public figure, to most non-Americans he is both fascinating, utterly bizarre and quite scary. He reminds me a bit of characters in James Ellroy's books - particularly the Underworld USA trilogy. Of course the fictional characters like Wayne Tredow Sr are very ugly; Tredow is a 1950's right-wing pamphleteer, Bircher and KKK-supporter - but then again the fictional characters didn't have national TV shows. When I read the New Yorker piece on Beck last month, it all made sense.

Weekend climbing: winter is here

2010-11-22T00:18:00.001+02:00

I've been a bit jealous that over in Scotland, my old stomping ground, they have been having a great start to the season, with all sorts of routes - easy and hard, old and new - getting done. I last rock climbed in Finland two weeks ago and it snowed whilst Simon was trying to second the route, but then the weather has been pretty lousy since then, cold and rainy. Well, this week, the wind turned, we got 10 cms of wet snow and then it has been freezing since. Things are looking rather wintery.

How the bathroom floor should look like after a good winter weekend

I didn't think that there had been enough days of frost for any icefalls to be climbable yet, but I had an old mixed project (i.e. climb I have tried but fallen off finding it too hard in the past) in my mind. I had been contacted by Sari, Sheffield's hardest climbing Finn until her recent move back to Finland, who was looking for people to climb with and she was suitably enthusiastic (possibly naive!?) to get out there and see what things looked like.

Sari on the crux

The cliff was pretty snowy and there were surprising amounts of ice forming in various places - boding well for later winter and making me feel like my proposed line would pass even a Scottish mixed climbing ethics panel let alone a slack Euro one!

What you looking at? Me, retreating into standard winter hide-in-your-hood-mode.

I had a first go but didn't get too far before grinding to halt, then promptly popping off holding one ice tool in my slightly surprised hands and the other stuck in the crack some way above where I was now hanging.

Finding some gear...

Sari took over, quickly getting to my high point, dislodging my tool for me then carrying on putting in a sterling performance to top out, doing probably the first winter ascent of the climb (I've climbed some year ago in its much easier summer form). I managed to second the route cleanly, then it was home for tea and medals.

Heading for victory!

All in all, a good quick trip to start the season of hot aches and scaring yourself silly. As to the route itself, Sari and I couldn't agree: she thought it was technically easier than the Message, a route that she had had something of a minor epic on. I thought it was harder than the Message, having climbed that route in OK style but now having fallen off trying to lead this one twice! It's a funny old game, particularly considering when your common reference point is one small route about a thousand miles away in the Cairngorms.

One more bike

2010-11-19T08:33:00.002+02:00

I had moaned about the rubbish bike parking outside Helsinki station the other week, so I thought I better balance it with better biking infrastructure that the city have put in place not far away. This bike parking accepts that you have to lock the frame of your bike to a permanent structure for it to be safe. It even includes a chain to help you keep your front wheel safe. Very good stuff. I thought this bike looked great as well. Interestingly Pinnacle, the make, is the house brand of Evan’s, a London chain of cycle shops. I guess someone has imported this one – maybe a Finn coming home from London or perhaps even another biking Brit in Helsinki?

People reckon dog owners pick mutts that resemble them but what can you guess from a bike about its owner? Pinnacle: so someone from or who has lived in SE England? A sensible city bike (great brakes and gearing) using a high quality lock and the good bike park: someone from a city where if you don’t look after your bike, it gets nicked. The bike parking is very close to one of the big, private language teaching firms – where I once worked many moons ago – so possibly a TEFL teacher? Studded tyres and mudguards in place perhaps a bit earlier than necessary – first winter riding in Finland? So my money is on a relatively-new-to-Helsinki English teacher previously living in London. If you know that the bike belongs to a 50 year old Finnish piano tuner who hasn’t been to the UK since a brief holiday in the early 1970s, please feel free to leave mocking comments at my wannabe-sleuth skills.

Meanwhile, whilst still on biking vibe, Coming Thru points out the problem of bike vandalism in Helsinki and how smashed up bikes just get left to rot and scare away other cyclists from leaving their bikes in the same place. Say what you want about civil liberties, but do that at a train station in the UK, and you’ll be on film. Finland seems to have a bit of problem as to whose responsibility it is to move such abandoned things: for years I noticed the huge numbers of abandoned cars all around Helsinki. They slowly would become more and more vandalized – it just seemed to become ‘normal’ to just leave cars where they had broken down – even on the hard shoulder of major roads. Helsingin Sanomat eventually did a big ‘expose’ on the issue and it seemed to be that the city, highway authorities and police all argued that it wasn’t their responsibility. Broken bikes – particularly locked ones – seem to fall between similar gaps.

It is ‘proper snowy’ today, but here is a pretty picture from Sunday, Fathers’ day in Finland, whilst out cycling with my son and Dad.

Blood, sweat but no tears: here come winter

2010-11-17T22:59:00.000+02:00

This is a fantastic video. Even if you aren't an ice climber, you should watch it just because it is so ace. I'm never going to be as good as these guys, but I do enough ice climbing to totally identify with those "oh, for fuck sake..." looks...

BD grassroots athlete Jesse Huey on The Real Big Drip (M7 WI 6), Canadian Rockies from Black Diamond Equipment on Vimeo.

Big up to the film makers, climbers and Black Diamond for sharing it with everyone. Meanwhile, here in the soggy, dark, south of Finland - it looks like winter might be about to make its presence felt.

Time to get those ice tools out of the shed?

October climbing

2010-11-16T00:36:00.002+02:00

I've been remiss with the blogging lately. Apologies to anyone who drops by once in while looking for a minute's distraction to find the same old same old. It's November, it's raining, I'm miserable, I'm tired, blah, blah, blah. Whatever... anyway, here's an update with some climbing photos.

I think October is the best month for climbing in Finland. The colours are great, it's cold enough to stop you sweating and it means good friction for your feet. Camping is always fun once it's dark and you can sit round a camp fire, but there is still enough daylight for a good day's climbing. The weather often seems to be pretty good. And for photographers, it is the 'golden hour' for much of the day - the low sun illuminating the leaves on the trees and the rock. All the photos below are 'clickable' or bigger versions.

Early October: Dave, Simon and I go to Olhava. Always fantastic. I liked this snap of a fellow climber taping up. It's the way to go if you are going to try and do some full days there. I think she is just concentrating on the taping, because she cruised Salama (E1 5b) with ease and grace straight afterwards so I don't think she was needing to do much psyching up (p.s. if that is you, leave me a comment as I have some nice pics of you on Salama that I'd be very happy to email you if you would like!).

Dave leading Suuri Leikkaus (E1 5b). I remember him seconding this route the day I first met him about 13 years ago! But still he had never led it. Over a decade our much expanded joint rack of large cams has made it much less unnerving an ascent than it would have been back then.

Sunday morning. The one thing with colder nights as autumn comes on is that it's harder to get out of your pit in the morning.

Dave suffering from the same not-quite-ready-to-get-out-of-the-bag syndrome. Simon has been strong and managed to struggle out his bag by this point. Some morning person has already relit the campfire though, the star!

Leisurely breakfasts and cups of coffee whilst using the excuse of "we're waiting for it to warm up just a little".

Sunday: Dave leading Finland's most aesthetic route - Kantti (E2 5b). I second it again and once again realise I still don't have the balls to lead it. Maybe next year...

Mid October - Kustavi, SW Finland. Another beautiful sunny day, but even colder. The crag is deserted besides us. I put one of those chemical handwarmer sachets in my chalk bag having read it as a 'top tip' in some climbing mag once. It works really well, and the I need it with the rock being so cold.

This crag, Isonittu, is all about the cracks. We do 11 pitches in the day, all except one sports route follow crack lines. I'm testing Camalots versus Dragons for UKC. It is the perfect testing ground - we place one or two nuts all day, the rest is just cam after cam after cam.

There is something vaguely Californian looking about this photo, but it wasn't the temperature. Dave leads Sankariheviä, VS 5a. The crack is perfectly jammable. The strong of arms but weak of pain tolerance layback it instead. Wimps...

Pulling through the overhang on Täysjyvä, VS 5a. Note the camtastic crack that the line follows. Isonittu might have the best collection of mid-grade trad routes of any crag in Finland. It can be a bit shady and dank in summer, but by late autumn virtually all the leaves have dropped and much more sun is hitting the section of the cliff in the woods.

10 routes into the day and the sun is setting. Not much time left before dark and coldness sets in. There was just one more route that I wanted to try before we called it quits...

This is crappy photo, but I just wanted one of Kaunokainen - which I reckon is about HVS 4c but it's an offwidth, so who knows what grade it is really. The crack is so wide, only the cam you can see in the picture fitted (and for most of the route -only just) so as I squirmed and slithered up it, I had to push the cam before me as the only runner. Leg jamming and chicken winging are the way to go. Skin was shredded, small amounts of blood were spilt, but that's how it should be. It ain't pretty, but upward movement becomes possible.

Late October: Havukallio. We are in no rush to get to the crag knowing that it is bloody cold out of the sun, but still everything is frosted when we park mid morning. It was so cold I wasn't climbing in a particularly inspired way but it was still great to be out.

It is a bit hard to see but on the left of the photo is the first bolt with quickdraw attached of the first climb of the day, Vanha vihtahousu, F5+. On the right, ice dribbles out of a crack. As the day went on and the sun came round we actually saw some lumps of ice that had formed from seeps at the top of cliff break off once warmed and come crashing down the cliff. It was nothing that couldn't be easily dodged, but not something I remember seeing before whilst cragging!

Jody battles frozen fingers and numb toes on Vanha vihtahousu, F5+. It was mainly a loosing battle, and it seemed just racing to the lower-off and getting back down on to the ground for gloves, trainers and hotaches was the best tactic.

Later the sun came round and the cliff at least looked gold and warm, even if the difference wasn't actually so great. Here Jody climbs an unnamed crack, just to the left of the route above, that goes at about VS 4c.

All in all, what more could you want from a month?

Urban climbing: Stockholm

2010-11-05T18:51:00.000+02:00

Just in case you ever wondered, yes it is possible to go climbing in Stockholm, in November, in the dark. The crag, Münchenbryggeriet, might never make it on to the list world must-visit climbing destinations, being in a car park and all, but the streetlights help light it up and the view is pretty cool once you get passed the whole “I’m in car park” thing. It is also just five minutes stroll from the metro stop and what I’m reliably informed is the second best pub in Sweden. Thanks to Tomas at Scandinavian Hiking, and Tomas’ mate Brian for allowing themselves to get involved in such a ridiculous idea and making a visiting climbing-blogger very happy. Cheers fellas.

I think we climbed Borgila, 5c, and Viking, 5c, although I'm not completely certain. They felt pretty easy at that grade, let alone the 6a they both get on this website, considering it was dark, cold, slightly damp and starting to rain!

A crag in a car park

A great view across autumnal Stockholm

Alternative silly ways to spend your time in Stockholm: drinking vodka mixers out of large ice cubes inside an artfully decorated industrial freezer. I'd find someone else to pay for that one though.

Absolutely over priced, but - hey - it comes in a big ice cube.

Getting excited about winter

2010-10-30T11:43:00.003+03:00

When cheapish, usable helmet cams first came out, I thought they were really smart. Some amazing footage has been captured with them. But because they are cheap and usable, perhaps I've been pigging out a bit too much watching other peoples' skiing or climbing clips from them. Sometimes the angle can even make you feel a bit sea sick. Having said all that, his little film below, that I found on the website of the Norwegian equipment company Norrøna, is great. It helps that I know exactly where they are on Lofoten, I've climbed the classic rock route that goes up the face next to that gully and I think friends have climbed that couloir itself, but nevertheless it's a great bit footage. Note them checking the snowpack stability at a number of points - that's having your head well screwed on.

And for more inspiring Northern Norway landscapes and fantastic looking skiing, just ignore the advertising bits and enjoy this other lovely film from Norrøna.

Pity the fools

2010-10-25T22:42:00.000+03:00

From Bizarroblog via the marvellous Relentlessly Optimistic.

Radio Open Source » Jill Lepore: Tea Party Time… and the Death of Compassion

2010-10-22T23:14:00.000+03:00

I have been a bit remiss in blogging this week, but if you are interested in the rise of the Tea Party in the US, then I heartily recommend listening Radio Open Source's interview with historian Jill Lepore: Radio Open Source » Blog Archive » Jill Lepore: Tea Party Time… and the Death of Compassion It is one of those great example of the uses and misuses of history.

Slightly confused small government conservatives.

On a related note, it is interesting as well listening to some American coverage of the UK's spending review. On Slate's Political Gabfest for example, they seem quite amazed by the whole process - noting that American conservatives, especially the Tea Party, talk all the time about wanting to shrink the government but can never identify what they would shrink, whilst actively wanting to spend more on defence.

One less bike

2010-10-18T18:24:00.000+03:00

If someone nicks your bike, ultimately it is the thief who is responsible and hence to blame. But police in very few places seem to put much effort into either cycle theft prevention or tracking down perpetrators – so to a great extent you are on own. I know loads and loads and of people in Helsinki who have had bikes stolen. I always used to presume it was because in the UK everyone presumed that given any chance at all someone would steal your bike and therefore acted accordingly; whilst in Finland nobody thought that anyone would steal their bike and therefore relied on rubbish locks. Many people use those stupid frame fitted locks that just stop the back wheel going around, but don’t actually stop anyone picking up the bike and putting it in the back of a van. But so many people seem to get their bike stolen here you would have thought people would have reconsidered by now. How many times do you need to get punched in the face before deciding next time on seeing a fist, ducking might be a good idea?

So I saw this sad sight outside Helsinki central station today. If the bike had Racing Ralphs on it, it was probably a pretty good to start with. So why on earth would someone think that locking only their front wheel was a good idea? A wheel attached by a quick release skewer no less?!

Yes, ultimately the thief is to blame. But, as a certain percentage of scumbags in any society seems unfortunately to be part of the human condition, don’t be a sucker. In this case let’s say the thief gets 50% of the blame but the other half can be shared between the owner for locking their bike in such a gormless manner, and Helsinki City for providing such hopeless bike racks that make locking the frame of your bike to the rack impossible with just a standard U-lock.

What's up with the "Counter-Jihad"?

2010-10-16T01:40:00.000+03:00

I got the chance to listen to Maajid Nawaz of the Quilliam Foundation yesterday. I've read his story in the past: in brief; racist violence and police profiling in Essex where he grew up, joining Hizb ut Tahrir as 16 years old and rapidly becoming an important organiser in the UK, Pakistan and Denmark for HuT, getting arrested in Egypt and spending 4 years in prison there. Coming home to the UK, turning his back on Islamism and becoming an advocate for pluralism, secularism and democracy. He has led an interesting life and speaks about it engagingly. But he also had a solid and well argued analysis of the different forms of Islamism and why we have to be concerned about them using social movement theory. Interestingly, he reckoned there are now four identifiable social movements resulting from the Islamist ideology, the Ikhwani (Muslim Brotherhood) network, the so-called "Shi'a Crescent"; basically the Iran-Iraq-Hezbollah axis of politicised Shi'a Islam, the Saudi Wahhabi tradition; and now - following the thesis/antithesis logic - the new European anti-Muslim politics. I think Maajid makes a really good point, and as anyone who has followed this blog for any length of times knows, all four of those strains interests me, an particularly how they relate to each other. I'm interested in the collapse of the domestic/international distinction in politics; much of political life is both local and global at the same time. Geert Wilders is speaking in NYC at the anti-Ground Zero Mega Mosque/Park 51 Islamic community centre protest one week, and then is in Berlin surfing the wake of Sarrazin's book there the next. In between, he is doing a bit king-making back home in the Hague for the Dutch government. Wilder's vilification of Muslims, his warnings to Europeans to save their own culture from them, is as often as not based on human rights abuses and terrorist crimes committed outside of Europe as much as in it. Like I said, everything is local and everything is global.

Anyway, being interested in these issues for years I have read a lot anti-Islam blogs with some regularity. Kenneth, a regular and long standing commenter here, writes Tundra Tabloids, another English language but Finland-based blog, and I hope Kenneth will take it as complement when I say it is very representative of the "Counter-Jihad" blogosphere. I don't think we really agree on anything (except that there is nothing wrong with having either too many rucksacks or flashlights), but I have found lots of other, well let's just say - "interesting" sites from starting at Tundra Tabloids and have been reading that milieux enough now to have a feel for the lay of the land. It was from reading the Counter-Jihad blogosphere that I started realising the importance of philosemitism and pro-Israeli politics to the new European anti-Islamic populist right. It is something that perhaps Vlaams Belang and the Sweden Democrats have done prominently. Also some of the Italian post-fascist parties have done this as well, although I have no great knowledge of Italian politics. This means that although still populist rightwing parties, these parties are showing they are very different to more traditional neo-fascist European far right parties like the very worrying and scary Jobbik in Hungary.

Anyway, this particular zone of the internet has been hitting the mainstream press recently, mainly as a result of Pamela Geller's central involvement in the protests against the Ground Zero Mega Mosque/Park 51 Islamic community centre (yeah, I know it's tedious trying to be neutral. Perhaps I can just call it "Stroke place" in the way that "Londonderry/Derry" became "Stroke City" to journos in NI in the bad ole' days of the Troubles). I wrote three years ago about how Little Green Footballs was taking on the rest of the Counter-Jihad blogosphere over whether Vlaams Belang were fascists or not (LGF - yes, everyone else - no). Well, amusingly LGF's main man, Charles, has completed his political odyssey right to left to write a critical screed against Pamela in the Guardian! The Guardian! It's all somewhat reminiscent of the American 60s Trots who ended up as the 90s NeoCons. But still, to blow my own trumpet (it's a special skill, are you jealous?) I blogged about it two and half years before the NYT - the "lamestream media" after all... Anyway, going back to my collapse of the international/domestic divide, it is interesting that in the Guardian (the Guardian!) Charles is citing Geller's endorsement of the EDL as one of her 'crime' (the EDL want to be part of that new right I mention above, and not seen as neo-Nazis, but this is difficult when their leadership are covered in Swastika and Celtic cross tats).

Anyway, I had a good handle on the Pam vs. Chuck blog war, but as I've been reading the main Counter-Jihad blogs recently about both the Ground Zero Mosque protests and American support for the EDL, I keep reading about other fights that are going on. This is both confusing and interesting - if many of the main players seems to be falling out with each other, is there really a "Counter-Jihad blogosphere" any more? So far, as far as I can see Debbie Schlussel hates Pamela Geller, why seems quite complicated - although Schlussel also says that Geller is involved in some insurance scam and worse crimes, you can google all that for yourself as I couldn't make much sense of it. Debs also hates Mr. Jihadwatch, Robert Spencer, and keeps calling him "Slobbert" which seems just plain mean. But then again Spencer hates Andrew Bostom, because Bostom accuses Bobby of plagiarising his books. Meanwhile Pamela doesn't like "the Baron" from the Gates of Vienna any more - he is a small, petty man reputedly. She doesn't like the Baron's friend Vlad either. The reason for all this appear to be a question over copyright of some videos. Ho hum, it's all a bit high school-esque isn't it? I don't suppose al-Qaeda is quaking in its combat boots.

Battling the bike rage

2010-10-12T11:04:00.000+03:00

This month’s Guardian bike podcast has a piece on bike rage. I suspect that there aren’t many regular cyclists who don’t know exactly what the guy is talking about; when drivers appear to be willing to risk your life out of their thoughtlessness or lack of attention, it is very hard not to take it personally no matter how hard you try to rationalize it. The Guardian’s commentator talks about self-loathing cyclists – those who are embarrassed by the aggression of angry and self righteous cyclists and his battle to find his place between the two extremes, something I understand well. A few days ago, for the first time ever in maybe 10,000 kms of riding in Helsinki I hit a pedestrian.

In retrospect it wasn’t really anyone’s fault and fortunately my mountain biking skills paid off, and when this woman suddenly stepped into my path I just managed to brake and jump sideways giving her shopping bag a good whack but thankfully neither hitting her or knocking me off my bike. But once I got past the shock of how close to being a nasty accident for both of us it had been, I managed to avoid feeling either guilty over my riding or too angry at her actions. The street at that point is an undifferentiated cycling and walking path. The lady had as much right to be walking there as I did to be cycling. The lack of logic and changing basic assumption of the Helsinki cycle path system means there is no ‘natural’ feeling of who should be where on such as road. The road also has some patterned bricks in it, purely for aesthetics I guess, but that are enough to loosen the fillings of cyclists riding over them and meaning you tend to make you look down rather than forward. And finally half the road was being dug up pushing everyone into an even smaller space. I do get annoyed by pedestrians who walk on the cycle paths and I get annoyed by cyclists who ride on the walking path, but the lack of any consistency all across the city is clearly a major cause of this. It is a structural problems with Helsinki’s cycle path system that actually “empowers” inattentive cyclist and pedestrians – and we can all be one of those at times - making accidents more likely to happen.

On the way home I rode through the forests of Central Park and out into the countryside around Ylästö, on the quietest roads and cycle paths that I could think of, and that was much more mellow.

Today was not a climbing day

2010-10-11T00:21:00.000+03:00

Today clearly wasn't destined to be a climbing day. I had wanted to go up to Reventeenvuori but throat infections took down two potential partners. Bummer. Tony got a couple hours climbing leave from his paternity leave (and very cute, tiny, pink and scrumpled the reason for his paternity leave is too!) and we went to Backnäs, but it started raining as soon as we hit the crag. Bummer.

The drizzle stopped long enough for Tony to do a bit of work on his chosen project, but my desired line is less steep and was quickly sopping. Bummer.

Well, if nothing else the rain gave me reason to wear the new jacket I recently received from Marmot for testing for UKC. It's this season's "Alpinist", Marmot's top-of-the-line Goretex shell, and a thing of great, orangey, engineering beauty it is too. But more of that once the weather gets really lousy I expect. The weather stayed grey, damp and breezy so we sacked it in and went home.

Of course on getting home, the forecast predictions came true - the sky clearer and the sun came out. Just a few hours too late. Bummer. Never mind, a bit a of mountain biking would save the day and let me see all the colourful trees.

The trails are all really dry after the long, hot summer which is great, although I of course still found a bog to get stuck in. It wouldn't really be a mountain biking trip without doing so.

The woods around here can be a bit spooky. There are a number of abandoned houses that old, grown-over and much ignored paths take you to. Abandoned buildings are quite normal in the Finnish countryside. Many older buildings were never great quality to begin with - the country was very poor until the post-war industrialisation of the economy - and being wood are often left to just rot away. In the British countryside you rarely see abandoned buildings, particularly not houses, land and property is too valuable and even old houses in lousy condition are renovated by the middle classes fleeing urbanity. In Finland the opposite, the drift to the cities, is still not over. Just beyond that house I saw a group of white tailed deer browsing on the edges of what once would have been the yard.

The light on birches was lovely although my little camera doesn't really do it justice.

The flags are all up; for the birthday of one of the national romantic poets (or writers, or artists) but I can't remember which one. They were all very important for inventing a national consciousness and culture - in effect creating Finnish nationalism - in the 19th century, just as Sir Walter Scott invented the idea of Scottish nationalism in the Regency era. So, please, take my flag and autumn colours photo as the postmodern gesture as I intended. ;-)

My Kona is starting to break-up. First it was a pedal (see below); fair enough - they take a real smacking. Today, the cage on front dérailleur snapped. The chainset it already a bit bashed up and bent from too much log and rock hopping. Probably the whole drivetrain is needing replacing.

It's done quite a few kilometres over the last five years, and most of those have been off road - often on quite technical ground - so I can't complain. When I get that dream job, whatever that is!, then maybe I'll just replace the whole thing.

Tonight, I will mostly be drinking...

2010-10-09T21:43:00.000+03:00

...Laitilan Kievari Humalainen, a lovely, hoppy, Finnish brewed IPA. Fully recommended for cool, dark, autumn evenings.

Driving culture

2010-10-08T08:35:00.000+03:00

YLE had a little piece the other day that a study of the whole Nordic region found Finns to be the worst drivers. This has become one of my little bugbears about living in Helsinki - that people drive like there is no one else around. Perhaps that is the case in many parts of rural Finland but it is certainly not in the Helsinki region, an metropolitan area of around a million people. The thing that I get most annoyed with is the seeming inability for people to use their indicators. My rather tiresome joke is that they must be called "celebrators" in Finnish, because people put them on to celebrate that they can turn the steering wheel and make the turn - because by this point I can see your car is going round the corner so you are bit late for indicating anything. One Finnish friend assured me that you are taught to use them properly in order to pass the driving test but her theory is because yes, everyone else on the road is so crap at using them, new drivers quickly give up on indicating anything with them as well. So, Finland, if you want to be better drivers start using your frigging indicators!

Right. Glad I've got than off my chest and thank you for listening.

Sweden: social democracy's triumph?

2010-10-07T13:44:00.000+03:00

The Swedish general election a couple of weeks back gained some international attention in particular for the success of the Sweden Democrats - Sweden's populist, anti-immigrant right wing party - that got into the parliament, the Riksdag for the first time. But perhaps just as interesting is the failure of the Social Democrats to get back into power, leaving Fredrik Reinfelt of the Moderate party (what a great name BTW! Perhaps it sounds less funny in Swedish...) and his centre-right alliance in power.

Open Democracy has a very interesting interview with Swedish political scientist Professor Lars Tragardth where he talks about the implications of the elections. His argument is kind of that despite the failure of the Social Democrats as a party the election shows the success of social democracy as an ideology. Reinfelt's party might be considered a conservative party, but really they have accepted the social democratic bargain between state protection of the individual and free markets, whilst the Sweden Democrats are in their own way also a social democratic party who are just grappling more openly with the question of who is 'in' the society to which you apply the democracy. Just note, the sound quality is really crappy - to the extent that it only came out of one headphone when I downloaded the MP3 file and listened on my iPod. But bear with it as the discussion is worth it.

Stuff that works: Power Grips pedal straps for winter riding

2010-10-04T18:55:00.006+03:00

A month or so ago I discovered a newish blog "Coming Thru!", a Helsinki-based cycling blog, mainly focused on cycle commuting. There are a number of blogs about cycling in Helsinki written (for obvious reasons!) in Finnish, but my Finnish is hopeless enough to make reading them a pain (although I understand enough to really appreciate the people out there doing great cycle advocacy work). So it was great to find a Helsinki cycle bloggers writing in English like on Coming Thru. Anyway, over there Markus appears to be working through the frustration and expense of finding a clothing system that keeps you dry and warm enough to want to cycle commute on cool mornings, but not so hot you end up drowning in your own sweat. As anyone who does aerobic exercise in cool to cold weather knows, this isn’t that easy and can become an endless source of fascination, frustration, new gear purchasing and annoyance at kit you buy turns out not to work as well as the advert promised.

I’ll try and write more about my cold weather cycling experience in the future, but this post is dedicated to a simple idea that greatly improved my autumn/winter cycling experience – Power Grips. Power Grips are simple neoprene straps that fix diagonally onto any basic cage-style cycle pedal and do exactly what old fashioned toe clips do but better. By slipping your feet in diagonally through the to the diagonally positioned strap, your foot goes in with ease. Then when you straighten your foot parallel to the bike it becomes held firmly by the strap giving you the same power as you would get from an SDP style clip pedal. Hard to explain in words but incredibly simple in use – see the photo below (or here) and you’ll understand. Nevertheless, despite holding your foot on the pedal firmly, getting your foot out is easy so stopping and even falling off safely is no harder, perhaps even easier, than with SPDs.

I use clip-in pedals on all my bikes; different SPD version on my mountain bike and commuter, and SPD-SL style on my road bike. But I also get cold feet riding as the temperatures get lower. Sealskinz socks, and then neoprene over-shoes help, but still by the time the temperature is about or below freezing, my feet still get cold and I came to the conclusion that conduction through the cleat (a lump of metal on your shoe connected to bigger lumps of metal – the pedals) was the main reason for this. With Power Grips attached to an old pair of cage pedals I could wear roomy, old leather sneakers and when it got really cold, wear over-shoes over them. With a standard sole, rather than the pedal cleat on a cycling shoes, in contact with a minimal amount of metal because of the design of cage pedals, conduction of heat was minimized. Net result: warmer feet, and less miserable cyclists! So, yes, Power Grips do seem pricey for what you get, but if you ride a lot in sub-zero temperatures you will probably find them worth the money.

Autumn Colours

2010-09-27T22:38:00.000+03:00

The trees were so pretty as I rode to work this morning, I tried to video them. I think autumn is my favourite time of year.

That's it. Hope you enjoyed. Nothing else to see here I'm afraid. You can move along now...

If Christine O'Donnell didn't exist we would have to invent her

2010-09-23T23:53:00.002+03:00

The more I read about Christine O'Donnell the more I think she is great. American politics is just so much more fun than British or Finnish politics. She's kind of cute and she is famous for masturbation (I don't even know how to make a smutty joke out of that, but don't worry the Bugle had already won that race to the bottom last weekend) and she was into witchcraft, she had date on a occult alter or something, but she is also a conservative Christian, but she perhaps has or hasn't paid all her bills. What character! What flair!

We have lots of Finnish politicians who may or may not have been up to financial shenanigans, but that's always the lead. It's not, like, the fourth point of interest, only after a spooky resemblance to Sarah Palin, masturbation and witchcraft.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart

Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c

Tea Party Primaries - Beyond the Palin

www.thedailyshow.com

Daily Show Full Episodes

Political Humor

Tea Party

So Christine O'Donnell, we salute you. You might be completely nuts and a bit scary, but you brighten up the day.

Autumn

2010-09-21T15:01:00.002+03:00

Early autumn; it's not even very cold yet, but it certainly is damp. Two weekends not being able to climb outside due to rain and more rain. Those autumnal alternatives have to kick in instead.

Biking - this is the easy bit home, but not having a helmet cam I can't get footage of the interesting bit because I'm holding on too hard and trying not too crash into the numerous trees as I slither down my favourite bit of single track. If anyone can suggest good tyres for gripping slimy tree routes I would be grateful, although I suspect they don't actually exist.

Hiking - out with the family for a stroll in a soggy forest. The autumn colours and abundant fungi make it more interesting. Two days ago I found a big pile of still steaming moose poo on my biking route, but unfortunately didn't get to see its creator. It's that moose time of year so watch out.

And even indoor climbing - me at the Cave Boulderkeskus, Konala. Desperate weather calls for desperate measures. Actually it's good fun, and the Cave is a welcoming, chilled place with friendly staff. I know I've been climbing in Finland a good time when I recognise half the people there on a quiet Saturday afternoon.

And sausages and hot chocolate cooked on an campfire - ace. This fire I lit with a flint and steel by the way, of which I'm quite proud. All very Ray Mears. If anyone knows what is the traditional tinder collected in Finland for catching a spark from a flint, I'd love to know. I have to bring cotton wool from home, which obviously somewhat negates the point - I could just as easily bring a lighter. Nevertheless, the kids were mildly impressed. To do the full Ray Mears thing, I guess I should be collecting thistle fluff, some hard to find lichen, reindeer bum hair or some other ridiculously hard to find material that will actually catch a spark from the flint. Fingers crossed for at least one dry day this coming weekend.

Yeah? You and whose army?

2010-09-19T23:46:00.004+03:00

My posse. That's how we roll.

Winter waits around the corner

2010-09-14T15:30:00.005+03:00

It's getting darker in the evenings, and a little cool. The trees are changing colour and the leaves beginning to fall. Winter awaits.

But, hey! Don't get depressed. Winter's bloody great. Get dressed up and get out there. I've just discovered this wonderful video about winter climbing in Scotland. If you haven't seen it, you'll love it and it will relight that winter fire inside. I should add the dashing and heroic Englishman ably supporting the lovely Ms Papert on Blood, Sweat and Frozen Tears, is my editor since I've got the gig of an irregular column for Climb magazine. I'm sure you will all agree with me just how talented and handsome he looks in the film.

Long hot summers of their discontent

2010-09-13T19:17:00.008+03:00

Finland: still a place for those of a nervous disposition?

Finland has a reputation for being a civilized, safe and, frankly, a slightly boring place to live. And to a certain extent it is, but this summer some people have been trying to make that less the case for immigrants here. Last night some fine, upstanding, storm trooper of the Übermensch decided to show their racial and intellectual superiority to those foreign hoards by trying to burn down a still under construction Buddhist temple. You’ve got to watch those Buddhists; if you don’t before you know it they will be imposing their totalitarian laws of peace, love and and karma on everyone. Trying not to hurt anyone is just not our way; if they want to live here they should respect our culture: binge drinking, internet porn and pointless late night punch ups. If they want to live in harmony so much they can bugger off back to Karmastan or where ever they come from.

"Kill [immigration minister] Thors" downtown Helsinki graffiti summer 2010

Obviously the best way to deal with globalization and the increasing need for migrant labour is to solicit the assassination of a democratically elected politician, burn down the houses of worship of the least offensive religious group anyone can think off, throw bombs at refugees (because after all, those Afghans, Somalis and Iraqis probably only feel at home with shit exploding around them). And whilst we’re at it, let’s set fire to a few late-night eateries as well. That will show ‘em! Those… those… foreigners.

And so there we are; Finland 2010 – where the most openly anti-immigrant political party is rocketing to new levels of success. Where the Gay Pride parade gets attacked by people using CS gas. Where one of the country’s leading neurosurgeons publicly states that he now worries about encouraging students from other countries to come and study under him because of the new levels of violence he has seen aimed at foreigners in racist attacks. And where hate crimes are aimed at Buddhists.

Things I didn't know before today #3: Antifa Hairdressers

2010-09-09T11:28:00.004+03:00

Did you know that Vidal Sasson, the hairdresser, was as a youth in a militant, British, Jewish anti-fascist group call the 43 Group that used go and smash up far-right meetings in London and fight Moseley's re-established fascist group? The group operated in the immediate post-war years and was comprised of Jewish ex-servicemen, by the sounds of it - armed with knives, knuckledusters and the like, they were pretty serious:

"We're not here to kill," a former The 43 Group veteran recalls, being told on that occasion: "We're here to maim."

Male hairdressers tend to have a reputation for being effeminate or camp, but any macho types tempted to mock should be careful just in case their hairdresser is also a no-nonsense street-scrapper in the local Antifa cadre.

The Tour de Helsinki 2010

2010-09-05T23:19:00.009+03:00

Yesterday I rode the Tour de Helsinki, a 140 km (actually 145 according to my computer) sportive that circumnavigates the Greater Helsinki area. I rode once again with Aussie Simon, my trusty compadre from our earlier cycling adventure doing the Kallaveden Kierros early this summer. The TdH was on something of a different scale with over 1700 taking part. We lined up for the start in 32 kmph group which was about midfield and it was pretty cool to see cyclists stretching as far as I could see up the street in front of me, and the same behind me.

The first 11 or so kms was easy as we were lead out by the police in a massive convoy through Espoo, a TV helicopter hovering above. Once the ride got going we found sticking in the peleton of our speed group pretty easy and we were cruising along at a good rate. Our group stormed straight past the first drink and food point about 40 kms in. I was pretty well stocked up in my pockets with snacks and had 2 ltrs of drink on my bike so was happy to keep riding, but Simon wanted to stop at the next service point to grab some food and use the loo.

The crowds waiting for the start

We must have only been stopped for 3 minutes but of course our 32 kmph peleton were well gone by then, and the 30 kmph field flew past as well. We set off between groups, and caught up with or got caught by various other riders who were no longer in one of the bigger packs, so started to form another little peleton. I thought we might be able to put a bit of effort in and catch one of the big packs up so kept going to the front and trying to up the speed a little, this led on my first unintentional staging of a one-man breakaway when I turned around to see the others hadn’t matched my speed and I was now 50 mtrs clear of them!

Out on the road - Simon is no. 85

It seems everyone goes through a “hard moment” on rides like this – Simon had his at about 80 kms and we needed a quick break for him to eat some more and get rid of the dizziness. Unfortunately a couple of the other speed groups came past us at that point. Once back on the road I was still feeling strong so he could slipstream me when necessary, but my hard moment was still to come. About the last 30 kms out from the finish, any uphill became really agonizing and trying to ‘push through it’ just led to cramping in my thighs. But Simon was feeling strong again by then and kept with me encouraging me on up the hills. I guess that’s just how a team should work, but thanks Simon!

We crossed the finish line just a few minutes after the 5 hour mark, although our bike computers – that stop when your bike stops, i.e. at the drinks stations – registered 4.57. And it was fun in a painful sort of way. Next year, I’ll get in one of the speed groups and stick with it – riding in the pack is just so much easier than being out on your own.

Self-portrait whilst I was still going strong and could be bothered to get the camera out!

Congrats to the winners who did amazing times: 3.39 (men) and 3.42 (women). When you do the same course yourself you really start to understand just how fit and hard the top guys and girls are. We will be better organised for next year!

145.78 kms at the finish in the Velodrome

I also want to thanks all the volunteer marshals out on the route keeping us all safe and on route and the people, particularly the super enthusiastic little kids, all along the route who clapped and yelled and waved flags or rattles - it really makes you feel good when you're not actually feeling so good!

Camfight at the O.K. Crack-o-rral

2010-09-02T07:51:00.003+03:00

Ladies and Gentlemen! The contenders have arrived…

In the red corner we have some genuine all-American heavy metal. With a world famous rep for punch-in pleasure, spring loaded power and the multi-year top-level reliable performance. All the way from the dry winds and dry throats of the United States’ Salt Lake City; ladies and gentlemen, please give it up for the BLACK DIAMOND CAMALOTS!!!!!

In the blue corner; the new kid on the block but the home crowd favourite. Weighing in at less the American champ and even looking considerably skinnier, can the young pretender really float like a butterfly yet still sting like a bee to defeat the Camalots? From the misty, mystic vales and hundred chav-punch ups outside the late night Spar shop in the fabled badlands of Llanberis – ladies and gentlemen, I give you... THE DMM DRAGONS!!!!!!!!!!

Fists up Gentlemen. No biting, gouging, trigger-wire snapping or punching below the tie-off. And may the best cam win…

Helsinki-Pasila station - all change please

2010-08-30T15:03:00.006+03:00

One of my kids is fascinated by level-crossings, in the wonderful way that only a four year old could be. Indeed, he loves the idea of any two forms of transport somehow crossing or merging; so driving onto a ferry is the height of excitement and amphibious tanks are the coolest imaginable vehicles. Mobile cranes trump static cranes, but best of all are cranes mounted on railway carriages. The idea of a ferry that actually has train tracks on it and hence can take a train across water is about as fun a maritime concept as you could imagine; and if you are going to have a plane on a runway, surely it would be a great idea for the plane to always race a sports car down that runway.

I totally understand this interest, and have always enjoyed the bit of my commute that takes me past the railway sidings in Pasila where, even on a bike, I cross two level-crossings and go past all sorts of interesting, and often somewhat forlorn and abandoned looking bits of railway infrastructure. So it is with certain sadness I note they are starting to rip up the old sidings in preparation for a redevelopment around Pasila station. This is to include all sorts of sparkly new buildings I'm sure, but probably won't do anything to bring out my inner-four-year-old like dozens of sidings and bits of old trains do.

On a siding to nowhere. Old track removal at Pasilä station

More sleepers than a houseful of Russians in a posh American suburb

I realise I've lived in Helsinki for a quite a long time when I think about how much has changed over the years I have been cruising around this town on various bikes, to various houses down the years. I probably shouldn't get nostalgic for some old, never used shunting yards, but as it has been an interesting part of my commute now for four years, I am a little.

Oi mate. Someone nicked your wheel!

2010-08-26T20:00:00.005+03:00

This amused me no end when I saw it. I share it with you all for no other reason.

To his credit, one-wheel-guy was really going for it and had over-taken a couple of surprised looking ladies on more normal bikes going up the hill.

Work, and other excuses

2010-08-25T10:06:00.007+03:00

Globalization - in its cheap and orange form - arriving in Manchester

More apologies for the lack of blogging in recent weeks to anyone who clicks over here from time to time to see if I have anything interesting to say or interesting pictures to show. I do have a pretty good excuse though, as last week I successfully defended my PhD thesis in an, as ever rainy, Manchester. I have some changes to make as suggested by the examiners, but this is normal in the UK system, and in a couple of weeks time it should all be over. I guess then I’ll have to take the “perennial PhD student” bit out my profile on the right, but I won’t until I have the degree in my hand in order not to jinx it!

Ahhh.... merry old England! At the baggage carousel

Anyway, whilst I don’t have anything exciting to write myself I would really recommend reading the piece on Petesy’s outdoor equipment blog about his visit to the factory of PHD in Stalybridge. For those who don’t know, PHD, or Pete Hutchinson Designs, makes very high quality clothing and sleeping bags for mountaineers and other visitors to very cold places. The piece isn’t really about the gear though, it is about work and craftsmanship. I used to live just up the road from Stalybridge – the water that rushed down that valley started the industrial revolution and mills built there supplied fabrics to the world. Those times are gone – and to grasp why is to understand much about globalization – but the great mill buildings remain and it is good to see them being used still by skilled crafts people (most of the sewing teams seem to be women) making things, even if it is on a rather different scale. There is something good, maybe even noble, about the whole thing.

More cheery British humour

Perhaps Petesy's piece just resonates for me right now. I was back amongst those great brick buildings of Lancashire's industrial past last week to see the closing of the circle of one part of my life. My PhD has been a slog - jammed in around getting a job, having kids, buying a house - but getting a product out the far end, even if it is a rather specialist one of little interest to most, still feels good.

Whilst I was away; scraps of climbing from Sweden and England

2010-08-06T18:56:00.007+03:00

So apologies for the total lack of blogging in recent weeks - I've been on holiday and never really sat down and summoned the enthusiasm to write anything. I drove with my family from Finland to England where we stayed for three weeks before turning around and starting the long drive back again. I have been taking lots of pictures whilst away though, and some of those are likely to turn up on here at some point over the next few weeks or months. I'll do a climbing post first, a family holiday isn't about climbing, but I normally manage to squeeze a few visits to various cliffs in and doing a route or two at a crag I have never visited before makes me happy in an amusingly childish way.

Häggsta, spiritual home of Swedish climbing

Just after getting off the ferry from Helsinki in Stockholm, we went to Häggsta, on the outskirts of the Swedish capital. It's where Swedes first started climbing in the 1930s and is clearly loved by local climbers for such reasons perhaps more than the actual climbing deserves; but long may it remains so. The spot is ideal, with a warm lake for swimming and lovely meadow for picnicking in all just below the crag. Parking at the crematorium and walking down to the cliff through the huge grave yard is a wee bit odd though.

The approach to Portland's Cuttings - a high speed ferry from the Channel Island powers into Weymouth in the distance.

Once in the UK, we took a holiday-within-the-holiday and went to the south coast of England near Poole. The Swanage cliffs don't appear to be very family friendly, so we went over to Portland and spent an afternoon at the cuttings. Again, not the most beautiful climbing in the world, but the view is fantastic and the well bolted sports routes fun. I also thought a 5+ (although it is in the newest guide as 6a - yippee!) that I did was the most polished route I have ever climbed, but that was before I had visited 'the Yat' (see below).

A bolted crackline - very Portland...

Me on "Jam" 4+, yes another bolted crackline.

The Sidle (Sev), Ivy Scar Crag, Malvern

We had one aborted attempt later at visiting some of the big Shropshire crags that I have always wanted to climb at. The car developed a problem on the way over that required a visit to the garage to have it fixed and ended that plan. Back at my parents I was moping around like a miserable child whining at the cosmic injustice of it all. My dad, being a star, lent me his car for the afternoon and my sad-puppy-dog-face persuaded some of the family to agree to a short trip accompanying me to a nearby crag. We went to Ivy Scar on the Malvern hills. It was perhaps even worse than I remembered it being from a visit the best part of twenty years ago, but - being an addict - a climb's a climb and shouldn't be sniffed at even when the rock is slippy, dirty and snappy. The view out across "Elgar Country" from the top of cliff is great though - reminding me what a nice part of the world I come from even if the climbing is, frankly, shit.

This is what you get when you ask a six year old to be the expedition photographer. Tsk, kids these days eh? Don't they teach them photographic composition in Kindergarten any more?

My roots as seen from the routes

The Black Wall of Llanmynech, the original route on which is now high on my tick list

The car got fixed - an unexpected holiday expense - and the Shropshire trip rescheduled. With no kids in tow, myself and my wife were looking forward to getting some good routes done. We went to the very impressive abandoned quarry of Llanmynech first. As we walked up to the cliffs from the car, it started raining. After the failure to even get there on the first attempt, I was ready to cry if we got rained off on the second attempt. Fortunately the rain stopped and a fresh wind was drying the rock. We quickly set off climbing some easy routes in the Cul-de-Sac quarry before it started again. But fortunately it just got warmer and sunnier so after an hour or so we moved over to the Bay Wall to do some of the nice long sports lines there. The rock isn't perfect - belayers should wear helmets - but the routes are long and the climbing pleasant. I also thought the grades were rather soft - shooting up a 6a with ease. Normally 6a-s on Finnish granite will spit me off 50% of the time.

Gary Gibson has quite some work effort. E seconding the perhaps unfairly named "Dirty Climb" (F5+) which wasn't actually more dirty than anything else.

Stroke my ego baby. Me finding something easy for once; one of the long routes on Bay Wall.

"Don't panic now, don't panic now..." just metres away from glory.

After having the ego stroked at Llanmynech, it was time to man up and head to Nesscliffe. Nesscliffe has a rep as a crag that sorts out the men from the boys, in part because the grades start at E2ish and go up to from there to numerous E8s and 9s. And it's not gritstone, if-you-fall-from-the-top-and-get-lucky-you-might-just-break-legs height. The routes in the main quarries are monsters - a full 50 mtrs high and completely terrifying just to look at. It's a crag I've driven past many times and never stopped at, for exactly these reasons. I was there to try Red Square, really the only route I have any chance of doing on the whole cliff but fortunately also a three star classic. I've wanted to do it since getting the first edition of the West Midland's Rock Climbing guide back in about 1990. It has since gone from being an E1 5b to E2 5b. I suspect it's not really E2 as I managed to onsight it, but I'm happy to take the E2 onsight tick. And thanks to E for belaying and encouragement whilst I futzed around on the route trying to keep my shit together.

For those not wanting beta, look away now... The Red Square rack - it eats hexes like a three star classic of its era should.

If you find some friction please tell me... Victor Crack (Sev) at Symonds Yat.

Finally I got a brief visit to Symonds Yat as part of a family day out, although being accompanied by four kids of 6 and younger kept the level of ambition in check. We just went to the introductory rocks and did a few routes. I think this is perhaps the most polished rock I have ever seen; most of it looked like marble and had the friction of wet ice. It was nice to visit, but I hope the routes further along the cliff aren't all quite that shiny.

All at sea - blogging from the Baltic

2010-07-09T00:13:00.006+03:00

Viking Line ferries have wireless internet - hurrah! Hence blogging from the middle of the Baltic is now technically possible. I left Helsinki amongst some pretty dramatic summer thunder storms.

Out at sea it is calmer and the sunset was rather pretty. Tomorrow, Sweden and then the rest of of Europe.

The ferries between Sweden and Finland are always slightly bizarre experiences - I don't think that they show either country in the best of lights, but perhaps it is all the more truthful for that reason. I quite enjoy it as a once-a-year type of experience - but I think my idea of hell might be being condemned to being in a Baltic ferry disco listening to cover versions of Abba song for the rest of eternity.

Learning to ride

2010-07-08T10:03:00.001+03:00

This month's Guardian Bike Podcast has a wonderful report at the end of an initiative to get mums riding bikes in East London (it starts about 20 minutes into the programme). The area of Tower Hamlets is, I think the poorest area of the UK and has a connected problem of child obesity. Local authorities are trying to promote cycling and walking to counteract this to some extent. They found that many parents were very supportive of their kids doing this but had no experience themselves of ever riding bikes themselves. Almost all the women concerned were from Bangladeshi or Bengali families, and said traditionally women just didn't ride bikes. But their clear joy and excitement is just lovely. If you ride it will remind you just what a simple pleasure cycling is, and if you don't - I'm sure their pleasure will still bring a smile to your face.

High summer on Kustavi

2010-07-05T23:29:00.008+03:00

The summer slides by. The days started getting shorter over a week ago although you wouldn't notice it yet. There is something about the almost non-existent nights that seems to stop me from sleeping at normal times, I stay up into the early hours then want to sleep late into the morning. But summer is a time to do things, so this weekend I went to Kustavi, an island just off south west Finland to brave the heat and climb.

Orchids at Pärkänvuori

The first stop was Pärkänvouri with its plentiful moderate routes and enough shade and breeze to stop the heat from being oppressive.

Me in a crack at the aptly named Kräkiniemi, Apollo, 5 (HVS 5a)

After a good afternoon we watched the first half of Germany beating Argentina whilst eating burgers in a petrol station café before heading to a camp-site to pitch our tents. After a refreshing dip in the sea we headed to Kräkiniemi for a full evening of climbing. The evenings never really end, and we left the crag at 11 pm and headed to our tents.

Sunset at midnight over Mussalo

Time for tape - Tony gets ready to do battle

Sunday morning dawned clear and hot and the sun was on my tent at 4 am. I ignored the building warmth and went back to sleep until a more reasonable hour. We brewed coffee on the Jetboil and ate cornflakes watching the turns dive for fish out on the water. We decided to head to Riskeläisvuori to climb, on the basis that if it got too hot we could go for a swim in the sea below the cliff.

Using the tape. Tony on Pajavasara, 5 (HVS 5a).

Anni topping out on Volter Kilpi, 5- (VS 4c)

Tony enjoying Jätekuilu 5- (HS 4a)

We did a handful of routes - as ever with Kustavi, some were hard for the grade whilst others felt easy. My highlight was leading Jätekuilu, a technical chimney climb deep inside the cliffs big fissure. Falling off it - well, out of it more accurately - would be hard, but upwards progression came from wiggling more than climbing. I grazed my nose at the narrowest point. Cavers will understand.

Summer, it's hot and there are lots of mosquitoes, but otherwise its great.

In the afternoon we did one route at Haukvuori, but as most of the cliff was like an oven in the sun we went back to Pärkänvuori but to its imposing and shady north side.

Trad Master. And Tony.

The fissure of "Trad Master" has to be perhaps the best line in Finland. Utterly nuts, but a route that deserves some international attention.

Me starting up Friends will be Friends, 5 (HVS 5a)

Tony climbed one powerful line and then I tied on to try "Friends will be Friends". This turned out to be a great route, starting with a wide crack to layback and jam before narrow cracks cut back left across an overhanging head wall.

About to finish Friends will be Friends

I'm rubbish at anything overhanging, but the hand jams and the gear were so good up there that even I couldn't fall off. A fitting end to a great weekend. Thanks to Anni for taking the photos that I appear in.

Mid-'summer'

2010-06-21T21:59:00.008+03:00

Today is the longest day of the year but midsummer didn't seem quite the right term for this morning. It was grey, cool and drizzling as I cycled in to work and I arrived with wet socks and soggy butt. Delightful. Why is it called "midsummer" when most of summer comes well after it? Why not "mid-year"?

Soggy Kruununhaka (downtown Helsinki)