Monochrome winter: "ski-touring" in Nummi

This is (Southern) Finland. Leaden skies, soggy snow, no one about.

January in the Helsinki region saw some cold days and blue skies - the best sort of winter days. Trees caked in fluffy snow, and the sharp sunlight colouring all. Shadows on the snow in the middle of the day, the sparkling of ice crystals on all the bushes and grasses, to the orange and yellow snow flanked by the deep blue sky as the sun sets. Even at night the moon casts bright shadows over the snow that glimmers gently, a reflection of a reflection of the hidden sun.

The only other human tracks I saw, one snowshoer's trail.

My trail on the summit ridge after thankfully getting into more open woodland

But the pressure dropped and the world changes. February has seen the skies sink toward us, thick with grey cloud - a sodden layer of insulation. As temperatures rise to back around freezing, the air becomes thick with moisture. The snow grows sodden on the trees and tumbles down with it new found weight.

What goes up...

The 'summit' of Lintukiimanvuori.

The snow on the ground goes from light and fluffy, to thick and gloopy. We've had three weeks of this now, never colder than a few degrees below freezing, never warmer than one or two above. Well traveled roads just become wet and dirty, windscreens need constant washing as a fine layer of mud and water is sprayed up by all other vehicles. Less traveled roads become rutted with sludge. Some fresh snow has fallen, ensuring huge piles of grubby ploughed snow all about, but often the precipitation has come down as freezing rain. February hasn't been Helsinki at it's best.

Hellish birch scrub. Tried following a moose's trail through it but I don't think he had any more idea where to go than me.

The "Fun Bit". Making tracks off  Lintukiimanvuori

Sunday dawned misty, damp and cold but I need to get out and do something. I drove to Nummi-Puusula, a rural municipality not far to Helsinki's west. It claims, perhaps slightly imaginatively to be "Southern Finland's Lapland" and it does have some hills - abrupt little half eggs, covered in thick forest, erupting from the flatter, now predominantly agricultural, land. I wanted to check some cliffs marked on the maps for ice and find some steep hillsides to throw myself down on my new ski-snowshoe thingies (which I will return to in a later post). Despite the map looking promising, the only icefall I found would be of interest as a quick solo for a local only. There must be a Finnish ice climber's version of the Drake Equation, where promising looking cliffs on Kartta Paikka at the 1:16000 scale are equivalent to planets in the Milky Way, and where sparkling icefalls equal advanced alien civilisation. Maths suggests the latter are out there, but we search for them more with a religious-like faith than with the empiricists certainty.

Nearly back to the car. Note: looking at the creeping snowpack on the roof, standing under eaves in winter is not a great idea!

Nevertheless struggling through thick brush and up steep snow-smothered rocky flanks of the hills was good exercise. On reaching the top at the giddy altitude of 150 metres, I didn't feel much less out of breath or sweaty than I would on a Norwegian peak ten times that height. In fact, from ski touring in the Norwegian arctic I know that up to about the same height there you are often fighting through terrible birch scrub and soggy, bottomless snow. It's just here in Finland that that is it - no pulling out above the tree line to magnificent views across the fjord and hard crisp snow taking you onwards and upwards. The mist had lifted somewhat by the time I made it to the highest point and a clearing meant I could look out across the monochromatic landscape of winter in Southern Finland, a type of view you don't get so much in these forested and often flat parts. It's not everything but it's a lot better than nothing.

Partners in crimes against skiing.

 Then there was just the fun bit left; a descent straight down the side of the hill dodging trees and jumping off rocks to arrive panting, just a couple of minutes later, back at the bottom.

dhb Vaeon Zero Padded Bib Tight - a review

This is the second part of my review of some dhb cycling clothing, sent to me to review by the internet bike shop Wiggle. Wiggle selected this blog, and hence me, to be a reviewer of some of their house-brand equipment. For a bit more about dhb, Wiggle and the review process, see my previous post.

Biking through the blizzard from Toby A. on Vimeo.

Keeping your legs warm whilst cycling in winter I think is harder than your top. Put enough layers on and your legs will stay warm in any weather but you start to feel lots of drag around your knees plus you need to think about not getting the bottom of your right trouser leg stuck in the chain. Starting to ride a cyclocross bike as my everyday bike, I've noticed the clearance between my calf and the chainset is much less - far more like my road bike as opposed to my old commuter hybrid, let alone my mountain bike. So when the weather gets colder, regardless of how silly they look, tights are the answer.

The best bibs I've ever tried for winter riding.

dhb call the Vaeon Zero Padded Bib Tight their warmest. Having a pad in them, they are obviously designed to be either your only layer, or at least your inner layer if you are tempted to wear something over them. The pad (or "insert" as they call it - perhaps to make it sound a little less like a feminine hygiene product) is very comfy. I first used the Vaeons last month on an overnight bikepacking trip and they were great. Putting on some brand new cycling tights and immediately using them for two days in the saddle in cool, drizzly weather might have been a silly plan, but they worked perfectly - no rubbing or chafing at all. You can read all about the "triple layered" and "3D anatomic construction" of the insert on Wiggle's page if you wish, but I can say I've found them as comfy as any other cycling shorts or tights I've used in that specific department!

"Windslam" sections over knees/thigh

More interesting is the material and construction that make up the Vaeon Zeros, because this is what sets them apart from many other bib tights. dhb have used a windproof material called "Windslam" for the panels on the Vaeons that cover the knees and go up the outside of the thighs (it is the less shiny looking material easily visible in the picture to the right). Despite being some sort of membrane fleece, Windslam doesn't suffer noticeably from either of the old problems that made the first windproof fleeces such disasters: neither stretching nor breathing well. I've not noticed the Windslam panels seeming either more sweaty nor more restrictive that the other sections. My overall impression is that the Vaeon Zeros are as comfy as my other various bib tights, just noticeably warmer.

The mix of different fabrics seems to makes these bibs hit a sweet spot of good breathability and loads of stretch from the non-membrane sections, but with the added warmth with the Windslam making them partly windproof. One result of the mix of panels and materials is that the Zeros have a lot of stitching on them. From past failures I've seen on both cycling and mountaineering clothing, stitching together stretch materials is not easy. The stitching that dhb use here looks excellent - many of the seams are, I think, a quadruple cover stitch and everything is neatly finished. The only worry I would have is that cover stitch seams of this type are vulnerable to wear, and if the seam breaks it's very hard to fix yourself. I guess you need to just try not to rub them on anything (like the road whilst sliding out at 30 kmph or passing tree trunks when mountain biking!!) and keep the grabby side of velcro away from them - it has a nasty habit of grabbing on to cover stitch seams and breaking them.

Cold night by the fire. Bikepacking in the Vaeon Zeros .

So; the Vaeon Zero Padded Bib Tight: comfy, well designed and well made. But that leaves the final, BIG question: if they are dhb's warmest longs, just how warm are they? Wiggle suggests a temperature range of 8 to -2 degrees. I think that's actually not a bad guide at all, although I've worn them at lower temperatures and been amazed at how warm they have kept me. They are fine to wear at +5 or +6 degrees, but I've also worn just them on my legs for riding on a windy, snowy day when the temperature was between -5 and -6. My legs stayed impressively warm - normally by those temperatures I would be using a number of layers. At the weekend I rode out to our nearby cross country skiing area to see whether there had been enough snow yet for them to prepare the tracks. I got chatting to guy there who was doing the same and we ended up chatting for half an hour to 40 minutes before I rode on. Over all, I must have been out from the house for a couple of hours and never got cold legs - either actually riding or just standing around, and despite the wind. I did a similar ride in the same sort of weather a few days later wearing some old, thick unpadded longs with bib shorts underneath and was amazed that my thighs were quickly cold and, by the end of the ride, unpleasantly so. I find it pretty hard to believe that the one layer of the Zeros could be so noticeably warmer than the two layers I used on the second ride, but that would appear to be the case!

The Zero's list price is a hefty 90 quid (although that remains considerably less than similar products from more famous brands cost) but are currently on sale for £62.99. When you consider the complexity of the construction and quality of the materials, meaning you can keep riding comfortably even as the mercury goes below freezing, the Zeros seem rather good value. If I had a snowy-rider-in-the-north seal of approval, Vaeon Zeros would definitely get it.

Deep winter

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!

Extreme weather warning!

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'!!!

Blood, sweat but no tears: here come winter

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?

Today was not a climbing day

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.

Autumn

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.

Winter waits around the corner

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.

Mid-'summer'

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)

Back on the road

Supposedly this has been one of the worst hayfever seasons in many years. Actually it's birchfever, the hayfever will start in a month or so but that doesn't bother me. A week ago the birch trees exploded their pollen in to the air, all of a sudden on the first hot day after a long winter and cool spring. Everything is covered in fine green dust of the stuff. It gets everywhere, inside and out and up my nose. Here it make my immune system over react and as result I become a huge, miserably ball of snot, sneezing and itching. It's enough to make you want to go and walk around bare foot in an African toilet pit (go on... be brave. Click the link. Actually just listen to the whole wonderful hour of parasitic pleasure).

It rained hard last night; annoying as I wanted to climb today and couldn't, but at least it cleared the air a bit and the hayfever lessens a little. This morning as the puddles receded a scum of green was everywhere - a fine paste of sodden pollen.

Pollen paste...

...everywhere

Myllykoski, Nurmijärvi (watch this bridge being swung at the end of this movie)

So as the crags would all be dripping, I decided to ride instead. Against my better judgement, a smooth talking Aussie has persuaded me to ride the Kallaveden Kierros with him next week, a big bike race - or more accurately "sportive" - in Kuopio. Simon decided we were going to do the real thing - the 200 kms - and signed us up as the "ABC Team" - the Australian-British Cycling Team. "Absolute Beginners Cycling Team" would be another option, and "absolutely buggered cycling team" will probably fit best by about 150 kms. So it seemed sensible to get the road bike down from shed wall and check it still worked. It did. Now I'm just worried whether my thighs will make it over that distance!

I've been getting a few tips on riding a 200 km sportive from the good folks of UKC, but if anyone is reading this and has done something similar please leave me any tips in the comments!

Hot, hot, hot

Tony on Nahkhiirmees (7a)

Me on the aptly named Kesäpäivä ("summer day") a great climb but rather under-graded at 4

Summer arrived with a bang (or perhaps a sizzle) and suddenly Finland was the warmest place in Europe last weekend. Of course every birch tree in the country decides to dump its pollen at this point ensuring many people like me spending the weekend sneezing, rubbing their itchy eyes and falling asleep from taking antihistamine. I went climbing at Hyttyskallio with Tony and Anni, although my climbing was pretty lethargic and pathetic. Tony put in a sterling effort on Nahkhiirmees (7a) but didn't get the redpoint in sweaty conditions and took a whopper of a fall in the process! I belayed and enjoyed the sunshine. Thanks to Anni for snapping pics.

It keeps on snowing

Snowy Helsinki from Toby A. on Vimeo.

It's calming isn't it?

Helsinki has lots and lots of snow. I've had snowshoes for about the last five years but they've had as much use this year as the last four added together. Getting to the cliff yesterday was a bit of an epic wade out of what should be a ten minute stroll.

Snowshoe tracks. This was actually a couple of weeks back, but I was too knackered to take photos whilst wading yesterday, or at least until I made it back to the road.

Made it. Back at the car: a nice sit down and a cuppa

The winter biking blues

Hibernating bikes outside Helsinki Central Railway Station

After a pretty good cycling year last year, this one has started badly. In early January I rode into work and there my bike has remained ever since. Firstly the temperatures went down and I just couldn’t bring myself to ride in temperatures of –15 to –20. Weak I know, but keeping your toes from freezing becomes such an issue it takes a lot of the pleasure out of it. Then after that cold snap it has snowed and snowed some more. The city is trying its best to clear snow from walking and cycling paths but there are plenty where they haven’t managed it yet and that would make my ride very slow and hard work. I’ll just have to keep XC skiing instead.

Winterized single-speed, spoke cards and all...

In the past this blog has been a little bit snarky towards my Helsinki fixed-gear brethren, what with their wildly spinning legs and off-the-peg-total-lifestyle-fad-adoption. But it has to be said, I’ve seen very few folks on their bike this last month, but of those I have seen a decent percentage have been on fixies; a massive increase on the percentage of summer riders using fixed gear bikes anyway. So big up da’ fixed gear winter riding posse.

Multi-winter-sport-weekend

A few photos from a weekend of snowshoeing, ice climbing and XC skiing follow. With Helsinki having more snow than for decades, it seemed necessary to be out and about in the countryside enjoying the beautiful, if chilly, weather.

Early on Pitkäjärvi

I made an early start on Saturday and went to Nuuksio to see how the ice was developing. It was ferociously cold at about –22 as I drove out, but interestingly there was still a layer of slushy water on top of the lake ice where it was insulated by a thick layer of snow above. I was glad to have snow shoes on as they minimised breaking through, something that those walking across the lake without snowshoes were having to suffer, but the baskets of my ski poles quickly became caked in ice.

Icy eyelashes and everything else at -22 degrees

The icefalls themselves weren’t in great nick. The nice slab route that forms at the left end of the southern sector wasn’t there at all. I swept away the snow at the bottom to find dry, bare rock beneath. The curving gully line to its right had a bit of ice in it but wasn’t complete and the slab above it seemed to have no ice on it either.

One Point Gully

Somewhat bizarrely, the next normal route along, One Point Gully, was in great condition with thick, new, plastic ice at the top. It was so good compared to all the other lines that I soloed it twice (short vid from the route here). Further north, at the main area, neither Vasen Suora or Oikea Suora have touched down, although Oikea looked fat at the top.

All roads lead to Rome, or the only route in condition...

The more I get to climb ice, the more I realise I don’t understand the complex relationship between hydrology, meteorology and soil science that seems necessary to understand how, where and when icefalls form. It’s a wonderful mystery of nature, that means even if you end up climbing the same local routes year after year, they are never quite the same. I think what has probably happened this year is that the very cold weather has meant that the water has to some extent frozen in the ground above the cliffs and so there isn’t as much drainage to form the icefalls. And secondly the tops of many routes are in good conditions whilst they are thin or non-existent down at ground level. Presumably again with the cold weather what drainage there is freezes quickly form the fat tops and accounting for the skinny bottoms.

Other climbers below One Point

Anyway, I snow-shoed back across the lake and was home in time for lunch and family cross country skiing in the afternoon, although I did more pulling giggling children out of snow banks than actual skiing.

A quiet winter Sunday morn

On Sunday, I cunningly co-opted Tony and Anni’s snowshoeing expedition plans for an ice cliff recon mission. We went off to the countryside near Kisko and followed up on some intel that I given years ago by an American source (codename: "the Maine Man", thanks Andy!). Anyway, unlike the WMD, this tip was no Curveball. We snowshoed in and found the cliff and were impressed. I led one stiff little pillar which was challenging with funky –17 degree ice and screws that I had forgotten to sharpen.

Getting stuck into the steep bit (thanks to Anni for the photo)

Having avoided the monster's fangs, here I'm enjoying the easy bit

Swing 'em like you mean it. Anni puts in a sterling effort on her first ever go at ice climbing

Homeward bound

I've also put up a short video of snow shoeing here.