Ladybird, ladybird fly away home... (a climbing photo essay)

...or you are going to get squashed in the Grigri.

Saturday was cold and only partially sunny, but enthusiasm was high for paying a second visit to a crag we first went to just a fortnight ago. Going to a new crag is always exciting as whole new range of unknown little adventures await - particularly at this cliff as, so far, it is undocumented and most of what we know of the existing climbs comes from a five minute tour with one of the locals who rapidly chucked beta of very questionable quality at us as we scrambled after him along the base of the cliff.

Donuts. A central theme to any Finnish climbing day.

After the obligatory stop for coffee and donuts we got to the crag and then did one easy warm up route. At this point I decided it was now or never and racked up for what to me looked like one of best lines on the cliff - Urkupilli, 6- - a soaring 25 mtr hand crack that traverses below various small roofs.

The road ahead. Toby climbs, Big Toni belays.

Toby on Urkupilli 6- ("The Organ Pipes" E1 5b)

The climb was not without its moments of excitement, mainly because from the ground I completely misread the size of the crack and headed up with far too much large gear that wouldn't fit and not enough medium size protection, which was needed. The last few moves were done with the last gear some way below my feet and pumped out my box after various failed attempts to shove in too large cams to protect what I thought was going to me my imminent plummet. But fear sometimes does the trick and gave me just enough "umpth" to do the last couple of jams and heave over the top, where I collapsed panting like a beached whale. Silly perhaps; but at least it keeps me off the streets and away from mugging old ladies or vandalizing phone boxes.

The price of victory

Jody awash in a sea of granite (the first ascent of "Reach Out" HVS 5b)

Arno leading "the Great Flake" F5+ (I'm not sure what the route's real name is but will find out)

And thanks to Arno for taking the snaps where I'm actually climbing.

Finland's new minister of foreign trade accidently insults Britain

For Brits, how is obvious but if it's not read Jukka's very funny blog. Jukka is currently in a London pub with a pint of fine (room temperature) ale setting up the Finnish Government in Exile in despair.

Time to get some body armour?

There is graphic in this weeks Newsweek magazine, that I unfortunately can't find on line, called "Guns: The Global Death Toll". In the wake of the Virgina Tech killings it is looking at firearms deaths around the world. Unsurprisingly amongst all the rich countries the US is highest, but I was amazed at the difference between Finland and the England and Wales.

Deaths by firearms per 100,000 people:

In England and Wales 0.31, in Finland 4.51.

So in Finland population, around 5 million, there were in most recent year with full figures 235 deaths by firearms. In England and Wales, population about 55 million, there were 159 deaths. In Finland 32 people got murdered with guns compared to 23 in England and Wales. 200 Finns shot themselves to death, compared to only 115 in England and Wales; whilst 3 of the Finnish deaths were in the unintentional/undetermined category, 21 were in England and Wales.

Switzerland - where all men who do their military service take an assault rifle home with them after - had perhaps unsurprisingly higher figures than Finland at 6.4 deaths per 100,000; but more interestingly France - not a country particularly known for high gun ownership - also came in slightly higher at 4.93. In comparison the US figure is twice as high at 10.08 deaths per 100,000

Can this possibly be true?

I hadn't posted anything about the mass killings in Virginia last week. Last year after another horrendous multiple killing I posted on the subject of how America is just 'different' on this. I then wrote that I can understand intellectually the arguments against gun control, despite finding them ridiculous, but I couldn't understand how emotionally people can just keep watching these mass killings and saying that guns have little to do with it. Listening to the debate after the Virginia killings I'm starting to revise that. I think the US is just so far down that road that people can't imagine a way of turning around and getting rid of guns. It is just like I can't think of a way of organizing a society better than via democracy; that's it - that is my frame of reference. If the comparison is correct, then suddenly the idea that sensible, young, well-educated, middle-class American students would phone in or email to an moderate, mainstream NPR phone-in show, as I heard last week, and say: "I should be able to carry a concealed weapon on campus with me" doesn't sound as utterly bizarre. In fact if you live in a society where the crazy can easily buy weapons, it actually makes perfect sense. I would want a gun too.

There is an article in MotherJones on the events that is well worth a read - James Ridgeway argues that violence towards women is the unrecognised dimension to many of these killings. It's a strong argument and a disturbing one. But Ridgeway also in the article notes what he calls "a bare-bones list of state gun rules", which includes:

- Can't sell handguns to kids under 18, but any kid over 12 can buy shotguns, older rifles, and assault weapons, all without parental consent.

Can this be true? It can't be, can it? You can own an assault weapon at 12? Without your parents' consent? Why on earth...?

Practice what you preach

A regular discussion subject on UKclimbing runs along the lines of does jamming in cracks always hurt? The answer isn't "always", but it is "often". My advice to a beginner a few weeks ago was "stop moaning and bleed". Just so you know that I practice what I preach.

Has The Independent gone mad?

(I quite like this headline though) Even when in the UK I was never a big Independent reader, I'm not sure why - perhaps I was brainwashed into being a Guardianista from an early age and never felt the need to change. Some years back I had to meet an MI5 officer in a café - it was a lot less interesting than it sounds - and do remember thinking to buy the Independent that day as I didn't want to turn up with the Guardian and prejudice the chances of my mate who was applying for a job and had given my name as referee. If I was being really cynical I should have gone the whole hog and bought a Telegraph but there are just some things you can't bring yourself to do.

Anyway - there was a time when the Independent had a reputation for being exactly what its name implies. Andrew Marr's book "My Trade" that I have mentioned here a number of times covers his period as the editor of the Indy and is interesting on the issue of how newspaper owners and their editors relate or don't relate to each other, and what happens when sales won't go up (panic mainly it seems). But on the actual journalism side he makes it sound pretty much like other papers. But over recent years - since Marr left? - it just seems to have gone loopy. I've just finished Nick Cohen's book (more on that later) and he makes a comment along these lines - although you could see that as one hack slagging off a rival paper. But whenever I'm in the UK and see it on a news stand the front cover is inevitably tabloid-esque block letters explaining how the world is about to end due to war/famine/global-warming/aliens/whatever. I can only imagine that subscribers end up clinically depressed. So I've have to link to the Alex at the Yorkshire Ranter who this week is showing that the Indy's standards of science journalism seem to be on a level with front cover style - very tabloid. He even explains why this might be.

All papers print stupid stuff from time to time, a minor scandals often result, but it just seems the Indy has chosen a very peculiar path, is striding on down it and not looking back.

Terrorism Chic No.2/Quote of the week

Which is scarier - the RPG or hairstyle? (Photo from this week's Economist)

Very Snoop-Dogg don't you think? For previous terrorism chic, see here. Quote of the week goes Brigadier Mahmood Shah of the Pakistan Army. Brigadier Shah is a senior officer involved in the Pakistani Army's operation in the South Waziristan where recent weeks have seen heavy fighting between foreign fighters (predominantly members of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan who had been in Afghanistan fighting with al-Qaeda but have fled since the US invasion) and local Taliban-sympathetic tribes who had previously been the Uzbeks' hosts. Yet this situation has been complicated by certain local leaders actually siding with their Jihadi-guest against the major local tribes who have had enough of the Uzbeks - in particular their hard drinking! The local leader who is down with his Uzbek-homies is called Haji Omar, who is noted locally for "a certain irascibility caused by a Soviet bullet lodged in his brain" as the Economist puts it (subscription only I think). This makes him, according to Brigadier Shah a “wonky sort of chap”.

Don't swear in other peoples' languages

A busy major street in Helsinki with a window display of novelty door mats.

One of those novelty door mats

Learning obscene words in other languages is one of the most amusing things you can do when you are about 12. I know plenty in Finnish but I would hesitate in using them as until you are really very, very accomplished in speaking another language I don't think you necessarily know just how rude, or not, you are being. I have this sense from Finns who from time to time swear in English and come over as lot more offensive than they probably intended. I've got nothing against some well placed profanity - sometime when you want to make yourself totally f***in' clear, it's the only way to go - but I don't swear in front of children, people I don't know, little puppy dogs etc. and I definitely wouldn't go putting up signs using rather crude words in a shop window display for all the world to see (and explain to their inquisitive children).

Many Finns seem to think that swearing in English in public doesn't really count. Perhaps to non-native speakers it doesn't. I can't say I'm really offended but I was quite surprised.