Prime

The weather has been prime for sending. Hope it stays that way for a month or so. Almost all the crags are dry now. Except Halsvuori but that's a sport crag so who cares. It's a boudering season!

Olli Mikkonen hoping to grow few centimeters. 'Huuhto' a Kanavuori classic! Altough almost all the problems are classics in Kanavuori!


Marko Yliniemi doing some upwards joga on 'Huuhto'.

Slam Dunk

How high above the hold can you actually jump with out landing on it?

O-P answering the question. Kanavuori 'Ankle Fucker'. As you can see, still covered in snow...


Juho doing the same but,


Landing on the hold with out holding it. This time Näätäkivi 'Paskoja Kompiaisia'. Little bit less snow...


Forte was good yesterday. Today there was a puddle of water underneath. O-P in action.

S U N

"Sun is shining, the weather is sweet". Makes you want to climb. Doesn't it?

Extremely rare sunny day! We hardly ever get to see sun in November in Finland. Not to mention climbing! But today (22.11.2009) was a welcome exception!

Testing testing, so interesting. I think these new DSLR's make handy cams quite obsolete...

Past weeks

I have been a bit busy with school work lately. Hence the lack of updates. Here are few shots from past weeks.


Kirsi sending one of the best aretes in Jyväskylä called 'Uniikki'. Moves on it are very unique indeed. It is an arete, but doesn't climb like one.


One of the strongest boulderers in Finland Jussi Remonen has changed his passion from climbing to woodwork and other hand crafts.


Jussi's stool. Everything is done by hand and no electrical appliances or screws are used. Everything is done the old fashion way!


One morning in Lehtisaari.

Fyysikko

A funny video of my accent of Fyysikko... How nice to see yourself behaving like a total twat. Believe it or not, but I was still enjoying every minute of it!

Huomio: Sisältää huonoa kielenkäyttöä! ;)



Fyysikko is a classic Font 8B problem at 28.7. First accent was done by Tomi Nytorp in 2005. Problem consists 12 hard sustained moves and a jug haul at the end. On the send I got a really bad cramp on my right calf muscle. Luckily I was able to fight all the way to the jugs and top it out.

Kuhanjulma

Went through my video archives and found one that I haven't published yet. Quite a lot of work filming yourself climbing...


Quick update. Just got back from Rovaniemi. Weather was warm and humid for most of the time, but we still managed to climb a LOT. But more form that later. I have some video of our trip. Would people like short videos, like one problem in video or a longer one?

Problems that we got on video:

• Pimp My Ride (Jarmo)
• Viimeinen Tuuttikuski (Marko)
• Almendra or Peukku Assis (Kikka)
• Turvasanat (Jesse and Marko)
• Los Cojones Direct (Kikka)
• Pyramidi (Marko)
• Easy Company (Marko)
• Midi Assis (Marko)

Vihersalo

Two problems from Vihersalo. Which is small area near Jyväskylä with good rock quality. A bit like Vaasa actually. Some info at 27crags.com. If you decide to visit this area, please behave! There are houses just next to boulders.

Don't know the name of that first problem? So if someone could enlighten me please?

Huhu

There was a rumor spreading amongst Jyväskylä climbers (4 of us...) about a cool new block with a 45dec overhang. Finally we got info of the location of this boulder called Huhu! Have to say that it's an amazing problem!



Thanks for Jani Askolin for all the hard work!

Iban G.

Think it was 2000 or 2001 when we met this strong as a bull Basque climber. He was here in Jyväskylä doing some kind of a job training to become a certified electrician. If I remember correctly all they let Iban do here was some garden work. Closest he got to actual electricity work was changing light bulbs... There is some pictures in Iban's blog from his time here.

On one of the pictures we are gluing Forte's jug back on. Well actually Juha is. I'm on top of the rock... It's a shame that the hold came of in a first place. It was a very special climb. Now that the hold has come of again it's maybe a bit harder but not so nice to climb. It actually stirred quite a conversation at slouppi if it was OK to reinforce or glue holds back. I still don't know the answer. Maybe in some cases it's OK, but in Forte's probably not since it goes without.

  

La Rhume Folle from Marko Kauko on Vimeo.

A short video of the man himself in Fontainebleau, Bas Cuvier. Don't remember the year anymore. Maybe 2002? Good old days!

Archives 2

Here are few 'digitized' pictures...

Jyrki on 'Nakit ja muusi' -98. 'Forte Risoluto' and 'Nakit ja muusi' 7B+ says the text on my album. Although think they both should be listed on MTK's list of hard boulders. Juha gave them both 7B+ after visiting Fontainebleau for the first time. On that trip he spent the whole week working on 'Carnage' which he did in the end. He had just sent 'Forte Risoluto' and 'Nakit ja Muusi' before. Have to say that 'Carnage' is miles easier...


Jussi Remonen doing F.A of 'Salamurhaaja'. Grade is still a mystery. Having just seen Ben Moon on 'Real thing' doing 'Karma' Jussi probably didn't figure out the easiest way for this boulder...


The dream team, Jussi, me, Jukka Mäkinen and Jykä...

Crazy weather

Weather is just crazy at the moment. Would have been possible to climb outside today! Just too lazy to do the same old problems again and again.

This was what Päijänne looked like just few days ago.


This is from today. No snow and warm.Supposed to get colder tomorrow...


From the photo archives for MTK's retro picture challenge. Kikka sending 'Desert island arete' in Earl crag back in the day. More coming later...

Motivation.

Web seems to be full of training advice at the moment. So mine would be to have fun and enjoy the process what ever you decide to do. Included a short clip of Ila working with 'Marvin'. No send though. Think Ila just got bored of trying same move over and over again and didn't go back to finish it of. Sorry about the quality. It was dark and wet when we filmed this.


Marvin 8A. from Marko Kauko on Vimeo.

First snow

We got first snow last night. Might be the end of a season. No plans for the winter. Maybe edit some old footage for web?


Doris having a scroll on the beach.

Marvin and a moving crux.

Sami on a second move of 'Marvin' which feels piss compared to the first one. What has happened? The first move used to feel easy. Talking about the original sequence of course. The way Jyrki did it, he skipped small left had crimp all together and went for a better hold higher up. I used small crimp as intermediate. Still keen to do original way someday.


What has happened to our lovely running track?

Most of the wood have been chopped down.

guess they are making plywood...

Viva la Resistance!

Still out n' about! Todays venue was Mäyris. The boulders where a bit damp but nothing that a little chalk and a brush couldn't fix. Todays mission was 'Viva la Resistance' and 'Uniikki'. Both of them über classics. 'Viva la Resistance' has quite a bad landing but still ok with few pads. The top move is cool. At least the way I did it.

Juho got painfully close on a flash attempt on 'Viva la Resistance'. No cigar.

Tuomo showed some good skills by sending 'Uniikki' with few tries.


Juho got painfully close too...

28.7

A day out at 28.7. What a horrendous approach! Landowner has chopped all small wood and left it rotten. The trail is in unusable state. Hope somebody cleans it. Otherwise it's just waist of perfectly good firewood.


There was a lot of water too. If somebody is planning to do 'Kuhanjulma' it's best to leave it for spring and go when the pond is frozen...


Still nice to climb here every once in a while. Actually managed to do something which I had not done before. 'Dementia' photo by Kirsi Kauko.

Beasts from the east.

Beasts from the east came for a quick visit yesterday. Sami looked super strong on 'Marvin'. Second move which is a crux for most of us looked like piss for him. Sure he will do it soon. Though it looks like the season is about to end soon. Hope not.

Paavo had bit of a moment with 'Forte'. Hope he didn't knacker his finger too badly. It was quite cold for such a long problem. At least I almost fell from the top while doing it for the video. I got bit of a cold pumped. Scary...


As a consolation prise Paavo send 'Herkules' with a good style.

Here taking a nice fall from the jug while left hand suddenly popped of...

Dr G.

On one of his last days as a local climber in Jyväskylä Tomi decided leave his mark and brake the hold of 'Paskoja kompiaisia'. Hope he doesn't brake too many holds at Oulu since that would be disastrous...   

Africa slab.

'Africa slab' a cool Font style slab. Maybe 7a? Feels harder for me but easier for Kirsi...

Training 4 Font.

Lasse doing F.A before going to Font for 6 months...

Nice high problem with good moves. Name is 'Ilaskivi'.

Make working out the sequence.