Tyresö, Spring 2011, Narcissism.

Largo, Träskberget. Ph: Erik Lindvall

Träskberget on the Tyresö peninsula har been all the rage this spring, at least among my friends. Much thanks to Johan Luhr who has put enormous ammounts of effort into cleaning, bolting and climbing these routes all between 7c and 8b. Johan just turned 50 and put up his latest 8b, Oldfinger, just a couple of days ago, also here on Träskberget, all of them super fun and a bit atypical for Tyresö with their steep and blocky style. I climbed most of them including the variations this spring but Johan's newest addition will probably have to wait till atumn or at least till cooler weather comes in. Again my triggerhappy friend Erik Lindvall, joined Erik Lundqvist and me for a session to get some shots.

Largo, Träskberget

Scaramanga

Scaramanga

Scaramanga

Scaramanga

Patagonia: Bouldering snippets

One of the best suprises with the climbing around El Chalten was probably not the long approaches but rather that the hillsides around town hosted some good bouldering. Good as in really good bouldering. Recently I read something like "Bouldering in Patagonia is like masturbating in a whore house". Who knows, maybe it's true, but the fact that the weather can be really shit in the Patagonian mountains while it can be bearable or even quite decent in the valley makes such a statement pretty lame if not down right stupid, at least if you love climbing more than you love feeling sorry for yourself and complaining about the weather. Quite a few days during our trip in February where spent flogging ourselves on the boulders on the hillsides around El Chalten. Here are a few pics plus a video clip.

Josh Finkelstein attempting one of Chaltens top notch test pieces, Gato Negro.

Warton spots Finkelstein on Gato Negro

Pad people heading home from the hills

French Connections

Wulfman warming up on Balla Ballar

Last Saturday Daniel Andersson had a particularly good day of sports climbing at Östnoraberget, half an hour of south of Stockholm, sending both Arc de Triomphe and Vive la France in an annoyingly easy manner making the rest of us look even weaker and more uncoordinated than usual.

Daniel Andersson cruising up Arc de Triomphe.

Crusher Andersson, Arc de Triomphe.

Danne Andersson cruising again, this time on Vive la France.

El Corall, Simon Andersson looking french.

We are brave

Parts of the Tatatataa collective joined us to Åland over Easter. Martin filmed and and edited in his usual manner.

Aurinko paistaa

Olli struggling to hang on to the slopers on Lähetyssaarnaaja at E75.

Eevi on a pretty nice arete.

Mainland Finland probably isn't famous for it's climbing but for sure there are a couple of gems. Two of them are Falkberget and the sandstone!!?? bouldering area E75 close to Lahti. A couple of weekends ago I was invited show some slides (pics) and got the opportunity to climb at these two locations. Nice rock, cool routes, great friends and beautiful spring weather. I was probably most pleased with flashing the crack Charlatan at Falkberget.

Easter was spent at the more popular destination in the Åland archipelago. More about that later.

Motion picture

Our friend Martin filmed and edited this little snippet.

Erik å Erik klättrar Moonwalker på Bistaberget i Nyköping.

Talking the Talk and Walking the Moonwalk

Has slab climbing become fasionable? Well, at least this particular route seems to be the talk of the town

Scott Mooneys first ascent two weeks ago of Moonwalker at Bistaberget near Nyköping, about an hour and a half from Stockholm got a couple of us buzzing. Not that it’s a stunning line, don't get me wrong, it's not by any means bad but it was more the style that intrigued me, a bouldery and slabby face climb at Scandinavian 9- (8a) with miniscule holds, delicate feet and funky sequences, a style not that common on routes of that difficulty. Last weekend a couple of us went down to see what the whole shebang was all about and try the route. We played around on it for a bit and even though I technically was rather close I felt like I was miles away. Erik Lundqvist showed us who was master of his domain by redpointing it fairly easily while Martin and I looked and felt fat, week and uncoordinated.

Martin "Goldie locks" Lejdebrant playing on Moonwalker

This Saturday young and talented Simon Andersson, who couldn’t join us last weekend, was eager to tag along to get even with this sneaky little devil. Weather looked pretty grim when we left Stockholm in a drizzle but the forecast had predicted better conditions at Bista. It proved to be half right, just slightly better; one of the few routes that were reasonably dry was our plat du jour which was good enough for us. Most everything else was dripping so we warmed up with a shot of coffee and a cigarette before we set to work. Again the crux felt ridiculously hard but after a few goes and some fine tuning of the moves the holds suddenly felt resonable and not too far a part and the send was a fact. Simon followed my example and fired it as well, his first route of that grade IAD. F**king Brilliant! Feeling rather satisfied with our feat, we cooled down with some more coffee and some smokes before heading off to nearby Simonsberget where we scrambled around for a while before calling it quits.