Photos by hema

This is me killing time and doing some easy bouldering, while I could have been doing some real climbing on the walls looming behind. The reason was quite simple, I'm not capable of of soloing 200+ m of f6a's and above, and all my friends who were first going to tag along got cold feet and chickened out (or claimed they had no time or money or the other usual excuses).

This is how Store Kjostinden looks like form the height of about 1100 m on SE Buttress. The main peak (Store) is the one right in the middle of the pic. If one decides to climb the SE gully rather then the buttress / ridge one will encounter a short pitch of near vertical ice, that ice fall can be seen at about the center of the pic, but the gully only leads to the E-ridge and there is a near vertical rock step just before you reach the main summit (can't comment on the grade as we never even tried to climb it 'cause we didn't have almost any rock gear).

This is how Kjostinden looks from the sea level by the fjord and the road. This year there was less snow than usual by Easter. One major route up to the peak is the gully on the left side of the pic, but it is also an avalance chute. The gully on the right is less prone to avalances but it hosts some vertical ice. The route we decided to follow takes the buttress in the center then follow the ridge over the right gully and then traversed to a small gully a little right of the main peak, after the saddle we followed the ridge towards the main peak. Instead of getting to the main peak we only managed to climb a sub peak some 20 m lower than the main, as the ridge is not continuous and has a near vertical rock section for roughly 50 m in height.

We had already climbed rougly 1100 m in height and had some 400 m to go. I had been on the sharp end thus far, but now Pauli was prepairing to lead the rest of the way up. Thus far we had been climbing mostly on rock, either third or fourth class. But after this most of the climb was on snow which had the average incline of about 40 to 45 degrees. The steepest parts being roughly 50 or 55 degrees.

Yeah this is me at the top of Kellostapuli, one of the most famous off-pistes in Finland. But actually it ain't that great, atleast when I compared it to the runs I had at Lyngen. I decided not add this area as it really isn't worth the effort (and it is purely skiing).

Now wonder this fjell has been called 'the Mont Blanc of the North' 'cause from the easiest route it's just a basic and long snow plod, though it does have to ice-falls to negotiate. But if one takes an alternative route you can find pretty severe routes of some haven't even been climbed yet.

We are about on third of the way up on SE Buttress on the Kjostinden. For most of our team this is the first real alpine-climb (ignoring pure rock-routes) that had it all snow, ice and rock. As for climbing at Lyngen in general there is no guidebooks so you pretty much climb what looks like fun or interesting picking your way as you progress higher. As for my friend that's Simo who is climbing as second while I'm at the sharp end, Pauli and Enni are following a bit lower (you can see Pauli's helmet).

Here's my friend Mikko plodding his way up to the saddle on top of the North Couloir. We desided to rope up for this climb as this was our first genuine alpine-route. The snowstorm added a bit of exciment and missery making the route a perfect first alpine-route. Most people would not bother roping up for this kind of snow-plod, but roping up didn't slow us down all that much, when we compared our time to the ones at a guidebook.

This is how the top 1/3 of the couloir looks like. The slope is quite constant at around 45 degrees, though a bit down there was a short steeper part which had a gradient of around 55 degrees. The couloir had relatively good hard neve, but at times the hard surface was almost ice like and at times powdery making the climbing interesting.

Ruskeavirta mainfall in the end of Feb 04. Normally on the right side of the fall forms a nearly vertical line called 'Uutiskynnys'. Some years on the righthand side of the fall 'Arktinen Pilari' (rough translation, Artic Pillar) forms offering roughly 55m long route called 'Arktinen Hysteria'. Arktinen Hysteria has about 40 m of vertical or near vertical ice, offering great climbing at the grade of rougly WI6 (sometimes when the ice is fat mayby WI5+, but usually even as hard as WI6+).

This is Mikko almost at the end of this really nice WI3ish ice couloir only about 30 min from the city center.

Mikko is leading the WI3ish ice Couloir, on the right you can see the Right Slab ice flows. At the time of this pic it would be possible to lead two intependent lines on the Right Slab, as well as the Couloir and its harder variation. The Couloir variation shares the start, but after mayby 5 m it continues straight up instead of following the couloir. There is also some leadable ice to the left of the pict around WI2

Mikko toproping the leftern drip on the Right Slab in Nuuksio left ice climbing area. This fall doesn't form well enough to allow leading every year. Also even if the drip forms you still have to solo it to nearly half height in order to reach thick enough ice for stubbie screws, near the end there is usually enough ice fro 16 to 18 cm screws.

This is me abbing from the first Pinnacle of Templet on the Stora Traverse. The most difficult part of the Traverse is just before and after the first Pinnacle. There is also another hard part just before reaching the summit of Stora Sylen. As can be seen from my ropes the wind is blowing quite hard. Also the snow crust covering the rocks is not that usual at the time of the climb (end of August) and made things interesting (as it wasn't hard enough for axes to hold or freeze the loose bits to the ground).

The summit and summit-ridge of Templet (temple) during a short period of good weather (it lasted only about 10 min). The picture was taken from the top of the first pinnacle. The sharpest point in the picture is the third pinnacle. The main summit is at the end of the summit ridge. The southridge is also visible in the left side of the summit, above the small glacier. Just at the right edge of the picture one can see a part of the second pinnacle.

My friend climbing up at the begin of Stora Traverse. This is the last pinnacle of Templet before the final summitridge. After summitting Templet the Traverse continues as a scramble on a ridge with a few pinnacles for 5 more km. followed by easy climbing for ~40m in an very exposed and not very wide slab. Even though this picture was taken in late summer we did have a snowstorm the other day. This alpine-kind-of-route is often done in the winter as a skimountaineering trip with an easier start, missing the really fun climbing/scrambling of the Templet pinnacles.

The Templet (the temple) shown from the approach, well actually one can only see the first and second pinnacle. The ridge on the right is also a part of the Stora Traverse (The Great Traverse).

My friend Pasi cruising up Ukkosenjohdatin (on a toprope) at Olhava. This climb is a beatiful finger to hand sized crack for the first 35 m straight up from the lake. The remaing 10 m are are widening dihedra followed by a really short roof to the top.

HeMa leading Indiana Jones (5.8ish), Nuuksio, Finland on a beatiful May evening. I'm nearing the mental crux of the route, which is just above the the bolt. The mental crux is basically a really long reach for a blind horizontal crack from quite a good handhols really near the footholds as the angle of the bulge eases. The technical crux is a couple of meters up on the near vertical face as most of the holds run out, leaving just a couple of poor slouby holds or really small features (for the grade).

My friend Olli searching for holds at the crux of Jäger Meister (5.9 or even 5.10a) on a top-rope. Jäger Meister is a sport-line at Nuuksio, Finland.