Welcome to Haukkakallio

(Haukkallio welcoming the author. The admission fee is paid in skin and blood. Thanks to Toni J. for the photo)

This blog seemed like the quickest and easiest way to get some information on climbing on the newly developed Haukkakallio crag near Ruotsinpyhtää in south eastern Finland to the widest possible number of interested fellow climbers. Myself and a group of Helsinki-based friends have been involved in cleaning and new routing at the crag since the Släbi Club from Kotka put out a call for help in early May 06. When Jody and I turned up on the saturday chosen we were amazed to see the organised cleaning effort centred around a fire hose borrowed from a local fire brigade!


A note on grades: currently, my friends and I are giving trad routes that we have climbed Finnish grades as we are more familiar with this system than with French grades. British grades are also given in brackets just for fun. It is, once you know how the system works, the best grade system in the world for trad climbs. If you don't know how it works, it is ridiculously complicated and pointlessly opaque - please feel free to ignore them! The sports routes will be of course graded with French grades.

All the photos on this site are clickable - click on them for a bigger more detailed version.

Access information

Access information -

Släbi ry have put a lot of hard work and good sense into securing access to the crag from the landowner. Please do all the normal things to make sure this remains the case: take your litter home, don't crap on the paths, try not to start major forest fires - that sort of thing. There is an organised fire area if you can't make it through the day without a grilled makkara (it is difficult isn't it?).

A map showing where the crag is, is here. And if you need more detail try this.

On the other side of the road from the crag parking is Pitkäjärvi which is excellent for a post-climb swim.

Sector 1 - The sports sector

The sports sector
The first clean high wall you see as you walk into the forest from the car-park. Here there are a well bolted sports routes plus a few trad lines following good cracks. Some of the lines have been climbed but please check with Släbi before giving them a go as some are still ongoing projects that people have put time, effort and money into equipping. The trad left-facing corner-line towards the right of this face has been climbed by at least Tuomo Pesonen at 5+ (HVS/E1?) - this may have been the first ascent. The sports routes currently range between 6a and 6c and all follow strong lines.

Sector 2 - The big block sector

This area is easily identified by the huge, 20 mtr high block that has broken away and now stands seperate from the main cliff face. The narrow cleft with a chockstone overhead leads to the gap between the main face and the block. The chimney and chockstone are visible in this picture and form the start of the following route:

1) Auf Wiedersehen Ecuador 5 (HVS 5a)
Chimney up and onto the chockstone, then climb the fine, steep crack above to the top of cliff and a lower-off (a not very good pic to the right shows Toby on the first ascent).

The diagonal crack visible in this photo to the right of the chimney will be bolted to provide another sports route - no details yet on its grade but it looks good.

Sector 3 - The High Crag

This sector of the cliff is set up above a wide terrace which is above a line of vegetated smaller broken cliffs. Routes have been cleaned up here although I have no information about them yet. The sector is visible in this photo.

Update: the obvious corner line has been cleaned by Esa from Släbi but he has not had chance to give it a go yet. Please stay off this line until he has done the route. There is a fine looking finger crack to the left of the corner but it needs a good scrub.

Sector 4 - The steep cracked wall

This sector is easily idenitfied by a very clean vertical to slightly overhanging wall with numerous thin cracks in it. It is easier angled at both ends.

The far left end of the sector is defined by a horrifying or beautiful looking (depending on your perspective) offwidth. Just around the corner from this to the right is a seperate block that forms the start of:

1) Gardeners Questions Time 4 (Severe)
Climb on to the block and then climb the cleaned cracks above.
Toby on the first ascent of Gardener's Question Time

Sector 5 - Lost in the jungle

This sections is rather broken and goes beyond the slabbier end of the Steep Cracks wall and finishes before the fine corner of "Uncle Tony's Testimonial". At the moment there are no routes recorded there, but there are definitely possibilities for those willing to clean.

Sector 6 - Sector Sunshine

Above Toby gets started on "Its's the end of the world..." as Samu belays.

1) Uncle Tony's Testimonial 5- (VS 4c)
A great climb up the clean right-facing corner. The angle eases with height gained (picture on the left - Toni J. climbing).


2) It's the end of the world as we know I wanna climb 5- (VS 4c)
Another good corner climb.

3) Smac & Stun Bals 6/6- (v) (E2 5c)
The thin cracks up the slab to the right of the corner of "It's the end of the world..."

4) Would you love a monster jam? 5 (VS 5a)
The short and obvious wide crack up the slabby wall. The crux move is leaving the ground.
Toni finding out whether he would love a Monster Jam.

5) Captain Caveman 4+ (HS 4b)
A few metres right of ...Monster Jam, behind the fallen large tree, is a huge corner-crack formed by the edge of a deep crevice/cave going left into the cliff. The climb follows this corner to a ledge and then takes a shallow crack and groove from the ledge to the top. Oddly physical without actually being hard(photo showing line is to the right).

6) Två Halvor 4+ (HS 4c)
The next corner right of Captain Caveman; a climb of two halves! Climb the corner to a ledge then take the cracks up the clean wall above.

7) The Constant Gardener 4+ (HS 4c)
The corner-line to the left of "Mad Dogs and Englishmen". Plentiful gear and resting positions but some tricky moves between. The crux is topping out (4c).Toby leading the "Constant Gardener". The crack of Mad Dogs... is visible on the right.

8) Mad Dogs and Englishmen 5 (HVS 5a)
The obvious chimney-groove leading to a superb jamming crack. Those who can't (or won't) fist jam may say it's harder but it's not. A couple of biggish cams help but aren't absolutely necessary - good nuts can be placed in the horizontal thin crack just below the top crux crack.
Tuomo gets stuck in to Mad Dogs...

Sector 7

To the right of Mad Dogs... the base of the crag drops down and the cliff is hidden behind more trees. A fine wall with vertical cracks in it is very soon seen. One route is known to have been done to the right side of this wall but it is rumoured that Jari Koski might have climbed some of the harder lines to its left. The route known is:

1) Enter the Hand Jam 5 (VS 5a)
An easier start leads to a steep crack to finish (the route follows the line of the rope in picture left).

Update: It seems Jari has indeed led a line on this wall but no further details yet. The other lines to the left of Enter the Hand Jam have been cleaned and toproped by Arto Järvinen and friends. They will be leading (or trying to!) the lines this summer so again please respect their cleaning efforts and let them lead their routes before others try.

Sector 8

This is a good walk from the car

Sector 9

This bit is even further!

Sector 10

This is so far from the car park we haven't really got there yet.