Toby Archer reports:
Compared to many other European countries, Finnish climbing history is (like many of the routes) rather short. But what the routes don't have in stature, it appears they make up for in being nails.
The Bouldertehdas (Bouldering Factory) blog reports, via a translation at 27 Crags, that visiting German, Christian Bindhammer has repeated the hardest route in Finland, Syncro at Nummi (an amusingly overhanging, beautiful lump of granite halfway between Helsinki and Turku).
Syncro was first climbed by Tomi Nytorp in 2006, graded 8c, and has gone unrepeated for half a decade since.
Bindhammer says he has done a number of 8c+'s that have been easier elsewhere and therefore he reckons Syncro is probably an 8c+ itself.
Bouldertehdas also mentions that he felt quite a few other routes at Nummi were much harder than their grades suggest. Quite a few Finnish and Finnish-based climbers (your reporter included) who have been thoroughly spanked by Nummi will be very happy to hear this, although the ever modest Finns are already suggesting that Bindhammer picked a poor time of year (too hot) for such hard routes. Indeed he deserves applause just for braving this years bumper mosquito crop to send the route.
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