24 - 28 AUGUST 2026 CLIMBING EXPEDITION AT haukkakallio -fINLAND
As one of the first trips while studying at Outdoor Academy we ventured out to the south of Finland for a climbing expedition at haukkakallio. A crag near Lovisa in Southern Finland. We stayed in tents 15 minutes from the rocks we would be climbing. Since I never actually climbed before I was a bit anxious and reserved about the whole thing. One thing I knew for sure is that I wanted to give it a proper shot.
The first day after a long car ride of 6 hours we went straight to the crag for a crash course in general climbing, equipment and safety. It was a lot to take in and felt really overwhelmed but we did get to practice some stuff like climbing, buddy check and belaying safely.
The second day would be filled with more technical things like building basic ankers and more climbing techniques. I had a horrible first night sleep and barely slept. So it was really hard for the information to actually stick. We did get to practice a lot however and my confidence grew the more I actually did it.
At the start of the third day we where promised to go to a sauna next to a lake. So after another engaging day of climbing, learning knots and tree ankers we got a well deserved sauna evening. We spend the whole evening alternating between sauna and the cool calm water of the nearby lake.
The refreshing sauna did us good and we felt physically better and mentally sharper. This day would consist of rapelling down a cliff and building more challenging ankers in different places. The afternoon consisted of more crag climbing wich I got better at the more I practiced.
The fourth and last day was a rather short one. We had to get up very early to pack up camp and moved towards the crag one last time for some final climbing. We each got to choose our own routes deciding on what challenge we wanted or routes we didn’t get to complete the other day. The day ended with a very funny but educational equipment layout. Teaching us everything about carabiners, helmets, ropes and harnasses.
Climbing was fun! to be continued…
