UKH

Last spring I was scouting for some new climbing locations to sevelop. I came upon this historical quarry with good climbing potential. On the base of it though, were candles signed by grieving relatives.

I couldn't find any news about a death happening there, so I have no information to go on. From what I understand the land is owned by the city, and climbing wouldn't land me in legal troubles etc.

What I'm asking is: Is it insensitive/bad taste to develop this area for climbing? Especially if I do it as respectfully as possible, by bringing in candles and flowers of my own.

I'm thinking it would be fine, but I'm interested in hearing what others have to say.

Going by the photo is it actually worth developing?

By develop, I guess you mean bolt, leaving something of you there rather than a bit of cleaning and landscaping. You might upset someone, you might not, that's all it boils down to. Knowing the backstory to the shrine might help a little in working out how likely either option is.

jk

A great question! I know it doesn't look great, but what I have near me this is almost the best I got. Plan is not to do any bolting or such, only clean up routes for bouldering/high balls.

I'm sure it will be fine.  Just imagine all the tragic goings on we don't know about at the Lancs quarries, Pex Hill, etc. and yet we still climb there.

I pass at least four roadside shrines on my drive into town, doesn't stop me or all the other road users. Fundamentally we couldn't care less.

Plenty of routes on Beinn Eighe despite that airplane crash!

A few people have jumped off the top of Cheddar or Avon. I know a few people who have had close encounters with a suicide in these places. 

Is it in Finland? Looks very like lots of lumps of rock I used to find in Finland. If not Finland, Sweden would be my next guess, as Swedish forest granite lumps look very similar to Finnish ones!

Is there such a thing as ice bouldering?

Go for it, we’ve all climbed on crags that people have dropped off!! My local crag is Windgather….every year there is a wreath under portfolio where a guy lost his life, I used to climb it for him whenever I saw it….

You drive to the crag on a road in a car right?

Here's a memorial at Warton Main https://www.geograph.org.uk/photo/3232937

I used to pray every time I climbed there

Well noticed! 

This is the old Viborgite quarry in Österbacken, west Vantaa.

I have no idea, but I will not be climbing before all the ice and snow melts.

Well, a bus, as the public transportation is quite good here!

I'm intrigued now, I lived in west Vantaa (Kivistö) for 8 years so thought I had checked out most of the bits of rock in that time, but can't work out where this is. I had to Google viborgite to realise it's rapakivi, but can't think of a rapakivi quarry in Vantaa (we did find and climb a two pitch icefall in a massive one somewhere near Lieksa) and my brain is totally failing to work out what Österbacken is in Finnish (Itä-something?). Can you give us a bit more of a clue? (I live in Derbyshire now, so am not about to swoop in and nick your first ascents! 😀)

Oh for sure! Here are the coordinates!

60.273062, 24.766684

I have been scouting all over Vantaa for boulderable pieces of rock. I now have over 200km of walking done, and a few decent new places found. Should be only 4-6 weeks anymore before I can start climbing!

And yeah, Österbacken roughly translates to East-Hill in English and Itämäki or something in Finnish, but only the swedish name is used. It ironically is in the westernmost side of Vantaa.

Is that for the soul of the deceased or that you will get out of there alive yourself?

Wait until you hear about Mount Everest! :-o 

One thing to note is, that the cliff base is on a natural protection reserve... so depending on where actually the line goes, any kind of moss or lichen removal can be considered an actual crime.

These natural preservation/protection reserves can easily be checked from the classic finnish maps. Luckily these can be easily accessed online via https://kartta.paikkatietoikkuna.fi/ Use the maastokartta layer.

Yes! I know this quite well. Luckily the line's pretty far from the actual cliff face. Thank you for keeping people in check!

Or that heartless bastard Heckmair.

Could it be worth heading either east or west towards Sipoo or Kirkkonummi where the rock quality is better and boulders are more inspiring than the leftovers in Helsinki/Vantaa/Espoo? + There are still some easily accessible unclimbed (at least unlogged in 27 crags) high quality rocks.

For sure would be! I'm currently trying to find the best things near me, as I don't have a car and I need to get by with public transportation.

Vantaa is surprisingly quite unexplored - compared to the tens of premium crags on 27 in Helsinki there are only 3 in the area of Vantaa. I have explored west-Vantaa almost completely now, and have east-Vantaa left, where most of the POI:s are and rock quality is better. Already found a few decent places all around here.