Finland is something of a backwater for climbing in Northern Europe, most climbers don’t know much about what Finland has to offer, other than the famous 9A boulder ‘Burden of Dreams’. The reality is there is loads of climbing in Finland and not just bouldering either. When we started to look into it we were genuinely shocked at how much there was, and how good quality it was. Other than climbing, Finland seemed to have very few tourists compared to Norway and Sweden, in some parts of the country we couldn’t believe how quiet it was. Finland is the 8th largest country in Europe but has one of the lowest population densities on the continent. The result is seemingly endless nature, pristine and unspoilt, often without anyone else in sight.

You may wonder why this is a Nordic road trip and not a Scandinavian one, and the simple answer is because Finland is not in Scandinavia! Whilst people from other parts of Europe might assume this to be the case, Finnish people do not consider themselves Scandinavian. Despite this, Finland is widely accepted as a Nordic country, hence the title.

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