Ask A Badass: Nalle Hukkataival // Chance to win a BD Pipedream pack

Being European, you can guess the attitude.

Which V15's need to be upgraded in your opinion?

How many moves is the Burden of Dreams? How hard is each move? How many days did spend on it total?

Cheers Nalle!

What areas do you think may contain the next potential 9a/v17 boulder problems or even potentially higher graded ones?

What is your favorite color? Mine is green.

You have been working hard to get your achievements this far in your career.
What was your moment in climbing when you decided you would commit as mush time as possible to it and why?

-Nick

Thanks All!

This is the official cut-off. Nalle will head in here and choose his favorite questions to answer and award one BD Pipedream pack to a lucky winner.

He sent me a note describing the media tornado he's in, so give him a few days to work on his replies. Will ping you here and on Facebook once he's done.

Thanks again for participating!

Odd Question, But do you have any chalk preferences or rituals such as grinding in a mortar? Do you have a favorite brand? do you have an opinion on liquid chalk? Can chalk affect your performance at the level you are bouldering at?

Thanks for the questions everybody! I'll do my best to answer what I can shortly.

-Nalle Hukkataival

DEF wrote:While you were working Burden of Dreams, were there times where you doubted whether the moves were even possible for you? Are there any specific methods/training you used (mental or physical) to overcome those doubts, stay psyched and keep pushing?

That was a big part of the appeal of it for sure. Generally any of the hardest boulders in the world, the moves go in a single session or two. Then it’s just a matter of piecing it together, so there isn’t usually that much doubt involved when you know what kind of progression to expect having gone through that same process so many times.

With Burden of Dreams I did not manage to do all the individual moves in the first autumn season that I spent trying it. And after that it still took me seasons of trial and error to boil it down to the final beta.

As for the mental part, that’s the key toughest part of it. No amount of physical strength is going to help if your mind gives up. Positivity is key and trying to see every little thing you do as a positive, no matter how minute or seemingly insignificant.

Stanley McKnight wrote:I lived in Finland for 2 years, mostly around Helsinki and in Jyväskylä. From what I saw the climbing resources there were very limited (I knew of one small bouldering crag in Mellunmäki and I think 2 climbing gyms). Plus it is freezing there at least half of the year. Aivan jäässä. In that sort of environment how did you get so involved in climbing and what sort of innovations did you come up with to train so effectively at those extreme grades? And by the way, onneksi olkoon!

There is actually a great amount of rock climbing in Finland. Especially bouldering! The gym situation around Helsinki is one of the best in the world today, unlike when I started. The winter however is very real and climbing outside isn’t really an option for about 4 months in the winter. When I was younger I would spend the winters training hard in the gym for the spring. Nowadays I travel year-round for rock climbing and you can always find good climbing weather somewhere in the world.

Kiitos!

Mason Roberts wrote:Howdy! What book do you often recommend or gift folks?

The books that I’ve been interested in lately are all pretty heavy reading from quantum physics to global politics. Not necessarily the best books for a gift.

Lalp wrote:Having pushed the limits of bouldering to new levels, do you think there is a limit to what humans will be able to scale or is it all in the mind and ones approach to climbing?

The new generation having access to a lifetime of hard established climbs to get strong on, high quality climbing gyms to train at and full-time sponsorship opportunities from a young age will inevitably fuel the progression of the sport. There’s never a limit per say, but simply the smaller the friction surfaces between the climber and the rock get - the more outside factors like temperature, humidity, weather, skin complexion, will become.

Redyns wrote:Hi Nalle. Big fan! why is Finish techno so 1997?

Not really a techno guy, couldn't say

Douglas97 wrote:Two questions: First, are you planning to revisit the Sisu Project now that Lappnor went down? Second, what V15's do you think need to be upgraded to V16

I think the Sisu project is in the sights for the future, but for now this project has been such an all-consuming process that it’s important to take a little breather and just go climbing.

I touched on these possible upgrades briefly in an interview with UKClimbing. It should be based on a consensus and not a one person opinion, so it will take some further discussions.

Mike Brady wrote:What is your favorite easy boulder problem? By easy I mean V0-V4. Besides "Burden of Dreams", what have you done in your climbing career that you are most proud of? I am sure it is impossible to answer this wholly but what is the single most important gift that climbing has given you?

I’d say the Southwest arete in Bishop!

I’m most proud proud of discovering and developing many areas around the world. I’d say the the ones that stand out are in the Grampians of Australia and Rocklands is South Africa.

The most important gift climbing has given me? Probably how it’s transformed my understanding and perception of life through different lessons learned along the way that are totally applicable to every day life.

brysonh wrote:Congrats of recent send of Burden of Dreams. How do you think the lack of second ascents on some of the hardest boulder problems affects the progression of grades moving forward? Is there a less motivation to send hard problems that have already seen a first ascent?

There are many factors to that, but I don’t see the lack of a repeat on some boulders affecting the progression itself. One issue that has been pretty prevalent is how for many years all top boulders of varying degrees where all lumped under the V15 grade. This led to the problem that when all of the top boulders, even though some where considerably harder than others, were all graded V15, the only way to create separation was by downgrading other boulders. Even if the right thing to do would have been not to downgrade a majority of the V15’s but to upgrade a handful to V16.

Mike Brady wrote:In the same way routes of the mid to latter half of the last century hit a "dam" in terms of grading and people not wanting to rate something as being the next level, do you think cutting edge bouldering of today is experiencing the same phenomenon and that possibly V17 or even 18 has already been climbed(at least terms of future perspectives)?

There’s no question that the V15 grade and moving on to V16 has been the most problematic step in history, causing it’s fair share of issues. For example during the period when every cutting-edge climb was basically bound to be V15 this shifted the emphasis away from the actual grade to measuring the tries and time. When everything was V15, what started to matter was what degree of V15 it was and the time it took to climb it became a momentary significant factor to display this. This is the point when a grading system fails it’s singular purpose and you need to introduce other variables to be a measure of difficulty.

Ari Kantola wrote:Moi Nalle!! Do you think you will ever bring your badassery to big walls, or the alpine environment? Kippis!!!

Moi! I’ve done my fare share of alpine climbing in the last years and I really enjoy it! Definitely will be doing more in the future!

evan h wrote:Nalle, You've clearly put a great deal of effort into sending many of the hardest boulder problems on the planet. The same goes for many of the sport's greatest athletes; the vast amount of time and effort put into single projects. Do you think the method of long-term projecting is best suited for the elite and those wishing to push the boundaries of the sport, or does it have a place in lower levels of climbing? In other words, did you progress by doing many short-term projects, or have you always gravitated towards goals at or beyond your current physical/mental limit? Congrats on V17!

Good question. I would say both is better. You always make the biggest gains with the biggest investment, but if there is an option of taking many small steps to cover a big step, that’s often the most efficient way. Sometimes going the little steps route won't get you there. Make sense?

Aleks Zebastian wrote:climbing friend, how do you develop your crushing strength? if you do training of fingerboard, do you find max crushing single hangs superior or submaximal sets of repeaters?

I believe the best training for anything in the world is doing the thing itself. As a professional rock climber I’m able to travel year round and go rock climbing every day, so what people would call “training” is something I rarely do lately. When I was living more permanently in Finland I was big on training but it always varies greatly depending on what I was specifically training for. Maximal reps are very helpful if maximal bouldering strength is what you’re after.