The Pihlajamäki crag consists of several prominent, south-west facing cliffs. The area is particularly suitable for outdoor novices due to good landings and easily readable routes. There are also some more challenging routes for more experienced climbers. Between the climbs, Pihlajamäki offers good views over the nearby landscape, which are best enjoyed during the evening.
Pihlajanmäki is exposed to sun and on warm days the rock turns slippery. The views also attract youth, producing unfortunate side-effect of broken glass and graffiti at climbing spots. Fortunately, many visitors have taken a habit of cleaning the place while resting, and most devoted have even taken the time and effort to clean away the graffiti.
Pihalajmäki used to be an old granite quarry. This resulted in most of the sectors' unique, unnatural and nearly perfectly vertical nature. Some sectors have not been touched at all by quarrying efforts, leading to more natural climbing.
Pihlajamäki has seen climbing for tens of years, even from the time of M. Jokinen, who drew the original topo for the crag. The seemingly endless amount of rock faces suitable for climbing made Pihlajamäki a boulderers playground, and was thus noticed very early in Finland's bouldering history. Because of the amount of rock faces, new FA's keep popping up, as recently as 2024.
Pihlajamäki also holds one of Finland's "first in the grade" problems, Ku Krux Klan 7A. You can check the video talking about the subject here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AQrySwMT6gY
