This is an exceptional crag by Finnish standards. Overhanging sport climbing with big jugs and huge pockets. The only downside is the height of the crag being on the low side at 10-12 meters or so.
Tussinkoski can be wet for few days after rain. In winter there is an icefall in the middle of the crag.
After you're done with climbing, the river itself is well worth a visit. The river can be found 5 minutes upstream. It's where the water drops 10 meters of height within 80 meters of rocky terrain. People used to take "dusch" here, hence the name Tussinkoski (dusch-river).
The name of the cliff itself, Reimankallio, is in honour to Vilho Reima (1867–1948) who as a member of the Finnish parliament introduced the Mother's Day habit to Finland in 1918. He lived big part of his life in Korso and founded (among many other schools) the Korso Elementary School. He was a very keen spokesman for temperance and education.
The climbing in Tussinkoski begun in the late 80's by Paavo Saarela and Jani Järvelä. They had visited the cliff as kids living in Korso and decided to check what was under the turf in later years once they had learned to climb properly. Thus, they cleaned the face and placed the first bolts by hand in 1989.
Later many climbers of the era visited the place. Most of the climbs were protected by toprope but some routes were also led or soloed. The history of the early era is rather vague and nobody knows who did what first. Also the Kerava crew was active in the area in the early 90's
In 1997 and 1998 Toby Archer, Vesa Kautto, Toni Leskelä, Teppo Saarenpää and Jody Wren also found the place and led many routes. They found the place via Mountainshop topo which was published in 1994. Thus, nobody dared to claim any first ascents.
Since the early days many of the routes got led many times with sparse protection. Friends in pockets, slings and such. This was because of the Vantaa general plan (yleiskaava) which had protected the area in 1983 and, thus, the city officials couldn't allow cleaning nor bolting. There were various request made but the answer was always "no, not possible".
The original paper sketch topo was published in the early 1990's by Mountainshop. Tussinkoski was also printed on the black SKIL book in 2001. In later edition it was removed, though. As 27crags came many people found the place again, made a community topo which was suspended again. Thus it's very difficult to say anything about the first ascents except for the most difficult and most sketchy things.
The sitation changed in 2017 as Tussinkoski become a natural protected area within the Finland 100 project. Thanks to the Finnish Climbing Assiciation being active the climbing was finally allowed along with the fixed protection.
In 2020 Tussinkoski took one step further as Vantaa city officials agreed with the current bolting policy. The routes were bolted for safety reasons and also in order to save the green moss and turf on top of the cliff. Most of the old top rope anchors were renewed and some new routes were added, too. These days Tussinkoski is probably the best sport climbing crag in the capital area for middle-grade climber.
If you wish to lead also the trad routes, a standard rack with nuts and cams is enough but tricams & such exotics might also be handy.
