Finland's Karperö Lifting Stone
I don't like saying it, but it looks like summer is coming to a close. Looking out the window as I write, I see trees shedding their leaves while the evenings darken and cool. Regardless, it's been a great summer in the world of stonelifting.
Here's your list of topics, feel free to jump to the ones that interest you most:
- The Karperö Lifting Stone
- Stonelifting Sessions updates
- Pudrac plinth restoration fund
- Directory search and filters
- New EMOM timer tool
- Stonelifter Spotlight: Hannah Linzay
- Quick-fire updates
The Karperö Lifting Stone
A couple of weeks ago, I published a bit of an impromptu article for Finland's Karperö Lifting Stone.
Calum Stott reached out asking about a stone he noticed on the liftingstones.org map that I added late last year – he was curious about lifting stones in Finland and wanted to know more.
Calum went on to contact the youth center that looks after the Karperö Lifting Stone. They shared an old article about the history of the stone written by Bernhard Fransholm which appeared in the book The Village by the Bay II in 1986.
The youth center then kindly gave liftingstones.org permission to republish the article to share it with the world, which was a lovely surprise, so I jumped on it and published it as soon as I could.
Fransholm writes a detailed picture of the stone's history, exploring where the stone may have come from and how people have lifted it through the years – including shouldering, "finger hook" lifting with and metal rod and loop that has since been removed, and a brief mention of lifting it using a strap like a rope.
Stonelifting Sessions updates
I've been overwhelmed by the support for Stonelifting Sessions – the stonelifting training ebook I spent way too long putting together – over the last month or so since publishing it. And I can't thank you enough. Lifters are already using the book to incorporate stonelifting into their training, and it's amazing to see.
After releasing the book, I took a couple of weeks away from it to refresh myself before taking another read through and making a few edits. The newest version, version 1.0.1, is now available. It includes some minor tweaks to a couple of sessions and improves navigation throughout the book with more internal links so you can easily hop around.
Alongside those edits to the book, I've added a new changelog to the site specifically for Stonelifting Sessions changes, so you can see the publication dates for different versions and look at what's changed over time.
If you purchased version 1.0.0, you can download the latest version by using the download link in your original delivery email. Please reach out via email if you have any issues.
In the near future, I'll be contacting readers asking for feedback to help improve the book even more. If you have any feedback at all (major, minor, positive or otherwise), please email me – I want Stonelifting Sessions to become a go-to resource for stonelifting training.
And if you haven't experienced Stonelifting Sessions yet, you can easily incorporate a session into your training next week using the 50 plug-and-play stone workouts.
Pudrac plinth restoration fund
Jamie Gorrian set up a GoFundMe campaign to help fund the restoration of the Pudrac plinth after the large crack appeared (and that has since sadly broken away from the standing stone in a large chunk, as seen in one of Jamie's update posts on Instagram).
The initial goal was to fund the plinth's repair, with any excess funds going towards repairing the Wallace Putting Stone that has been split in half for over six years now.
In under 24 hours, Jamie raised more than enough to repair both the plinth and the putting stone!
The stones are due to be repaired this month. And as part of the plan, the Wallace Putting Stone will move next to the Puterach Stone and Monachyle Stone to ensure its care long into the future.
When I last visited, Lindsay (who owns the land) was incredibly passionate about the lifting stones and especially the Pudrac; we talked for ages about their history and how she gets visitors from all over the world coming to lift and appreciate the stones. So for the stonelifting community to come together and fund the restoration is fantastic to witness.
Since achieving the original goal, Jamie added another goal to help fund a new stone plinth for the Puterach Stone so people can lift it to a stone plinth for years to come.
As of writing, the fund is at £4,214 with the goal set to £5,500. If you haven't donated yet, but would like to, please contribute.
Directory search and filters
There were a few site updates that I made this month, but the best one is the stone directory's new search and filters.
You can now search stones by name, filter by individual countries, filter by historic or contemporary, and filter by whether stones are liftable.
These new filters make it much easier to find stones you're looking for, rather than scanning the whole list of locations. I hope you find it useful!
New EMOM timer tool
Another update to the site this month is a new EMOM timer that you can use to time your Every Minute On the Minute sessions from Stonelifting Sessions (or any other EMOMs).
I was getting a little frustrated trying to keep track of my EMOMs using my phone's standard timer in the clock app, so I built an EMOM timer to handle it for me. Could I have downloaded a dedicated app? Of course, but that's no fun (and probably littered with ads).
Just enter your EMOM's length and hit start – you'll get a 10-second countdown with some simple beeps to alert you when the next minute will begin. There's also a nice progression ring that you can glance at too.
If you use the timer regularly, you can add it to your phone's home screen to make it easily accessible, like an app.
Stonelifter Spotlight: Hannah Linzay
And finally, a spotlight.
Just last month, I highlighted the Húsafell Stone's women lifters and how the vast majority of women lifters achieved the feat in just the last year or so. I went on to say I was looking forward to seeing the first women's lap around the pen.
Well, literally a few days later, Hannah Linzay went to Húsafell and showed the world it could be done. I knew it would happen at some point, but I didn't think someone would achieve it just few days later!
You've probably seen this monumental feat of strength already, but if you haven't, you've been living under a rock. Go and watch it.
I'm not sure I have the words to express how incredibly unreal this feat of strength is – it's truly a historic moment that'll be remembered for a long long time.
Quick-fire updates
- Urs Hutmacher broke the all time distance record with the Unspunnen Stone, achieving a throw of 4.16 meters (13 feet, 7.78 inches), surpassing the 21-year-old record of 4.11 meters (13 feet, 6 inches) from 2004.
- Iceland's Legsteinn was misspelled "Leggstein", so I've updated all references to it across the site.
- I've seen Legsteinn spelled various ways over the years (Leggstein, Legsteinn, Leggsteinn), so I used the spelling used in the Fullsterkur documentary, but it appears that was incorrect.
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