What a wonderful experience - forced to not not have in-person meetings, all kinds of organizations are realising that their meetings *can* be done over network connections, and that the results are often better. We just had a caver's meet-up in Finland, and we chatted longer -- six hours -- than we ever have and had many more people participate than before.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None, Social)
My best caving light broke down last week on a nightly skiing excursion. I measured it and determined that the likely culprit was broken battery. Today the mail delivered a spare battery, and I installed and voilá, the light works again! Happy about not having to look for a new light.
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April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (Equipment)
Still in quarantine! So, I'm hiking in a forgotten forest in Kirkkonummi. And found two caves that aren't listed in any of the cave books. One roof cave, visited by climbers for the overhang. But the other one I liked a lot. It is small, but much cave-like, dark, and with a very tight entrance :-)
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April 2020, Goddarsbölebergenin lippaluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin luola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin kolmiokolo, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 1, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 2, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic, Surveying)
Jukka performed a search on cave references from the database of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities during our recent virtual meet-up. He came up with a reference to a potentia cave in Espoo that none of us had heard about. Yesterday I went to look for it...
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April 2020, Johannesbergetin halkeamalaluola, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 1, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 2, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin siirtolohkareen alusluola 1, Espoo, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic)
I have now put up all my Finnish cave maps at the Planetcaver site. There's maps for 34 different caves, almost all of which are in the Kirkkonummi area. A few maps are in the works.
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March 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None)
While skiing on the rainy Titlis, I saw a crack cave by the slopes, and also visited an ice cave for tourists.
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February 2020, Titlis ice cave, Engelberg, Switzerland
Caving (Glacier, Basic, Showtour)
What a shitty bunker! Literally.
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February 2020, Abandoned bunker, Mount Hermon, Israel
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)
As we returned from the skiing in Israel, I wanted to stop at a cave in Israel. Most of the show caves are closed in the winter, but there should be enough natural caves to visit, right? Not so... we failed to enter the ones we found for various reasons.
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February 2020, Пещера, Tiberias, Israel
Caving (None)
Massive cities carved inside rock towers. Luxury hotels carved inside cliffs. Sometimes a bad weather closure day can lead to interesting other things. I'm glad we got to visit Cappadocia, Turkey.
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February 2020, Göreme Open Air Museum, Göreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
Caving (Rock, Man-Made)
While skiing off the Gamsleiten 2 ski lift in Obertauern, we spotted a potential small cave. It was outside the pistes on a steep slope, but I skied to investigate. And found what would in Finland be classified as a cave: 2-3 meter long roof cave on a cliff. But not in Austria...
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January 2020, Small cave, Obertauern, Austria
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Caving (Rock, Basic)
I was in Vienna already in 2018, but for 2020 Janne and I toured the Vienna museums befor e heading to the ski resorts in Austrian alps. This allowed a new visit to Haus des Meeres, the refurbished bunker-turned-into-and-aquarium, and visits to three other bunkers.
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January 2020, Haus des Meeres, Esterhazypark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Stiftskaserne, Vienna, Austria; Feuerleit Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers, Military); Caving (Man-Made)
Kettils Grotta (Kettil's cave) near the Rosersbergs Castle for an evening hike in the darkness and rain.
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January 2020, Kettils Grotta, Rosersbergs Slott, Stockholm, Sweden
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic)
It feels like I'm destined to find closed caves during the winter period. This time I wanted to visit the Vela Spila cave, an archaeologic cave site near Vela Luka, on the island of Korčula in the Croatian archipelago. But, it was closed. Figures.
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January 2020, Vela Spila, Vela Luka, Korcula, Croatia
Caving (Rock, Basic)
Google maps promised that it would be open. And it took hours for me to get there. But, no, in the winter season there's no one at the Vrnjača špiljar or the Vranjaca cave, and the gates are closed. What a disappointment!
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January 2020, Vrnjača špilja, Kotlenice, Croatia
Caving (Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst, Basic)
This seemed like a good time of the year to go explore the start of Nobel industries in Vinterviken. Bunkers, tunnels, testing grounds, and simple factory buildings.
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December 2019, Nobel blasting tunnels, Vinterviken, Stockholm, Sweden
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels, Historic); Caving (Man-Made)
We have a new Finnish cave squeezing record! At the "little xmas party" of the caving association, Jukka Palm and Mike Kushy both pushed through the squeeze box at just 166 millimeters. And I can't even get my fat head fit inside that distance, let alone other body parts! :-)
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(TGR version)
(Suomenkielinen versio)
November 2019, Kangasala, Finland
Caving (None, Man-Made)