How much fun can you pack into one birthday trip? I started with a drink ... non-alcoholic, of course. And then things starting going faster after that: a sauna at the Oberstegen, continued with skiing on the Hintertux Glacier, went for a SUP paddling tour in an ice cave river under that glacier, and ended up climbing to the Grafenloch and Rossstall caves, and doing a 3D model of them. Not bad, and that was just the first day! Maybe for my next birthday I'll try to come with an active program.
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September 2021, Hintertux, Zillertal, Austria; Hintertuxer Gletscher Eispalast, Hintertux, Zillertal, Austria; Grafenloch, Oberaudorf, Germany; Rossstall, Oberaudorf, Germany; Gasthof Oberstegen, Stockach, Söll, Austria; Gasthof Oberstegen, Stockach, Söll, Austria
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Caving (Basic, Boating, Surveying, Ice); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Surveying); Hiking; Sauna (Normal, Infrared); Travel
https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Nt6U1SyJuMM/YU_zjznDQtI/AAAAAAAB3IE/zYG_FKdnSzQMROyxAHecCKvT1vuQICn5ACLcBGAsYHQ/s2048/blog964_cover.jpg
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September 2021, Högberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Surveying, Researching, Equipment, Media)
I had been to Eispalast before. It is an ice cave that tourists can visit, 30 meters under glacier, near the top of the Gefrorene Wand mountain in Hintertux, Austria. But when I saw they had an option for trying SUP boarding on the river or lake in the ice cave, I knew I had to go again.
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September 2021, Hintertuxer Gletscher Eispalast, Hintertux, Zillertal, Austria
Caving (Basic, Ice, Boating, Surveying)
Zmajeva Pećina, "Dragon's Cave" is a small hermitage on the south shores of the Brač island in Croatia. The cave is only 20 meters long, but is a fascinating visit, both because is such as fascinating view, high cave on a high hill, and also because my guide Zoran knows so much about the history of the place. This is a cave that houses a monastery. Or housed, it is in ruins. Very interesting!
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August 2021, Zmajeva Pecina, Murvica, Croatia
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Karst); Urban-Exploration (Ruins)
Such a nice hike. If it weren't for the missing piece of the path, at least. But I finally made it to the Tischofer Höhle, a cave in Kaisertal, near Kufstein, Austria. What a wonderful cave, easy to visit if one picks the right path to get there. And despite being only 40 meters long it is a large cavern, with a large opening and large hall inside.
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August 2021, Tischofer Höhle, Kaisertal, Kufstein, Austria; Hyänen Höhle, Kaisertal, Kufstein, Austria
Caving (Rock, Basic, Surveying, Rock-Limestone); Hiking
New signs lead visitors to the right place! Well done, Ratsutila Wikner!
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July 2021, Högberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Equipment, Morphology-Erosion)
Biševo is a small island in the Adriatic Sea archipelago, in Croatia. It is just off the larger island Vis. Under the sea front cliffs of this island there's Modra špilja or the Blue Grotto. A cave in the limestone rock, lit inside entirely blue by sunlight filtering through the underwater entrance. This cave has been called the world's most beautiful cave. Obviously a category with a lot of competition and different criteria could be applied. But, I don't think the claim is outrageous. It is remarkable.
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July 2021, Blue Grotto, Biševo, Croatia
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Morphology-Erosion)
Kari Vierinen organizes nature appreciation walks in Siuntio, and he called me to join their walk to the Solamäki caves in Siuntio. It was a very nice experience, particularly with the new information about paintings in the cave that Kari was able to tell us about.
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June 2021, Solamäen luola, Siuntio, Finland; Solamäen luolan halkeamasivuluola, Siuntio, Finland; Solamäen siirtolohkareluola, Siuntio, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders, Morphology-Crack); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders)
Last winter I explored the far reaches of the Kattilajärvi on snow shoes, and found several new small caves. But also ran out of time to explore them further, and the heavy snow cover didn't make it easy to explore the boulder caves. I wanted to return during the summer, and now Jarmo and I hiked around the Lippukallio are east of Kattilajärvi. And wow, many new small caves, and we realized one of the boulder caves I had seen in the winter was actually quite big. Three levels, complex maze, shaky moving boulders... nice!
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June 2021, Lippukallion lippaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion lohkareluola 1, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion lohkareluola 2, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion minilippaluolanen, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion halkeamakololuolanen, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion kiipeilyhalkeamaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion pieni lohkarehalkeamaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion kallionsisuksen halkeamaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion halkeaman päätykololuolanen, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion rapautumislippaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Surveying, Rock-Gneiss)
Earlier this week I visited the caver's camp in Lummelunda in Gotland. What a wonderful event, happy to be able to go there again! One of things I did was to see if I could build a 3D model of the cave using LiDAR in the newest iPhones. I was able to start the project at least, here are some early results of the 450 meters or so that I modelled.
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June 2021, Lummelunda, Gotland, Sweden
Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Equipment, Surveying)
I was originally going to explore bigger caves in Nuuksio this weekend with Jarmo, but I forgot that I was dogsitting Olli's dog while they were moving. I couldn't take the dog to long hike and boulder fields, so ended up doing nice walks in the seafront during the weekend. One of those walks to go see the Saunalahti hole, a small crystallization hole in an otherwise solid ground rock.
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May 2021, Saunalahden onkalo, Espoo, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, Morphology-Crystallization, Rock-Gneiss)
While visiting (again) the secret Margarine factory tunnel, I came across a small boulder cavelet in Herttoniemi.
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May 2021, Herttoniemen kivenalus, Helsinki, Finland
Caving (Basic, Morphology-Boulders, Rock, Rock-Gneiss)
A while ago, Bo Lenander asked a question in the Swedish Caver's Association if avalanche transceivers could be used as cave location beacons. As I have such transceivers, I started looking into this...
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May 2021, Torholan luola, Lohja, Finland
Caving (Basic, Surveying, Rock, Rock-Limestone, Equipment)
Digitalisation of caves is proceeding! :-) I now have the first model from a bit larger cave, the Torhola cave in Lohja, southern Finland. This cave is Finland's largest karst cave, with around 100 meters of complex tunnels on 3-4 levels.
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May 2021, Torholan luola, Lohja, Finland
Caving (Surveying, Researching, Equipment, Basic, Rock, Rock-Limestone)
I've been trying constructing 3D models from few caves with the LiDAR sensors in iPhone. While I've been able to rotate these models on screen easily, I also wanted to see whether I could construct more traditional maps from these models. But it has been a big learning curve to use the 3D modelling software. Today, with the help of Olli, I finally managed to make my first cross section of a cave model in Blender.
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April 2021, Pääluola, Rokokallio, Vihti, Finland
Caving (Surveying, Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders)
The evening's excursion was to Lohja's Karstu area, in search of caves. The Linnanmäki is a high hill and cliff in Karstu, and the book Suomen Luolat notes that there are two caves on the hill. One was supposed to be inaccessible without climbing equipment. But as usual, the coordinates were inaccurate, so I ended up going around the entire hill, and I think found the other cave plus four other small roof/shelter caves.
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March 2021, Karstun Linnanmäen luola 1, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen luola 2, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen luola 3, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen luola 4, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen luola 5, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen luola 6, Lohja, Finland; Karstun Linnanmäen louhos, Lohja, Finland
Caving (Basic, Rock, None); Caving (Basic, Surveying, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Erosion); Caving (Basic, Surveying, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack); Urban-Exploration (Quarries)