Article on new cave bear find

The BBC has published a long article about a new cave bear discovery in the Italian Dolomites. It’s a good piece—complete with a map of the cave and photographs—and well worth a read.

The discovery comes from a previously unknown cave, which is now situated in the middle of a rock face; presumably, it must have been more accessible in the past.

You can find the article here.

The find concerns the subspecies (or species) *Ursus spelaeus ladinicus*. Other members of the cave bear group include—if I’m not mistaken—*Ursus deningeri*, *Ursus spelaeus*, *Ursus ingressus*, *Ursus spelaeus eremus*, *Ursus rossicus*, *Ursus kudarensis*, and possibly others. Perhaps someone with more expertise could explain how these are related, which ones replaced others, or whether they inhabited different geographical regions... A quick search didn't yield a good overview article on the group as a whole.

(That said, this *Nature* article does sequence DNA from various cave bear finds and discusses the group and its diversity to some extent. It also speculates—based at least on a temporal coincidence—about a link between the decline of cave bear populations and the arrival of modern humans. This is another piece that probably deserves a careful read: link.)

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. The opening photo (c) by BBC. Text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Montana Snowcenter in The Netherlands

August was ending, and I had not done my monthly "turns all year" skiing yet this month. And now Lufthansa had a major failure (as they every second flight I take with them ...) This wrecked my plan to ski in two indoor ski halls in The Netherlands. But, I managed to still make it (barely) in time to the Montana Snowcenter and back to the airport. August - Check!

And no, Montana Snowcenter is obviously not in Montana. They are in Kempervennen, Westerhoven, Netherlands. Couple of hours from the Schiphol airport by car.

It is a wonderful, ski-club feeling. Lots of kids practicing skiing or training for racing. And then me.

There's also a nice restaurant with views over the slopes, an outdoor terrace.. and the center is right next to a holiday park, sports complexes, and a water park. Well done, Netherlands! And this is by far not the only indoor ski place in the country. There's plenty! 

See the center's home page here.

The Lufthansa failure was a technical problem on the evening's last flight from Frankfurt to Amsterdam, which they tried first to fix by resetting the equipment, then two attempts to fix by maintenance crew, and ultimately we were doomed by Schiphol not accepting us to be few minutes over their evening curfew time. In Lufthansa's defense, they put us to hotels and also paid the 250€ EU compensation. But, as noted Lufthansa has a far too high likelihood of having these kinds of problems in my experience. And, they refused to refund my nice spa hotel at the Amsterdam, my failed rental car booking, or the other ski center's ticket which they didn't refund. Sigh.

And all this caused a problem for my skiing because I had only few hours left in Amsterdam before my next flight back home would leave. And I couldn't move that because I had a work appointment coming up. On the good news side, the flight home from Amsterdam was on Finnair's A350, and I managed to get an upgrade on vouchers that I get every year. Very nice service!

Skiing:

Flight home:

This article has also been published at Planetskier.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Airport services... morgue???

Schiphol is a massive, sprawling airport. They all have all kinds of services... but morgue???

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Earth Pulse, Retretti 2026

Retretti is a legendary Finnish art museum in Punkaharju, the beautiful lake area in eastern Finland. Retretti's main specialty is that the art is displayed in underground tunnels. And now they had a show depicting northern lights...

Retretti started out as an art studio and a restaurant, but in the 1980s they expanded by building a set of underground tunnels inside a rocky hill. It has been very popular, a household name in tourist destinations to visit in the country. In the 2000s, however, they've been in financial trouble and for some years in bankruptcy and not open. 

In 2026, with the help of Savolinna city they've reopened at least for this year's summer, to attract more tourists. They've run the Maan Pulssi (Earth Pulse) immersive light show by Marko Pulkkinen. The show consists of a light show on a theater followed by free roaming around the tunnels while the light show continues on the rocky walls and ponds of water in the tunnel. The message of the show was that the connection between the earth, nature, and ourselves still exists, if we care to listen to it.

I have to say it was a spectacular show! I hope Retretti continues next year as well. They did extend the show beyond the summer, covering September as well. I think that was a good sign, everyone I talked enjoyed the show like I did.

Retretti is at N 61.8040 E 29.2901 and their home page is here. This summer's show tickets were 15€ and it took about an hour. You'll need to reserve beforehand, most likely.

More about Retretti's history can be found in Wikipedia.

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Korpilampi spa & forest lake swim

The main Finnish newspaper, Helsingin Sanomat, recently ran an article reviewing Helsinki area hotel spas that can be accessed by visitors as well as hotel guests. This article was like made for me! I learned about many interesting spas that I will have to visit, despite trying to do the same research myself earlier. My first target from the list was the Korpilampi hotel spa.

Korpilampi is, as its name in Finnish implies, a hotel by a forest lake in the middle of nowhere. I had never been here, though I knew it existed. I didn't even know they had a spa, let alone that you could swim the lake. I did know about the nearby ski hill, Serena Ski, and the massive (but a bit crazy) spa, Serena Waterpark.

But the Helsingin Sanomat article (subscription required, sorry) made me realize the hotel was also worth a visit.

Much more so than I thought before actually getting there! The hotel itself is quite interesting, white building rising out of the forest hill, very nicely fitting to the environment still. The saunas and the spa are in the basement, the saunas and the basement are nothing to write home about, but the pool are is nice with views of the forest and the small lake. 

But what really brings this experience to a different level -- not easily found anywhere else in the Helsinki region hotels -- is the lake. Step out from a door in the glass walls surrounding the pool, and you're immediately on a small terrance and surrounded by the lake. And there you can step on to the water via steps, summer *and* winter. Yes, there's ice swimming here, too.

But what makes this particularly special is the how well the building is placed in the lake. The lake itself is a sprawling, complex shape, and hotel building knees right on its level by having the basement come to just above the lake level. And the lake is not on a flat land, but rather squeezed between the rocky hills surrounding the area. While the lake is actually medium size, the hotel spa overlooks just one corner of it that feels like a small pond. 

You are surrounded by the the rocky hills, untouched forest, and you can dip into the dark water of the lake, above you is the white classic building.

Bliss.

9.5 degrees. And getting colder.

The hotel's home page is here. Entrance for visiting guests is 15€. They are by the way open late, until 22:00, so this is a good option for me to go for a swim when other places have already closed.

This by the way was the last day of my swim-every-day-challenge (article, alt. link), as I was feeling a bit under the weather the next day. It was a great ending to a long run of swims, very happy I did this.

More photos:

This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, urban exploration articles at theurbanexplorer.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. Lake and sauna photos in this article were taken when the facility was empty or closed.

Plaža Kašjuni swim

Plaža Kašjuni is a beach on the Marjan peninsula and park, west of the city center of Split, Croatia, I think the furthest out swimming place that there is on Marjan. 

The beach area is long and well protected; there's some tree cover, too, for shade. And a very nice bar. 

Traffic is challenging, good luck finding parking. But taxis work, and I think there's also a bus.

Coordinates: N 43.5056 E 16.4007. More information here.

This article has also been published at Planetswimmer.com here. Read the full series of sauna and swimming stories from planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool, urban exploration articles at theurbanexplorer.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. These articles do not have pictures of swimmers, and are generally taken when the location is empty, or any swimmers are far away and not visible in detail.

Indoors skiing in Norway

Yet another run at Snø, one of the world's best indoor ski resorts in Oslo, Norway. I think this is my third time here.

Wonderful as ever.

There's the nordic tracks on raised pathways by the roof, there's the long, long ski slope, there's the jumping area, there's the chairlift... wonderful lounge, rental, and other facilities and a hotel above us. Some restaurants, too, though I was busy to get to the cave on this day trip, so did not have time to try anything else than the toast from the fast food stand.

If there's anything to complain, it is that the racing teams like this too much. There was a kid training session on most of the usually open slope, and of course the national teams from Sweden, Norway, Austria, UK (I think), and some other places had already taken half of the area. So there wasn't more than a narrow regular run left for the rest of us. And by rest of us I mean me and maybe 1-2 other people :-) So it was fair. Plus there was the boxes and rails snowboard area, which was fun to ski as well, and was not closed off.

Much recommended.

This time I tried to book the ice climbing as well, but they didn't have any slots available for the day. Maybe next time.

This article has also been published at Planetskier.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Drachenhöhle

Often caves are difficult to access, blocked or gate, or you just don't know about them. Drachenhöhle near Zürich is, however, both well known and easy to access. It is not big, but has very interesting shapes and well worth the visit!

Here's is the interesting shape. What do you make of it?

Drachenhöhle is in Küsnacht, on the southeastern outskirts of Zürich. The coordinates are N 47.325661 E 8.608386. It is located in the hilly forests of Der Küsnachter Marroniwald, a park. It is maybe ten or twenty meters uphill on the valley side, above a small river.

The cave opens with two eyes starting at you, separated by a big "nose". The left eye is a small cave, the main cave is behind the right eye. There's a connection between the two behind the nose, but it didn't look big enough for a human to pass through (to me).

Caves behind both eyes are walkable and easy. But from the right eye to the right there's a narrow tunnel than continues upwards. That's a lot of fun to crawl through. Though, as I was coming straight from a conference my clothing wasn't really meant for crawling on my stomach. Fortunately I managed to clean myself enough to be accepted for the taxi ride back to the hotel....

My measurements say the main line is 12 meters long, and the narrow side tunnel to the right is 4.5 meters, so 16.5 meters total length. In addition there's indeed a tiny hole the the left cave, but I left it unaccounted for th length, as I wasn't sure it was passable. And there's an unconnected side cave on the far left and above the narrow side tunnel to the right.

I made a scan of the cave with my iPhone 14 Pro (new model with more memory, albeit bought used). The 3D model can be loaded here, viewed here on your browser screen, and the full high-resolution map is here. Below are some excerpts, starting with the plan view (horizontal) map, a vertical cross section of the main line to the cave, and a screenshot of the model:

Photos:

There were three holes total, the above pictures are all about the biggest one. Facing the cave, the biggest one is on the center. To the left is the second hole:

And the third hole is to the right and up a bit:

The hike to the cave is through a park. Clouds were beautiful on my hike:

This article has also been published at Planetcaver.net here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.