Stanley Park swim in Vancouver

I did an after-meetings walk at the Third Beach in Stanley Park, Vancouver. Very nice area. Dipped into the sea as well.

More information about the Third Beach here. The coordinates are N 49.30418 W 123.15691. 

Do check out also the whole shoreline at Stanley Park, including for instance Elek Imredy's bronze sculpture "Girl in a Wetsuit" on the other side of the peninsula from the Third Beach (link). And check the beautiful Siwash Rock north of the Third Beach as well (link). I also loved the Beaver Lake (swamp) and the forests were absolutely spectacular!

I've previously swam also nearby at English Bay (article, alt. link).

This article has also appeared here. Read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko.

Skiing Volcán de Tequila, Mexico

Mexico. I was in Guadalajara for a meeting... but meetings end, and then what? Where's the skiing? Well, I guess there isn't any. But the best I could do was to find a local mountain, bring some ice, and attempt to ski the ice on top of the mountain on my mini-skis.

Except that it failed. The road was blocked to the top, and there was a massive canyon between where I was and the actual top was. But never mind, let's just ski where we are then.

Not my best skiing experiences. Could possibly be the worst, though. But even the worst skiing is still pretty good. I can't complain, a beautiful mountain, beautiful scenery, warm, new place, skis on my feet, the familiar bring-your-own-ice/snow routine... not bad. Or not too shitty, as we say in Finland.

And the mountain? Volcán de Tequila, near the town of Tequila. 2,920 meters of strength, probably with a worm inside. I wasn't quite at the top of course, but a respectable mountain nevertheless.

I think I was around these coordinates: N 20.805279 W 103.847307.

Video:

Photos:

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2016 by Jari Arkko.

Lubja caves in Tallinn

Viimsi Koobas, or the caves of Viimsi, are a man-made set of tunnels on a cliff face rising near the Vimka - Viimsi Mäepark ski hill. There may be more than one tunnel and the tunnels are supposed to be longer, but I think they have been filled with sand or collapsed, as I was able to find only one about 13 meter long tunnel. Nice visit still, though.

Here is the information sign near the tunnels:

The coordinates to this place are N 59.517783 E 24.839870. It is the village of Lubja, in the region of Vimsi. Just outside city of Tallinn.

Also saw one very frosty bat... poor thing. I wonder if it is OK....

The end of the tunnel:

The entrance:

Side tunnel:

I also made a 3D scan of the tunnels with my iPhone's Lidar function, and then converted it to a cave map using the cave-outliner software (link). Below you can find the map and a screenshot of the 3D model. The high-resolution map PDF is here. The model can be downloaded here (GLB) and rotated on your browser screen here.

See also my other article about the Tallinn visit (alt. link), and in particular the one about the Naage Koopad (alt. link) real caves!

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. 

Naage Koopad, a beautiful Estonian cave with a surprise at the end

Naage Koopad - Naage caves near Tallinn. Very nice cave, with ice forms for added beauty. And what a surprise at the end!

The cave is easily accessible, though you need a car. The coordinates are N 59.408493 E 24.358314.

I also made a 3D scan of the tunnels with my iPhone's LiDAR scanner, and then converted the model to a cave map using the cave-outliner software (link). Below you can find the map and a screenshot of the 3D model. The high-resolution map PDF is here. The model can be downloaded here (GLB) and rotated on your browser screen here.

Here's the entrance to the cave, on a long cliff face:

And these are the ice forms:

And this is the surprise!

And here are the maps and 3D models:

Other pictures:

Other explorations on the day trip to Tallinn were reported in Tallinn visit (alt. 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. Photos and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Purnu

Day trip to Prune ski hill (Hiihtokeskus Purnu), a medium-sized ski hill south of Jyväskylä. Wonderful winter day and light! Trees with snow cover were amazing. It was a great ski mountain too. This was my first trip with the fixed Volvo (article, alt. link), it faired well, no breakages. On the way back I stopped at the Vierumäki sports academy swimming hall, which was also a nice experience. I thought it would have been crowded on a weekend, but by seven pm it was more or less empty. 

It was a cold day at the hill, around -13 degrees, though not much wind. I did a couple of runs and then warmed up for couple of minutes in the fireplace lean-to before continuing, very nice!

At the bottom they have a cafeteria and a rentals shop. The cafeteria has some snacks plus proper meals from a kitchen. By small ski resort standards it was remarkably spacious and nice. They also sell frozen high-quality meat, interestingly...

The vertical is 100 meters (300 feet), which is indeed good in southern-mid Finland. My local hills right in the south are in the 30-60 meter range, for instance. The longest run in Purnu is 750 meters. All the ski runs go over nice rolling hills. One of the slopes right next to the lift  is dedicated to jumps and rails, but can also be skied. Two others were basic rounding-off-from-the-skiers-left slopes, both very nice for fast skiing. The "south" ski run on skier's right was not prepared. I found that a bit odd, and in general I've been running to this a lot recently in different ski resorts. The winter is one of the best ones in recent history, but yet the ski resorts can't prepare all the slopes? I think they should...

I remember Purnu from my childhood mostly from the arts center (Taidekeskus Purnu, Wikipedia). I had not been at the ski resort, however. This visit is my 350th ski resort, in around 70 or so countries.

More information about the Purnu ski hill can be found from their home page here. One hour lift ticket costs 27€ and a day ticket 40€. And more information about the swimming hall in Vierumäki can be found here. A swimming hall visit for adults is 12,50€.

Skiing:

Vierumäki:

Author:

Purnu lift ticket:

Purnu cafeteria:

My previous ski experience was earlier this week at the Flottsbrobacken in Sweden (article, alt.link).

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Or read all swimming stories at planetswimmer.com and sauna articles at saunablogger.cool. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2026 by Jari Arkko.