Squeeze Box Finnish Championships 2019

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! :-)

Here's what the squeezing looks like:

The proud winners, and a signed and certified record of their achievement:

Armas, the official doping sniffer for the contestants:

This article has also been published at Teton Gravity Research (TGR). Tämä artikkeli löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta. See more caving stories at planetcaver.net, and see other articles by the planetskier at Blogspot and TGR! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Caving in Tampere. In a shopping mall.

I don't go caving often, but when I do, I want to do it indoors in a dry, clean environment that is safe for everyone. I have to say that I did not expect much from the caving adventure park at the Tampere shopping mall, but I was blown away by how good this place was. Much recommended!

This is a spectacular place. The caves are in a separate area of the Irti Maasta climbing gym in the Tullintori shopping mall, next to the skyscraper hotels in downtown Tampere. There's a bouldering wall (in darkness, of course) with a set of holes leading to a maze of tunnels. While the tunnels have been made of plastic, they are still quite realistic. And above all, as they are made for children, they are challenging for even able adult cavers. Very challenging!

We also appreciated the water sump feature simulated with a ball pit of white, see-through balls.



12€ for a visit. Much recommended for spicing up your Tampere visits!

This article has also been published at Teton Gravity Research (TGR). Tämä artikkeli löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta. See also the article about the new Finnish cave squeezing record! See more caving stories at planetcaver.net, and see other articles by the planetskier at Blogspot and TGR! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Nobel's blasting tunnels

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.

The tunnels are signposted by Stockholm's Stadsmuseum, but the coordinates are N 59.3106 E 17.9863. They are easy to find and walk around, as long as one finds out that this thing exists there. I've been looking at various Stockholm sights for a long time, but didn't know about this before a month or two. I actually came across this site at Atlas Obscura, a site that often use to find "odd" places to visit. Much recommended!

The history of the innovations from Nobel is quite remarkable, too, full of struggles and sad accidents in addition to the successes. The Swedes probably have read all about it already in school, but for us others these may be worth a read:

• Nobel industries note about Vinterviken
• Wikipedia article about Alfred Nobel 
• Stadsmuseum's sign 
• Winterwiken restaurant history

... and my tour was topped off with a Pytt-i-Panna at a local suburb pub, which seemed appropriately Swedish thing to do:



Lake:



More tunnels:

 Signs:

See more urban exploration and caving stories at theurbanexplorer.net and planetcaver.net, and see other articles by the Planetskier at Blogspot and TGR! Photos and text (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Jimmy Petterson's Skiing Around the World

Today I managed to acquire a copy of Jimmy Petterson's "Skiing Around the World" book, volume II: "Collecting Ski Resorts". Can't wait to read this. Jimmy is the world's most widely travelled skier.

Jimmy wrote also a very nice signed message on the book:

Photos (c) 2019 by Jari Arkko, Tero Kivinen and Phillip Hallam-Baker. All rights reserved. My skiing stories can be found from Blogspot and Teton Gravity Research, as well as of course Planetskier.Net!