This article has also appeared in TGR. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.
Crystal Caves here, there, everywhere! I had an uncanny feeling that I've been before to a Crystal Cave, but hey, everybody's entitled to have a crystal cave, no? And this everybody isn't just anybody, it is somebody. Jabba the Hutt, to be precise!
Crystal cave is a nice, spectacular and friendlily run show cave in Pennsylvania, about an hour and twenty minutes drive northeast from Philadelphia (see the google maps link). Their website is here, and the Wikipedia article has some more information. Admission on a tour is 19$.
Other Crystal Caves can be found from the Wikipedia list, as well as the one in California was described in my earlier article.
Jabba's body seems to have some medical issues:
And yet another view of Jabba the Hutt:
Here are some funny signs from the cave:
Main cave hall views:
And more beautiful cave forms:
The house outside the cave:
Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos, videos, models, maps, and text (c) 2021-2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
Why look for limestone caves and stalactites, when in Finland you can find moss-stalactites? And besides stalactites, the Kipontien luola (cave of the scoop road) is an exceptionally nice experience. Most Finnish caves are cracks on a cliff or space under boulders. But Kipontie is a hole in the ground, on a more or less level surface, even if inside you can see that it is made up of cracks and boulders. But it is dark, it is tight, actually make that very tight, and downright claustrophobia inducing hell hole. Just like caves should be!
Oddly enough, there hasn't been that much stories about this cave, I have not been there even if it is close to my summer cottage, nothing in Retkipaikka that I can find, and I have not heard about it in the Finnish Caving Association's discussions. In my mind this cave is such a challenging caving experience, dark, and long enough to warrant being compared to Turku's Luolavuoren luola (cave of the cave hill :-) ) or Finland's major karst cave, Torholan luola (cave of Torhola) in Lohja.
But yay, a few years ago Seikkailun lumous made a map of this cave [1]. Very nice! That map is further down in this article, but I used my 3D phone scanner to construct a new map. It is not easy to get a high-quality scan in very tight places, but I managed to get enough to run the model through my map generator, and got this:
Based on the model, I also calculated that the cave is about 35 meters long, all parts considered. There's also cross sections in my map, such as this one about the Kuoppa (hole) in where the left passage of the cave goes down through a tight spot:
To make the model, we did crawl as far as one can to the cave, although I did not go to the Salainen alahuone (secret lower room) on the left side passage, the entrance to the room was too scary and tight. But my son did, so the 3D model is relatively complete.
The full map in PDF is here. The 3D model can be downloaded here or rotated on your screen here.
The cave is in Orivesi, and about 45 minutes drive from Tampere. The coordinates are N 61.685539 E 24.257283.
Here's by the way the Seikkailun lumous map, made by hand from measurements. I can't fully explain the difference to my map. I should note that the 3D scanner and softwares are quite experimental, and often seem to make mistakes or produce shadow results. But I also think that we covered bigger part of the cave. It is possible that some of the side passages either in the below map or our map are also errors. And since I have to for now construct the 3D model in parts, I can easily introduce alignment errors where the cave parts are not in the right angle against each other.
More pictures, first about the entrance:
References:
[1] Seikkailun lumous. Kipontien luola. Suomen luolaseura. Luolaseura.fi.
This article has also appeared in TGR. Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. The Cave Outliner software is open source and available on GitHub. Photos, videos, models, maps, and text (c) 2022 by Jari and Janne Arkko. The Seikkailun lumous map is obviously from Seikkailun lumous and Suomen luolaseura. All rights reserved.
Schraubenfallhöhle is a cave, an underground river. It starts from one raging waterfall of the Tuxbach dropping into a wide hole in the ground, and emerges a bit later to start another waterfall. It is located by the end of the Hintertux valley, right by the lowest lift station taking people up to the Hintertux glacier.
You can read more about this cave (in German) from this research article, "Die Klamm des Tuxbaches bei Hintertux (Tirol) und das Alter der Schraubenfallhöhle", appeared in Die Höhle in 1967, issue 018. The article is by Hubert Trimmel.
Entering the cave is impossible, as it is maybe fifty meters down in a deep gorge. I'm not sure if the cave is otherwise visitable, perhaps during dry seasons and when not much meltwater is coming down from the mountains. The article referred to above seems to describe what's inside the cave, so people have been there.
I was therefore not in the main cave, but visited a couple of tiny caves on the side, though Austrians would probably not call these caves at all. Just a few meters long, enough space for one person. The first side cave map is here, a rotatable 3D model here, and the model can be downloaded here. The second side cave map is here, a rotatable 3D model here, and the model can be downloaded here.
Video:
Views from the top waterfall falling into the cave:
Marble at the bottom waterfall:
Side cave 1:
Side cave 2:
Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. The Cave Outliner software is open source and available on GitHub. Photos, videos, models, maps, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.
We went for a short caving trip in Vantaa... visiting our old friend Kalkkikallion ketunluola. It is still a great small cave, dark and tight. But one of the other caves, Kalkkikallion matalan katon luola (the low roof cave) was even more interesting. I had been there before, and didn't want to go through between the two entrances. Now I tried again... and still didn't want to go through. The cave gets progressively lower between two rock layers, and just before exit it is less than 20 cm... maybe someone else wants to try?
The above picture is about me trying, but I did give up.
I did generate a 3D model and a new map of the main ketunluola, however. See the PDF and the model on your browser, or download the model here.
There's also a third cave in the area, the Kalkkikallion nuotiopaikan luola (fire pit cave). But as we walked around, I realized that there was even a fourth cave, one with a very large flat boulder covering an area. Lets call it the Kalkkikallion kivikatoksen luola or rock roof cave. Here's a picture
The caves are in these locations:
Read more urban exploration stories from theurbanexplorer.net, and other underground stories from planetcaver.net. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. The Cave Outliner software is open source and available on GitHub. Photos, videos, models, maps, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko and Janne Arkko. All rights reserved.
