Sand skiing in Jiehtájohka

TBD ...

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

The search for Toskaljärvi area caves: peek into every hole

TBD ...

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 and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Toskaljärvi swims

Hiking 10-15 km per day... being bitten by mosquitos day and night... it was clear that a swim would be not only refreshing but required. The only downside was that it was pretty cold, the river (partially flowing from an underground river, possibly a cave) was only 9 degrees. The lake was like a hot tub, though, at 14 degrees :-)

Such as wonderful swims, such an incredibly beautiful place to swim at.

I took at least a bath (standing in the river and splashing water on my) or a swim every day, in fact. Since I was short on carrying too many supplies for this 6-day trip, my backpack weighing only 17 kilos with all the equipment, it also offered me a chance to wash my clothes every day, so that day after they might be dry and fresh to be worn again.

We were at Toskaljärvi, far out beyond civilization, it would be a 40km hike here from the nearest road. Although we did take a helicopter ride for our first leg, then hiked 10km to Toskaljärvi.

Here are the coordinates for Toskaljärvi itself: N 69.196475 E 21.442531.

And the river swimming place is at: N 69.199993 E 21.441703. This river unfortunately has no name.

River swimming place. It is shallow though, so you can lie down, or splash yourself...

On the last nights we also enjoyed some shots of Whiskey (Latitude 55) that Duncan had brought. Very nice!

The author, in the mosquito land after the fresh swim:

Last year we visited a nearby lake, Njiellalanjávri. See the swimming article for that.

For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

The useful pillow trick

Kimmo taught me a very nice travel and hiking trip. It turns out that if you get a box wine, you can drink the contents (this is the useful part) and then reuse the plastic bag inside the cardboard box as a pillow. It is easy to blow up, has already a valve installed. And most importantly, it is just the right size for a nice neck support while resting on rock somewhere hiking, during the night (inflated maybe a bit less), or on an airplane (you may need to drink it before the flight). Thank you Kimmo!

We were in the Pitsköngäs waterfalls for the above shot. Resting on a boulder. 

Pitsusköngäs is the highest free-fall waterfall in Finland, 17 meters high. Doesn't sound that high, but it is very impressive. It is however in the middle of nowhere. 

We were on our way somewhere else, but our first leg to get here was by helicopter (Heliflite). Quite a ride, coming in the weather was quite marginal. See my other article about the waterfall for the flight video.

For more flying stories, check out the planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

The Pitsusköngäs waterfall cave

Last month Duncan, Jarmo, Kimmo and me did a cave exploration trip to the Käsivarsi wilderness area. Peeking into every hole we could see, combing through areas of limestone, etc. The most memorable for me was the Pitsusköngäs (Bihčosgorži) waterfalls, highest in Finland at 17m free fall. And there was some space underneath, maybe 10x6-8x8m. Can we classify that as a cave?

Otherwise, we saw a lot of interesting things, but were unable to find anything large. The possibility of a large cave underneath the mountains is still there, given that we have identified a large resurgence (that we can't get to, it is under large boulders) and a large lake that drops 7cm/day without an outflow river. But we did see many tiny holes, even few small caves. 

In the barren landscape high up north there are no trees, and it is difficult to judge distances or sizes, we often got disappointed about things we thought might actually be large cave openings but turned out to be small ones. More about the small caves and non-caves we found in this article.

We got to the area first by helicopter, saving maybe three days one way; the trip would not have been possible without this. Coming in, the flying weather might have been a bit marginal though :-) 

We hiked from the designated landing site though to where we were going, and every day on side trips, I did close to 70 km in six days. 

See the video here:

We also saw snow. I had dragged my mini-skis *except* of course on the side trip that we unexpectedly found the snow. Fortunately, after coming back we found some sand dune to do my August turn(s) on. See the separate article.

It was also a lot of fun the do some swimming in the untouched and cold rivers and lakes in the area, also discussed in a separate article.

The Pitsusköngäs waterfall is extensively discussed in the waterfalls page here, and also a bit in Wikipedia. Note that the name is sometimes written also Pihtsusköngäs. And Bihčosgorži is the native's  Sámi language name. Perhaps we should use that name actually! Use southern people are just visitors here.

The waterfall coordinates are N 69.2004987 E 21.2784136.

Here's the waterfalls from downriver. On the left you see the black hole.

And from the other side, when I'm standing on the edge:

The path to the cave looked *very* unnerving:

And here are the pictures from the hole itself:

At the bottom of the cave, there's a small crack, growing green moss. It also seems to continue a bit on both of its ends.

Here we cross the rapids to get to the other side. We were camping on the helicopter pick-up side of the river. I think there would have a better crossing downriver but not nearby. We were able to jump on rocks for two thirds of the river, but in two places we had to step to the water. It was the last evening before the pickup, so getting our boots and pants wet was not a huge concern. This first water spot was not super deep, a bit further I went in beyond knees. The flow was pretty strong, but doable still easily even for a firsts-time river crosser like me :-)

Here Duncan is walking towards the path to go down to the cave. 

There were also at least two smaller side caves that we did not visit. On the helicopter pick-up side (east side), high up on the side wall of the canyon there's this hole, the dark area left of Duncan's hand:

Then on the west side, the same side that the bigger cave is on, there's a hole visible from the big cave towards the water. Not sure how big it is, could possibly also continue under the waterfall:

On the west side of the Pitsus river, by the waterfall, there's a stone statue:

More views:

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 and text (c) 2024 by Jari Arkko, Duncan Simey, Kimmo Suomalainen and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved.