Sand skiing in Jiehtájohka

On the way back home from the Käsivarsi wilderness area heli-hiking trip, we saw a large sand dune near the Jiehtájohka river as we were driving by. We were about to stop at a restaurant few kilometers away, and fortunately Jarmo and Duncan were game for returning after lunch to check out the dune. And indeed, there was sand, it was steep enough to be skied, and I was able to make a couple of turns on my red mini-skis! Enough to call the month's turns done.

And thanks guys for taking the photos and videos while I skied :-)

But this sudden appearance of a skiable sand dune came after some earlier disappointments. I had my mini skis on the hiking trip. Carried them for tens of kilometers... *Except* of course on the side trip that we unexpectedly found the snow on the north side of a far-away ridge. 

Well, maybe that's just as well. As you can see above, there's a narrow snow patch on a steep ridge. The mini-skis are great for taking them into different places, but they are not the safest skis to make precision turns on treacherous places with sharp boulders to fall onto. 

We also saw snow on the far away mountains while we hiked, and even some snow from the windows of the helicopter, but didn't have time or money to make extra stops.

Finally, we also saw snow in the Olos ski resort (near where we stayed in Särkijärvi). Unfortunately, it was snow stored for the next winter season, covered by thick blankets:

Anyway, despite these disappointments I managed to make my turns in August :-) All hail the sand skiing!

Video:

Jiehtájohka is the Saami name; the Finnish version Hietajoki (sandy river). The dune is in these coordinates: N 68.468224 E 22.423468. There's easy access from the road, and space to park. I'm sure there's plenty of more of the sand in this area, but the area right towards the road seemed to be the one with most open sand.

The Käsivarsi trip was for discovering caves. It is discussed separately here, here, and here. And the previous year's trip's findings were discussed here; I also skied back then, but in the wilderness, see this article.

A picture of Duncan's camera after he had taken photos:

More pictures of the snow we found near a ridge behind Doskalharj:

More pictures from Jiehtájohka:

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 audio has been generated by Google's NotebookLM in podcast mode.

The search for Toskaljärvi area caves: peek into every hole

In August 2024 we explored the surroundings of the Toskaljärvi lake and Doskalharj mountain. Our mission was to find caves, perhaps a desperate mission in this landscape that is mostly marked by small, broken up rock... but there are areas of limestone, larger boulder fields, canyons and cliffs all of which we wanted to check out. The mission turned then into a "walk everywhere and peek into every hole you can see". Of course, most of those holes were rather small in closer inspection.

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.