Vuosaari walk & swim

On a dark, late November evening, I drove to Vuosaari in eastern Helsinki. I had to complete my daily steps, so walked through the neighbourhood. In a landscape of high-rise residential buildings -- maybe they should even be called skyscrapers in Finland at 26 floors. There was also the glow of the local shopping mall, and then ... the swimming hall.

The destination was Vuosaaren uimahalli, an older swimming facility that has been thoughtfully extended to now feature two 25-meter pools. I talked to some other swimmers and they thought this was perhaps the best swimming hall in the region, with its extended facilities. There's two big pools, jumping platforms, plenty of places for massage water jets, a teaching pool, a kiddie pool, a warm pool with the water jets, two cold plunge pools, and a water slide.

You can still tell the two sides are different, the old part is a bit lower ceilings and old style... the new one is quite flashy. But overall very good. There's also two sets of saunas and dressing rooms for both men and women, both equally furbished and styled. But on the old side there's two Finnish saunas, reportedly "one tool cold and one too hot", and on the new side there's a Turkish bath and a medium hot sauna. I liked both of those. 

Finding the parking proved tricky at first, but the secret is to turn into the tunnel entrance at Tyynylaavantie 9 B, which leads to both outdoor parking spaces and a covered parking hall – both conveniently free of charge. 

I have previously visited several other pools in eastern side of the Helsinki and the region. These include nearby facilities such as Hakunila (alt. link), and Kontulan uimahalli (alt. link) in the eastern part of Helsinki. Other swimming experiences in the city have taken place at locations such as Malmin uimahalli (alt. link), Puotilan uimaranta (alt. link), and Siltamäen uimahalli (alt. link). Not to mention the old-time favorite, underground swimming hall / bunker in Itäkeskus (alt. link).

Parking entrance:

Vuosaari images:

This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Last check-up?

My Volvo was at check-up today. Good news: just one tech issue with bearings, easy to fix. Bad news: 10+ hull issues, costs to fix unknown but considerable. Sink more costs to it, or sink the car in a lake?

I got a loaner car from the repair shop, a Peugeot 604. Cool car, at least this morning:

This article is also published here. More car stories in the Planetskier blog series at Blogspot or Planetskier.net. The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko.

Skiexpo 2025

For many years, I went to see the Skiexpo event, often organized in the biggest fair place, the Messukeskus. But for the last fifteen years I've often not been able to go, traveling typically around the time that it happens, being too busy, or just not as interested. This year I went to the much smaller event, organized in the Tripla shopping mall in Pasila, Helsinki. I liked it!

The reason was that it was so much oriented towards the small local ski areas. I found a crew from my original ski resort, Porvoo's Kokonniemi (now called Porvoo ski, website). Nice!

There was also some movies.

For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! This article has also been published there in this link. And of course the Planetcaver for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Kontula swimming hall

Kontula swimming hall. Mixed feelings, a wonderful pool area. Is it new? Run by Urheiluhallit who usually run excellent facilities, very nice! Not so flashy dressing room and saunas/showers area, but ok. But outside... darkness, rain, suspicious people standing in the dark in the rain in the park as I walk by... gangs having some kind of fight, not sure how serious. Anyway, I am not usually afraid almost anywhere in the world, but now I felt a bit insecure here.

I also saw a rat cross one of the walkways.

The swimming hall is right in the middle of the Kontula shopping mall area. The official web page for the hall is here. 

Checking Kontula wikipedia article, it says that the swimming hall was renovated in 2007. That explains the nice pool area.

This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Walk in a park

I had my daily walk in Kauniainen's parks... or maybe under them, in the bunker maze underneath the city.

This article has also been published in Theurbanexplorer.net here. For more underground stories, check also Planetcaver.net! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Vapaalaskuiltamat 2025 - free skiing event in Suvilahti

The free skiing evening was a popular ski movie and gear event in the 2000s, but has not been around in recent years. But this year Jan-Erik "Blomi" Blomberg organized this again, in Helsinki's Suvilahti. As a charity event benefitting the Doctors Without Borders, and showcasing ski movies and talks. 

I'm not much of a fan of parties, particularly when I didn't know almost anyone at the event, but I did enjoy the movies and talks a lot. I was particularly happy hearing the famous ski photographer Tero Repo's stories behind his photos. One of his famous photos is of Glen Plake with his signature Mohawk hair, setting up in the Aiguille du Midi exit tunnel in Chamonix. Wonderful photo, see above or browser the real one on Tero's website. 

Tero told a story about how he had agreed for this photo shoot with Glen, and the difficulties with weather (despite the looks of the photo, it was shot on a cloudy weather day).

What was the funniest part about the story though was his explanation of how Glen sets up his hair, apparently the girlfriend irons the hair against kitchen table while Glen holds his head next to it. Way to go!

Event stage:

Tero:

Blomi:

For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! This article has also been published there in this link.  And of course the Planetcaver site or other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of swimmers or saunagoers.

Swim in Loviisa.. at old people's home

In my quest for swimming at different places, I ended up this time in Loviisa. They don't have a proper swimming hall, but they do have a small swimming pool at the Esplanad, a service house / elderly care home. It is open for the public a few hours on four days during the week. The pool is only 16 meters long, however, and quite shallow from one end, so not easy to swim.

But a nice visit, nevertheless. Some hot sauna and nice pool to dip is never a bad idea :-)

Photos:

Photos of Hamina:

I also visited the stairs to one of the artificial dirt mountains, the one in Malminkartano, Malminkartanonhuippu. Wonderful hiking up, and wonderful views in the darkness:

This article has also been published in Planetswimmer.com here. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! Or all blog articles from Blogspot or Planetskier web site. And of course the full Planetskier skiing article series at planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. 

Pre-season skiing at Préski, Quebec

On Saturday I flew back from the Montreal IETF but not before some pre-season (or pre-school?) skiing at Préski in Quebec City, cave hunting in Parc de Naturel de Portneuf, and airport waiting at the AF lounge for the BA flight that was six hours late.

The skiing was indoor, on a large treadmill-like surface. I've done this before, but ... it is always hard. Snow is more forgiving, you can slide your skis but here you have to have technique, which I don't have :-) You turn either by snowplow or by turning your skis on their edges and letting the ski shape take you. The treadmill is unforgiving because of the grip and friction but also because you don't have almost any space to go forward or backwards, as long as the treadmill is running you have to ski exactly at the right speed. In front you will otherwise hit the bar and in the back you are thrown into the end of the treadmill.

But, a lot of fun, albeit tiring for half an hour ski session.

Why are so many of the indoor ski places at shopping malls? I guess it is a fun activity, just like going to movies or dinner there. But the indoor ski place at the previous IETF meeting in Madrid was also at a shopping mall (link, alt. link).

Préski's website is here. With taxes a half an hour session was about 55€. 

The cave hunting and airport waiting have been written in separate blog articles here (alt. link) and here (alt. link).

For more skiing stories, check out the Planetskier website! This article has also been published there in this link. For more sauna and swimming stories, check out planetswimmer.com and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course the Planetcaver for other stories in Blogspot! The photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of swimmers or saunagoers.

Lufthansa banana bread vs. Finnair cinnamon roll

Had the Lufthansa 3.90€ banana bread today. It was ok, but really no comparison to Finnair's massive - and heated - cinnamon rolls that they nowadays serve in business class instead of champagne.

Conclusions:

• Business class: better than tourist class
• Finnair buns: better than Lufthansa buns
• Hot: better than cold
• Blogs: you should follow more of the highly impactful reporting about flying in the modern world on this channel! 

My previous report on the cinnamon buns was here.

This article has also been published in Planetflier.com here. For more flying stories, check out the Planetflier.com website! And of course the Planetcaver, and Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot! Photos, videos and text (c) 2024 - 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Parc Naturel de Portneuf caves in Quebec

The Portneuf municipality is half way between Trois-Rivières and Quebec cities, on the north side of the St. Lawrence river. A bit north of them lies the Saint-Alban village and there is the natural park, Parc Naturel de Portneuf. And two wonderful caves, the Grotte le Trou du Diable and Grotte aux Cascatelles. The first one is a Quebec speleological society's organized touring cave, a wet wading cave. I was not able to do this tour, since it was out of the season. In any case, summer would probably be a nicer time to be deep in the water. The second one is cave by the gorge-like river Sainte-Anne, where a small stream has carved a cave to short-cut the gorge walls. 

The Grotte le Trou du Diable has (at least) three openings, in coordinates N 46.677038 W 72.094314, N 46.675057 W 72.091979 and N 46.674699 W 72.091523. The first one is accessible by climbing down the steep river walls of a small contributory to Sainte-Anne, the one coming from the cave. The other two are accessible through the society's grounds. The society's hut is here, subject to opening hours etc.

This cave is extremely dangerous if you don't know what you are doing and are coming with the guide from the society, given the amount of water in it. It is also tight from what I can see.

Some photos of this cave below, the first entrance here pictures below. There's actually two entrances here, one dry and one with flowing water:

The second entrance is shown here:

And the third entrance here:

Signs & surroundings for the cave:

Map of the cave Diable cave, as described by the society:

The other cave, Grotte aux Cascatelles, was hard to find. All the coordinates in Grotto Center and Wikipedia appeared to be incorrect, pointing to a swampy plains above and north of Sainte-Anne. I criss-crossed this area for an hour but did not see anything. And I didn't think there couldn't even be anything given the flat and and muddy landscape. But there's a cave that matches roughly what the cave map in Wikipedia shows, with two holes and a stream entrance from the top, and exit at the bottom of a cliff. The right coordinates are, I think, N 46.709885 W 72.079825.

It is hard/dangerous to access, though. The river is subject to sudden flooding from the dam just few hundred meters upstream. And while there are stairs down to the river bank from a bit nearer the dam, they have been marked as closed due to collapse dangers. Double danger!

Some pictures of this cave:

The environment in the park near the cave:

More information about Grotte du Diable can be found on the QC Speleo site and Portneuf Tourism site, and from Grotte Aux Cascatelles at the Grotto Center, a map from Wikipedia is here.

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, TGR. Photos and text (c) 2025 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.