Skiing Mt. Troodos in Cyprus

In February 2022, I felt like I wanted to ski in a new country, a destination that had been in my mind for a long time. I booked Lufthansa flights to get there, and wow, was it worth it! The biggest snow dump in a decade had just arrived on Mt. Troodos even though they don't get snow at all on some years. I skied forest powder all day long... and the atmosphere was relaxed and happy. Very happy that I got here. A wonderful mountain!

The ski resort is operated by the Cyprus Ski Federation & Club. Wonderful, a ski club rather than a commercial company! The season usually runs from the beginning of January until the end of March, and they run a FIS competition yearly as well.

The ski area is divided into the main "Zeus" slope (!) and the Sun Valley area. The latter is where a lot of the tourists and beginners are, and on this area there's also some excellent forest skiing. The Sun Valley area is served by two lifts at different points in the ridge/valley. There are about five main slopes, plus all the interesting forest skiing in between, particularly around the Hermes lift, i.e., furthest side from hut. the But the most challenging and steepest area is the one around the Zeus slope and lift. This part of the area has two lifts and five official slopes. The most challenging run is the Jubilee run.

The mountain is at its highest point 1952 meters, on a peak that is called Mt. Olympus or Χιονίστρα (Hionistra) in Greek. That is not super much compared to alps or rockies, but it is a lot rising up from an island. It overs one third of the island! And this time it was enough for a wonderful snow to be present! The highest peak by the way houses a radar and listening station run by the NSA and GCHQ. More information about Mt. Troodos can found from Wikipedia and the ski club's home page. The ski area map can be found from Skiresort.info here.

While just a couple of days, the Cyprus trip was wonderful also in other respects. I also managed to ski on the North Cyprus side (article, alt. link) by taking snow from Mt. Troodos roadside over the border and then skiing an otherwise snowless slope on it. 

Plus I visited the Cyclop's cave (article, alt. link), and a man-made underground apartment in the middle of nowhere (alt. link). And had a sauna in the hotel, my first sauna in Cyprus (alt. link). The Lufthansa flight journey is documented here (alt. link). And, finally, coming down the Troodos mountains I saw a wonderful sunset (article, alt. link). 

Video:

Photos:

This article has also appeared here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.

Vietnam skiing

November 2018. I am in Bangkok, my meetings are over and I have already skied in the local indoor ski place, Ski 365. A day left before flights home, now what? Take an airplane to Ho Chi Minh City, of course, and head to the children's ice & snow playground...

It wasn't a long flight, not expensive, and it seemed I could do this all in a day, before returning back to my hotel in Bangkok. I took a taxi to the Snow Town Saigon Playground in the city.

There was a lot of kids... and no one was skiing. But they had given me a moment after the kids left to actually ski the slope.

One more country to my collection of countries that I've skied in!

Post scriptum: Sadly, the playground is no longer operating. Rest in peace, hopefully there will be some new service that the Ho Chi Minh kids can experience snow and ice in!

Video:

My skiing:

Kids on the slopes:

Slopes:

The Snow Town from outside & booths inside:

Airplanes below. I took Air Asia flights, as they are a reliable but cheap airline. I also saw Vietnam Airlines planes at the airport.

This article has also been published here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot, TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko.

Snow Centre Again

I was coming from North America, and had a long layover in Heathrow. (There's always a layover in Heathrow, isn't there?) What to do? Drive to Hernel Hempstead and its Snow Centre, of course! 

I was here before, in 2012 (article, alt. link). A very nice ski center. Not too far away from Heathrow, about 40 mins by car. Doable with taxi or rental car, if you have 5 hours or longer layover.

But a word of WARNING. The snow be slippery. I know, shocking!

Other photos:

This article has also appeared here. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko.

Riihimäki on my mind ...

... or was it Mäntsälä? In any case, I ended up at the Riihimäki swimming hall. Had not been here before, but wow, what a nice surprise. Only 50 minutes from home, and a completely refurbished hall, airy, nice new design, quiet & empty. Two Finnish saunas, and nicely hot and another that's a bit milder, plus a Turkish bath. Recommended!

In the pools there was a very nice surprise for a Finnish community-run swimming hall: an outdoor pool. Well, not entirely outdoor, it was in covered space but in outside air. A warm pool, with nice waterjets. Nicely done!

Inside there was a cold plunge pool, jacuzzi, the main 25 meter pool, a kiddie pool, therapy pool, and a waterslide. And there's a jumping platform in the 25 meter pool. There's a small pool also inside the bookable private sauna complex. 

Here's the official web page and the Wikipedia article.

Here's the entrance (first, not very impressive) and the sports field side front (second, quite nice):

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. 

Check-up results in detail

Sigh.

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.

Parc du Trou de Fée, Crabtree

A cave by the river!

Very nicely shaped tunnel.

There are two entrances, the main, low entrance from the river bank rock, and another straight-down entrance from the top.

The cave is long, 126 meters, but the easily accessible part is just 24 meters, the rest is tight and may also be blocked by water unless it is dry season.

Here's the 3D scan-based map (of the part that is accessible, the cave continues further):

A high resolution version of the map is here. The model itself can be accessed here in GLB and Blender formats, you can also rotate it yourself on your browser screen.

The official map from the place itself has a more complete map:

My model looks like this:

The cave is open 9-21 during the tourist season. There's ample parking and an overall nice environment.

The entrance:

More pictures from the nice tunnels:

The cave is by this river:

For more information about the cave and access, try these web sites: Tourism Joliette, Crabtree. I visited the cave in (late) summer 2024.

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) 2024 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.