Skiing the Planet

Saturday, August 25, 2018

Attersee

Had a nice swim in Austria's Attersee when driving past the area. Water temperature was just right, cooling down on a hot day.

Wednesday, August 22, 2018

Had a nice swim today, up the road from Ebensee. At the Langbathseen lake. Very nice, clear, blue, greenish water, and a wide beach with plenty of room even on a hot day.

I also learned a new word, oligotrophic. It means a lake with not much organic nutrients. It makes for clear lakes, but less algae and even fish.

Tuesday, August 21, 2018

Eurospeleo Photography Workshop

This week some of us Finnish cavers are attending Eurospelo in Austria. The first session for Jukka, Tor, me, and our Canadian friend Andrew turned out to be cave photography, learning to use backlight with Philippe Crochet and Annie Guiraud. Amazing stuff, very happy that we were able to join.

I'm also very surprised that results improve if you know what you are doing :-) Philippe and Annie certainly know; some of their work can be found at http://www.philippe-crochet.com/

Jukka practising the photos with Philippe's help:

Jukka, Philippe, and Andrew planning their shoot:

At the entrance of the cave, looking out:

Photographers at work:

Eurospeleo sign:

Saturday, August 11, 2018

Recycled Hamburg flak towers

During World War II, the Nazis built so called Flak Towers -- fortified air defence bunkers -- in three cities, Berlin, Vienna, and Hamburg. I had previously been in the Thumboldthain tower in Berlin. Now I was able to visit two similar bunkers in Hamburg.

Whereas the Berlin bunker has been partially blown up, the Hamburg bunkers are in much better condition. One acts as a music school, media business park, and hosts shops.

The other one has was demolished internally with six of the eight floors collapsed, but has since then been renovated. This bunker acts today as a solar cell platform and buffer storage for renewable energy. Two million litres of water are used to store energy generated on the site, drawn from the solar cells, or waste heat from nearby industries. At the top the <vju> Café opens up for guests three days a week to look at the views and enjoy coffee.

The first bunker, Heiligengeistfeld Flak Tower is at the Heiligengeistfeld park in the center of Hamburg (N 53.55667 E 9.97036). The second bunker, the Energy Bunker is at Wilhelmsburg in the suburbs (N 53.50999, 9.98941). More information about the flak towers in general can be found from the wikipedia page.

I have mixed feelings about the bunkers. On one hand, they were a part of the German war machine, and the horrors of war are still all too present in their dark insides. But on the other hand, these bunkers are also interesting structures from an engineer perspective, and their current use is in stark contrast to the evil war times: teaching people about music or providing alternate energy sources.

There were beautiful concrete cuts... imagine having to slice through several meters of concrete to make a new door!

I loved the painted concrete walls:

And I also loved this graffiti:

There were also claustrophobic concrete hallways:

I wanted to get to the top of both bunkers, but did not manage to get to the roof bar on the Heiligengeistfeld bunker; the Terrace Hill bar was closed even if it was supposed to be open... but otherwise I was able to move inside that bunker, through the shops and offices. The bar would have been nice though, with palm trees on top of cold, grey concrete:

When visiting the Energy Bunker it was hit by a thunderstorm, rain poured down, and I was worried that I would not be able to leave without getting my backpack and computer wet. But the storm was just a front... it passed by:

More pictures from the Heiligengeistfeld tower:

More pictures from the Energy bunker:

At the roof they had an advertisement for small sleeping tents/cabins:

Other pictures from Hamburg:

This tower welcomed me on the way to the bunkers:

Wednesday, August 8, 2018

New skis for the summer!

Skis for the summer acquired, from Ski-service in Pitäjänmäki. They opened the shop for me :-)

The new skis are Völkls, 100mm wide. A bit wider than I had before, and pretty high speed/less turning radius than I had before. Lets see if I like them... at least they run very stably, based on experience so far :-)

Photos (c) 2018 by Jari Arkko.

Sunday, August 5, 2018

Skiing San Marino... on the rocks

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San Marino!

It is the 58th country.

Although I can't say there was snow... but rocks on the path from the top of Monte Titano will do. I started from Cesta, the castle at the highest point on Monte Titano at 756 meters, and the rock-floored path down provides a surprisingly good sliding for my plastic "mini skis" by Orthex, the proud sponsor of my blog.

I had never been to San Marino before, and it was an amazing experience also in other ways. The festival to celebrate the victory over fascists was held on the weekend that we visited. There were shows, people dressed in historical clothing, etc. And just the drive up to this tiny nation's mountain peak was a thrill. And the walks on the mountain between the castles were wonderful, night and day. Much recommended.

This blog article is also available on Teton Gravity Research. Tämä blogiartikkeli löytyy myös suomeksi Relaasta. All the Planetskier articles can be found from Planetskier.net.

Napoli Catacombs

Catacombe di San Gennaro is one of the underground burial sites in Naples. Janne and visited this on a tour, and were surprised.

Years ago, we had visited the Paris catacombs that were indeed a burial site, with many of the bones still remaining in the tunnels. The Naples catacombs surprised us in that they were much more than that.

Yes, there were graves. But there were also several chapels, places of worship, and paintings. Much more church-like, building-like and not as cave-like as in Paris.

The graves were also individual, selected positions rather than mass collection of bones.

Halls and chapels:

More paintings:

Exit:

Saturday, August 4, 2018

The Secret Keyhole

What a find! A secret garden, but with a keyhole that reveals the most beautiful view onto it, with St. Peter's Basilica exactly in the centre of the view.

Much recommended. The address is Piazza dei Cavalieri di Malta 3, Rome.

Cestius Pyramid

I did not realise there was a pyramid in Rome. Not huge, but still impressive Cestius Pyramid! Modelled after Egyptian or other pyramids, perhaps.

World's Worst Cave Museum

You have to feel sorry for this little museum, as their resources are probably tight. But seriously... cave stalactites made of urethan without painting... bears with zippers... all-white plastic giraffes.

It was particularly striking contrast visiting the cave parts of this museum, as they tried to depict the feeling of Grotta di Frasassi, which we had just visited in person. Lets just say that the urethan did not do the trick for us :-)

The museum also listed other museums of zoology in the world, and got their locations terribly wrong. Stockholm isn't in the south tip of Sweden, for instance, nor is Helsinki at Tampere.

All these wonderful things can be found from Rome's museum of zoology. Much recommended for the entertainment value!