Serena at the quiet hour

 

Today's outing was in Serena, a small commercial ski hill in northern Espoo. Serena combines skiing with summer activities from downhill cars to tree climbing routes, and one of the largest spas in Finland. It has been very popular... the Corona times have hit it as well, however. Nevertheless, skiing was great.

I went at the last hour, for the last 45 minutes or so. That's a bit expensive from the point of view of getting the ticket, but most people had left by then, so I was able to ski alone and not risk infections in busy lift lines. And enjoy the magnificent sunset!!!

I also liked Serena's variation, with streets, and the rolling hills run. It is a nice place to ski at!

This article has also been published at TGR. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko.

Grottberget cave

 

I wanted to get some exercise, and ended up walking 3-4 hours on snowshoes in Siuntio. I always need a 2nd goal for such trips, however, and this time it was to visit the Grottberget cave, and see if any of the surrounding cliff areas have additional caves.

The Grottberget cave is spectacular for a Finnish cave. Made through crystallisation / erosion, it is 10.6 meter long tunnel. Ice stalagmites were going from the floor, and looking very pure, see-through ice.

I also made a 3D model with my iPhone's LiDAR sensor and the Polycam application. iPhone 12 Pro models have this sensor. And now I'm experiment with exporting the models to 3D modelling software and seeing what I can do with it.

'The main cave is at N 60.16194 E 24.13763, and the map is here and the 3D models here in OBJ, GLB and STL. The little hole is at N 60.16348 E 24.14130. The small cave under the boulder is at N 60.16440 E 24.14502, and its map is here.

Video of running the model in Meshlab, first with textures and then without:

Pictures from the main cave:

The little hole looks like this:

The cave under the boulder looks like this:

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) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

More parts falling

 

More parts falling, again..

Sigh.

Cold start

Another cold start early in the morning. Seems to work. But there's an odd sound...

New Kattilajärvi caves

 

I was hiking around on my snow shoes, going around lake Kattilajärvi in Nuuksio. I was there for the sake of a nice walk in the winter weather, but also wanted to check out the many cliffs for possible caves. I've been here before, and saw for instance a wonderful roof cave. But then I came across a big cliff with a number of caves, not reported by others as far as I can tell.

The big roof / shelter cave near the eastern shores of Kattilajärvi is reported, see here for my article on it. I also reported some smaller caves in that area.

However, there's a tiny hole on the western shore. And, if you go further to the woods from the eastern shores you will come up to a large cliff, the Lippukallio ("Flag cliff"). Under the western side of the cliff there is a long 12 meters long shelter cave (but only 2.7. meters deep, so not very cave-like).

The shelter cave is at N 60.303391 E 24.628858. A simple cave map of the shape of the shelter/roof can be found here, also shown below:

The two boulder caves are at N 60.303520 E 24.628659 and N 60.303523 E 24.628776. Simple cave maps for them are here and here. Here's a picture of the nice second cave:

And the first one:

The area looks also otherwise interesting, just look at the holes in this cliff wall, for instance:

Here are some pictures of the shelter cave part:

The tiny hole is at N 60.300999 E 24.613206. The shape of the hole is in a map that I draw, here.

Unfortunately, the snow was very deep, I kept sinking in between rocks, and the darkness was arriving. I need to investigate these new caves later in the spring or summer, with better ability to see what's between the rocks without all that snow.

Here's the sunset as I was walking out of the caves:

This article has also been published at TGR. 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) 2021 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved.

Korpikylä boulder cave

 

Korpikylä ("Remote Village") is a region in Hyrylä. I was stopping in Hyrylä for other reasons, and looked on the map for an interesting place to go snowshoeing in. Korpikylä fit the bill, and after some searching for a parking place I headed out for a two-hour nice hike in snowy forest.

I like to have a "reason" for my walks, and this time it was to check out the cliffs and boulders in the area for caves. Boulders and cliffs turned out to be small, but the biggest boulder did have a 2x3m tiny "cavelet" underneath it.

The cave is at coordinates N 60.38458 E 25.05021. I drew a simple map of the shape of the cave:

There's also a high-res PDF version of this map here. More pictures of the boulder:

It seems that the area has been used by the military in the past, and I also found some odd structures, like train cut through a hill, but it didn't continue anywhere, and some remains of shelters or storage areas, with odd piping going between them.

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) 2021 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved.

Volvo gets back from 2 week gentle care

 

Volvo, March edition: more metal, less holes. 

Back from two weeks at the garage, legal for an additional year of adventures. Some welding done, also changed some components, such as for the transmission problem we replaced the engineer to one who can shift gears in an old car. Emissions fixed themselves after a reboot. Thousand for the two weeks of care and the loaner.

Kauniainen cave with a view

Cave of the sunset! I guess this just goes to show that no matter how well you know something, there are things you don't yet know. I did a snowshoes hike between Kauniainen and the Glims museum area, and came across a new cave!

Small, of course, but something I'd personally consider the 2nd best cave in Kauniainen, given that we don't have much caves. I also didn't initially know if the cave was inside Kauniainen's borders or not, but after consulting the map it is indeed in Kauniainen. And I happened to be at the right time at the cave, as sitting in the cave opening one could see a beautiful sunset above the Glims fields..

I think we could fit 2, maybe even 3 people in this cave. The cave consists of two parts, the crack, and the underside of the boulder. The crack is a horizontal crack in the cliff face, with the inside of the crack being higher than the front, creating a bit of a cave-like feeling. It may be possible to crawl from the crack to the underside of the boulder while keeping away from rain, but it is tight. So one could say the two parts are connected or not connected, depending on your opinion.

The crack is maybe 2.5 meters long, although I did not measure it. It has a part that goes maybe 1.5 meters into the cliff face, for the rest the crack is maybe a meter deep and 50-70 cm high. On the outward face the height of the crack is at points level with the crack height inside and very low (20cm) on other parts.

Approximate map (not drawn to scale):

The map is also available in PDF. The cave can be found under the large bould in coordinates N 60.218096 E 24.690935.

The crack:

Under the boulder:

Sunset:

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) 2021 by Jari Arkko and Jarmo Ruuth. All rights reserved.

First repair

 

One repair done, eight left. The Volvo goes today to the shop, not for repairs but for evaluation of repairs. I have 22 days left before it goes illegal.

Shop manager’s opinion: “we are faced with serious questions” 🙂 always a good sign 🙂

Impulse shopping

Lunch break impulse shopping. My first snow shoes!

First trip in the garden during the break, the second on nearby forests and hills. Very nice, easier and lighter than I expected. Good exercise though. Will do this every day now :-)

The shoes also fit my ski boots well.

Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. Photos, videos, and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.