Der Sauna im Hotel Landhaus Schmid

 

One of the many good things with Austrian guest houses is that they almost always have a sauna. So did our place, Hotel Landhaus Schmid, in Fischen, in Austria near the ski resort of Oberstdorf. A nice sauna, and you could reserve it all for yourself.

Due to my lack of speaking German, I didn't quite manage one of the bookings, however, so ended up being in the sauna after it was already turned off. But, still warm, and I could choose my own music instead of the soothing relaxation music that they usually play... a win! :-)

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) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. I never take photos of other saunagoers or swimmers and visit when there is simply no one else or the facility has been closed or booked only for me.

Automatically generated cave maps from Austria

 

In August I visited Austria, and was able to hike to the Tischofer höhle and Hyänen höhle caves. Back then, I took 3D scans of the caves. Having worked with automatic construction of cave maps since then, six months later I'm now starting to have a capability to run these models through the Cave Outliner and get plan and cross section views out. Pretty interesting work, by no means done but lets see where this path leads us to!

The basic idea is that one can scan a cave with the iPhone on site, which for small and moderately sized caves happens quickly. And then the resulting 3D model files can be exported to computer, and later processed by the Cave Outliner software to turn them into plan view maps and cross-section images, automatically. The software is not perfect, and neither are typically the scans, so typically some manual adjustments are necessary. However, what's nice about this approach is that it can very quickly produce very realistic shapes of the cave forms, including cross-sections from any number of points.

The generated plan view is above, some tidying was still needed, the final picture is below.  The full maps in PDF, including cross-sections can be found here and here.

The original view at the top has some artefacts that are based on the inaccuracies of the scanning or the sensor:

• Not all surfaces have been adequately covered, perhaps due to too quick scanning, e.g., near the middle of the entrance to the cave.
• The walls of the cave have a few mistakes, sudden pins going inside. These are the result of a scanning artefact messing up with the border drawing algorithm.
• Due to the sensor range limitation (5 meters), the roof near the entrance could not be scanned, hence in the cross section the roof has been estimated. Lack of the roof also means that the usual algorithm for recognising entrances cannot be used in Cave Outliner. However, even when there is a roof (as in the Hyänen höhle), the algorithm is not yet perfect.

Those pictures were for the Tischofer höhle. For the Hyänen höhle they are here:

The 3D models can be looked at directly on your browser here or here. and downloaded from here or here.

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) 2021-2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Deutsches Museum Flugwerft Schleissheim

 

I had not known about this: Deutsches Museum has a wonderful other side outside Munich, for aviation. 

Click here for the details.

But my favourite was this "airplane":

More flying stories at Planetflier.com. Photos and stories (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Großer Bunkerberg

 

Großer Bunkerberg is the name of the Berlin ruble mountain in Volkspark Friedrichshain. It housed previously one of Berlin's air defense 'flak towers', the Flakturm II G. Only a small corner of the blown up tower is still visible on the site, at the top of a large hill.

The coordinates are N 52.526380 E 13.432155. More information about this bunker is available from Wikipedia. And I've previously covered other, more intact flak towers in Berlin here.

Some more pictures here:

Berlin is also otherwise nice in the night:

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, videos, and text (c) 2021 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Birthday trip, full of fun!

How much fun can you pack into one birthday trip? I started with a drink ... non-alcoholic, of course. And then things starting going faster after that: a sauna at the Oberstegen, continued with skiing on the Hintertux Glacier, went for a SUP paddling tour in an ice cave river under that glacier, and ended up climbing to the Grafenloch and Rossstall caves, and doing a 3D model of them. Not bad, and that was just the first day! Maybe for my next birthday I'll try to come with an active program.

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.

First time in movies again!

October 2021 -- my first time in movies since the beginning of the pandemic. I joined the Banff Mountain Movie Festival in Helsinki, with many interesting ski and other adventure movies.

Lots of interesting movies indeed... some that stood out: Andrzej Bargiel's ski-descent of K2 ("K2: The Impossible Descent") or Toni Arbones' bolting frenzy ("Ten Thousand Bolts").

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

Namco's Alpine Racer

I visited Tampere's game museum -- maybe the best museum of this kind that I've seen anywhere. Many. interesting things, displayed and playable in the setting of the time. But for me the jewel of the museum was Namco's Alpine Racer arcade game. I wish I had one at home...

View to the Vapriikki museum complex from the outside:

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.

More ski training for the twins

 

I just love the colours of night skiing. And in Finland, we only have night skiing, because usually there's either no light or very little light. And I also love taking my sister's twins for skiing, this time in Talma, Sipoo's great ski resort, 30 minutes outside Helsinki.

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.

Santa Claus skiing

Time for the traditional Xmas eve ski run. Maybe the best one ever was on the steps of the cathedral in Helsinki, but skiing my local hill in Santa Claus costume and a bag of presents was also nice!

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.

First fall of the season!

 

First ski run, first fall.

My first time this season on the Kauniainen ski hill. With my crappy, duct taped skis because, well, no need for the better skis in potentially rocky conditions. But the conditions were not rocky. It -8, solid ice blown from the new "snow" machines, probably meter or two thick at places. My skis did not have the edges to stick to the ice, so I fell... and fell further... and further. Had even difficulties to get back up to fetch the pole I left in mid-slope :-)

The icy slope will be a great cover though, we can probably ski it still next summer.

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.