Skiing the Planet

Thursday, April 21, 2022

Supporting Ukraine

I wanted to say that I support the peaceful people of Kyiv, Mariupol and other parts of Ukraine, and oppose aggressors.

The photo is from a visit by me and Jarmo Ruuth to the Protasov Year ski resort in Kyiv. You can find the location of the ski hill here (N 50.4237 E 30.4991) and their website here. Protasov Yar is an excellent in-city ski hill, and clearly used and enjoyed by the local youth. I hope some day they can enjoy it again.

Mysterious delivery

What's this? A mysterious packet in the mail ... wonder what it is?

It turned out to be Harri-Pekka Pietikäinen's book about experiences, fears, relaxation, and other human reactions to him spending time in caves. Very interesting!

The book can be acquired from your local bookshop, or over the web here.

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) 2022 by Jari Arkko except where otherwise indicated. All rights reserved.

Wednesday, April 20, 2022

Mini-lounge?

What's this? They are making the lounges really small now?

Ob. plane picture:

Tuesday, April 19, 2022

Apartment Carved out of Stone

Coming back from the skiing on the Mount Olympus and Troodos Mountains in Cyprus, I was driving by an area that had reported some kind of underground passage. I stopped to find out what it was about. From the map it looked like it was near a road, but it turned out to be only near some kind of agricultural path, and a kilometer or two from the drivable public roads. Well, why not walk to the darkness on the first night in a country you've never been to...

What I found was basically just a small hole, like an apartment underground. I think this must have been carved out by human activity, although it may have started as a natural cave or parts of the hole could have been natural. Hard to tell.

But it was very unclear why someone would have done this. This place is in the middle of nowhere, far from even the farm houses. What purpose has it served? Secret, safe house? Storage for contra-band? Someone's fun project.

I'd like to know, but there's very little information about this in the Internet!

The coordinates for this place are (roughly) N 34.817412 E 32.835957.

Cave side passage or oven/storage in a man-carved hole in the ground?

From outside:

New airport check-in at HEL!

I've travelled a few times since the opening of the new Helsinki-Vantaa terminal, the expansion of T2 which is the main terminal. However, until now the actual check-in and security still used the old facilities. But now in May they had actually opened the full services in the new expansion. Quite exciting, and difficult to figure out where to go. What a wonderful new security they have, with NO NEED TO TAKE LIQUIDS OR COMPUTERS OUT!!!

The frequent flier desks are straight forward from the entrance doors, walking past the other check-in desks on the left and right sides. Once you've done check-in, you need to walk to the right and immediately back in the priority security on the left.

The most interesting part of this is that their new equipment can handle everything -- computers and liquids included -- without having to take anything out of your bags. Nice! Read more about this technology here.

Finnair priority check-in:

Morning views at HEL:

More flying and travel stories at planetflier.com. Read the full Planetskier series at planetskier.net, or all blog articles from Blogspot or TGR. All photos and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko, except the opening photo which is by Finavia.

Zagrebenje bunker maze

Croatian islands have had a military past. During World War II when Tito held his headquarters on the island of Vis. After the war, Vis was turned into a defense bastion, and only opened for foreigners as late as in 1989. Today we toured a maze of tunnels on the Zagrebenje mountains on the southeast corner of the island, connecting a number gun positions.

There are also many other similar setups around the island. These gun positions are common. For other types of military relics, I've visited for instance, the abandoned missile base, the mountainside tunnels, or the underground submarine base. But I'm sure there's tons more!

Tuesday, April 12, 2022

Sauna at the Hotel-Restaurant Bänklialp, Engelberg

Bänklialp feels a bit out of the Engelberg town, on the mountain side towards the ski slopes, but is actually just a few hundred meters walk from the lifts. I particularly liked the hotel restaurant, but the very western-style alpine decoration in the lobby areas was also interesting. And, you can't dislike a a ski locker room with a hang-out lobby, sofas fridges for drinks, etc. :-) Not to mention the sauna! Sauna was the criteria that I used for booking the hotel.

Ski room lounge:

For more skiing, sauna and swimming stories, check out the planetskier, planetswimmer.com, and saunablogger.cool websites! And of course Planetskier blogs for other stories in Blogspot and TGR! The photos and text (c) 2022 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved. FYI: 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 our group.

Monday, April 11, 2022

Final countdown

Here she goes in this morning... while the radio happens to play "Final Countdown".

Let's see what happens.

Last drive?

Only three days of legal driving left. The Volvo goes to a last-ditch cheap attempt to fix it, but, the odds are not great. Took the car for a spin today, along with the 'Genuine Accessories' aka the Volvo 740 skis. Just like the car, however, the skis are aging, one binding's plastic parts disintegrated. No prob, one ski is enough.

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Laitamaa - Sidecountry - mini-cavelets

I needed some exercise, so went for a snowshoe walk with Jarmo. On his suggestion we ended up going to Laitamaa, an area of Kirkkonummi where we've previously seen many small caves.

It turned out to be a nice walk in sunshine, and we did find a few tiny cavelets as well.

They were:

The Kakarpuron pikkukolo (the Kakarstream tiny hole) at N 60.248883 E 24.501184, approximately. There's also a map and a 3D model (and a browser version).

The Kakarpuron lippaluolanen (the Kakarstream roof cavelet) at N 60.249272 E 24.501377. There's also a map and a 3D model (and a browser version).

The Kakaraukion lippaluolanen (the Kakar field roof cavelet) at N 60.250564 E 24.503524. There's also a map and a 3D model (and a browser version).

The Kakaraukion pikkukolo (the Kakar field tiny hole) at N 60.250563 E 24.503646. There's also a map and a 3D model (and browser version).