Caves in Nuuksio's Katajasuo

Research pays off! I wanted to explore more boulder caves, but where to find boulders? I kept looking for data, and it turns out the geologic research institute had made a listing of the most valuable boulder fields in Finland. One of them was nearby, in Nuuksio, so I headed out to investigate on Sunday. No caves had been listed at that spot, but the report already made some promises about cave-like holes between the rocks. And a 50 meters wide and 10 meters deep field! I was hooked. Although it turned out the location was listed after all in the book of cave in Finland (albeit with a different name).

It turned out that there indeed are some caves. I have not gone through the entire space yet, but there are at least 8-9 caves, maybe more. None of them are big, but some of them are quite cave like. The one that I like the most is maybe 4.5 meters long path from on one entrance to another, and has a maybe 3 meters by 3 meters room inside.

The boulders have fallen down from a collapsed part of a cliff that is 20-25 meters high. There's still room for more collapses in the coming millennia :-) as there's a thin slice of a rock still standing, with the uppermost part that it at least 5-10 meters long and maybe 2 meters thick sitting loose at the top.

I also explored the main cave underneath the cliff. This is a roof cave, under a high, 10 meter-wide roof that extends on its furthest part 2.5 meters out of the cliff base. Under the roof there are some boulders, and under them is a second layer of cave, the main one being 2.6x1.5m.

Oddly, the book of caves in Finland ("Suomen luolat") does indeed list caves in this location, just that it calls them "Kattilajärven onkalot". Kattilajärvi is a lake a bit further away, behind some other lakes, so the name confused me. Particularly when there are cliffs and boulder fields also in Kattilajärvi.

Coordinates:

• Main cave: N 60.28804 E 24.59828.
• Cave 1, my favourite cave, under a large boulder: N 60.28812 E 24.59868. There's also a map of this cave here.
• Cave 2, combining a crack and a roof cave part: N 60.28821 E 24.59843.
• Small side cave 1 under a boulder: N 60.28781 E 24.59805.
• Small side cave 2 behind a boulder cracked free from the main cliff: N 60.28887 E 24.59802.

The research report, "Kansallisesti arvokkaat kivikot", is available here.

I have to say though, that the report is woefully incomplete. Clearly, it had new information for me. But it is nowhere complete with regards to reporting different boulder fields. For instance, two major boulder fields that I'm familiar with -- Korkberget and the large boulders by the Korso high school -- are not mentioned. From Uusimaa just a couple of boulder fields are listed.

While the research is quite extensive on the ones that are mentioned, I need to assume that most of what's out there isn't actually listed. Can anyone help me? Any of you work with maps or geology, and would know where to get more complete information about boulder fields in Finland?

Main cave views:

The loose part of the cliff hanging high up:

Cave 1 views, first the entrances as seen from inside:

The map:

Inside cave 1:

Cave 2:

More pictures of the main cave:

Side cave 1:

Side cave 2:

The author:



This article has also been published at TGR. See more caving stories at Planetcaver.net, and all Planetskier and Planetcaver stories at Blogspot and TGR! This article, pictures and videos is (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

May the fourth be with you

Niko Nordström's art appears throughout the forests of Kauniainen. This chainsawed tree stump seems appropriate for today.

Read more about Niko's work here.

Photos and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Mapping Grani's caves. If I could only find them...

For May 1st, I also wanted to see if I could add Kauniainen to the map with regards to having mapped caves.

The only roadblock is that there aren't really any caves in Kauniainen :-) No matter, there are some small roof caves and boulders.

Or at least I thought so... I didn't find the boulder that I am sure I have seen, one that has some space underneath.

Coordinates and maps of the caves are as follows:

• School cave 1: N 60.21657 E 24.70556 (cave map).
• School cave 2: N 60.21625 E 24.70372 (cave map)
• Boulder cave: N 60.21082 E 24.68408 (cave map)

The school cave 2 is also known as the janitor's wife's cave, because she apparently does not like if you park your car in the school parking lot :-)

More pictures of the boulder cave:

School cave:

School janitor's wife's cave:

This article has also been published at TGR. See more caving stories at Planetcaver.net, and all Planetskier and Planetcaver stories at Blogspot and TGR! This article, pictures and videos is (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Wappurun

Wappu. There's still plenty of snow for a ski run in Vihti.

This ski run was inspired by a similar run exactly two years ago, at Pyhä. The video for that is below:



This article has also been published at TGR. See more Planetskier stories from TGR, Blogspot, and Planetskier.net. Copyright (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Lights... so wrong

One headlight is always on. Even when the car is parked. The other is always off, even when driving. Sigh.

The above picture is with the car running. The one below is the car not running:

Read more Planetskier stories from Blogspot and Planetskier.net. Photos and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Goddarsbölebergen

Still in quarantine! So, I'm hiking in a forgotten forest in Kirkkonummi. And found two caves that aren't listed in any of the cave books. One roof cave, visited by climbers for the overhang. But the other one I liked a lot. It is small, but much cave-like, dark, and with a very tight entrance :-)

The coordinates for the roof cave and bouldering place are N 60.19197 E 24.52438.

The coordinates for the small dark cave are N 60.19131 E 24.52927. This cave is maybe 1.5-2m long and 0.7m wide, tall enough to stand almost straight. There's a very tight entrance (at least for me), so you have to squeeze yourself in and out.

I also found a triangle hole (coordinates N 60.18924 E 24.52545) and two cliffs with a bit of overhang/roof (coordinates N 60.18994 E 24.52469 and N 60.19057 E 24.52497) but those were not big enough to classify as caves.



Cave:

Overhang:





Triangle:



Path to the caves:



This article has also been published at TGR. See more caving stories at planetcaver.net, and all Planetskier and Planetcaver stories at Blogspot and TGR! Photos and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Ducktape is PERFECT for spring skiing

Downgrade your skis, and your ski season will become longer!

The Grani ski hill is starting to have spotty snow coverage, as in 20 meter patches on rock and dirt.

No matter, press on, just use your crappier skis (mine are held together by duct tape), gather enough speed, and keep skiing :-)

This article has also been published at TGR. See more Planetskier stories from TGR, Blogspot, and, of course, Planetskier.net! Photos, videos, and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Meltdown lockdown

It is the end of days. A meltdown, of the snow on the local ski hill.

Sniff.



This article has also been published at TGR. See more Planetskier stories from TGR, Blogspot, and, of course, Planetskier.net! Photos, videos, and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Finally, the final run (?)

Now THAT may have been the last run of the season.

But too many people. Yuck. Need to go back to the nightly schedule for sports :-)

This article has also been published at TGR. See more Planetskier stories from TGR, Blogspot, and, of course, Planetskier.net! Photos, videos, and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.

Lost Johanneberget cave

Jukka performed a search on cave references from the database of the Finnish National Board of Antiquities during our recent virtual meet-up. He came up with a reference to a potential cave in Espoo that none of us had heard about. Yesterday I went to look for it...

Even the location of the cave was in unknown place, Johanneberget -- that I could not easily place. After some googling there were some references in a city report, a rocky hill near the Olari intersection on Kehä II. Some of you may have seen the radio & link tower, the cave is near the tower.

The explanation in the report was quite funny:

"Mitään asumistarkoitukseen soveltuvaa luolaa luontainen rakennelma ei kuitenkaan muodosta. (...) Kohde ei siis ole muinaisjäännös."

In other words, if humans have not occupied something, it is not a historic artefact and therefore uninteresting. But it might still be interests to geologists and us cavers! :-)

What I found was sort of a mini-cave at N 60.18373 E 24.75250, and given the limited caves in Espoo, maybe this is something to be noted at least in some directory.

I'm not sure how to classify the cave's size.  There's a leaning cliff, maybe 4-5 meters long that forms a small roof cave-like thing, perhaps a meter of space under it. The cliff is part of a longer crackline in the hill. At the end of the roof cave part there's a set of boulders stuck in the crackline, and you can pass under them. On the other side you're still in the crackline but at a higher level. While the roof cave part is 4-5 meters, the under the boulders part is maybe 1-2 meters on top of that. But there are some small separate holes as well, under the main passage.

A bit further up there's a small hole between the boulders where you can see a space underneath, and some garbage, but on quick inspection I did not find a way for a person to enter that space. Perhaps the trash was simply dropped there.

There were three other small under-the-rock places on the hill, two small roof caves next to a rock, and one boulder where one could go under. All of them were small, just barely enough space for one person to be shielded from rain. The locations of these small places are:

• Small roof cave 1: N 60.18321 E 24.75191
• Small roof cave 2: N 60.18327 E 24.75207
• Small space under a boulder: N 60.18329 E 24.75214

By the way database can be accessed here, you need to fill in a search term, e.g., "luola" and the press "Hae". There's many interesting items on the list, throughout the country. Please take a look and go see the ones near you!

First glimpse of the main cave:



The roof cave part of the main cave, looking towards the boulders:



The area of the crack above the main cave, with boulders and holes underneath, but maybe not passable for a human:



Small roof cave 1:



Small roof cave 2:

Small space under a boulder:



The link tower:



Author:



This article has also been published at TGR. See more caving stories at planetcaver.net, and all Planetskier and Planetcaver stories at Blogspot and TGR! Photos and text (c) 2020 by Jari Arkko. All rights reserved.