MORE PLANETCAVER STORIES

Welcome to the Planetcaver blog, featuring stories from caves andunderground explorations around the world, from the point of view of a beginner caver.

More caving-related articles:

Stairway to Hea...Bunker
Bunker... in Jorvas. With a ladder leading down a tight concrete shaft. How could I resist?
Full story
(TGR version)

April 2020, Sähköaseman bunkkeri, Masala, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Lummelunda canceled -(
For the last three years, the highlight of my caving year has been the fun, warm, and social camping week at the Lummelunda cave in Gotland. Sadly, I just received a cancellation for the flights to Gotland, due to the virus. I think this year's caving week is therefore cancelled.
Full story

April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None)

Grottan arrived at mailbox
No, it is not a rat. It is a Swedish caver's magazine. Grottan is cave in Swedish.
Full story

April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None, Media)

Virtual caving club meeting. In a cave.
Another caver's club virtual meeting! Nice! Since the others played around with nice picture backgrounds, I decided to have a background of my own: in a cave in Korkberget, Kirkkonummi.
Full story

April 2020, Korkbergetin lohkareluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Pieni lippaluola 1 pohjoiskärjessä, Korkberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Pieni lippaluola 2 pohjoiskärjessä, Korkberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Social)

Caver's meetup. Virtually.
What a wonderful experience - forced to not not have in-person meetings, all kinds of organizations are realising that their meetings *can* be done over network connections, and that the results are often better. We just had a caver's meet-up in Finland, and we chatted longer -- six hours -- than we ever have and had many more people participate than before.
Full story

April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None, Social)

Lumonite BX caving light repair
My best caving light broke down last week on a nightly skiing excursion. I measured it and determined that the likely culprit was broken battery. Today the mail delivered a spare battery, and I installed and voilá, the light works again! Happy about not having to look for a new light.
Full story

April 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (Equipment)

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 :-)
Full story
(TGR version)

April 2020, Goddarsbölebergenin lippaluola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin luola, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin kolmiokolo, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 1, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Goddarsbölebergenin pieni lippaluolan kaltainen kalliojyrkänne 2, Kirkkonummi, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic, Surveying)

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 potentia cave in Espoo that none of us had heard about. Yesterday I went to look for it...
Full story
(TGR version)

April 2020, Johannesbergetin halkeamalaluola, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 1, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin lippaluola 2, Espoo, Finland; Johannesbergetin siirtolohkareen alusluola 1, Espoo, Finland
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Basic); Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic)

Map map
I have now put up all my Finnish cave maps at the Planetcaver site. There's maps for 34 different caves, almost all of which are in the Kirkkonummi area. A few maps are in the works.
Full story
(TGR version)

March 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland
Caving (None)

Titlis caving
While skiing on the rainy Titlis, I saw a crack cave by the slopes, and also visited an ice cave for tourists.
Full story

February 2020, Titlis ice cave, Engelberg, Switzerland
Caving (Glacier, Basic, Showtour)

Abandoned bunker on Golan Heights
What a shitty bunker! Literally.
Full story

February 2020, Abandoned bunker, Mount Hermon, Israel
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers); Caving (Man-Made)

Desperately seeking... any cave
As we returned from the skiing in Israel, I wanted to stop at a cave in Israel. Most of the show caves are closed in the winter, but there should be enough natural caves to visit, right? Not so... we failed to enter the ones we found for various reasons.
Full story

February 2020, Пещера, Tiberias, Israel
Caving (None)

Cappadocia
Massive cities carved inside rock towers. Luxury hotels carved inside cliffs. Sometimes a bad weather closure day can lead to interesting other things. I'm glad we got to visit Cappadocia, Turkey.
Full story
(TGR version)

February 2020, Göreme Open Air Museum, Göreme, Cappadocia, Turkey
Caving (Rock, Man-Made)

Small cave in Obertauern
While skiing off the Gamsleiten 2 ski lift in Obertauern, we spotted a potential small cave. It was outside the pistes on a steep slope, but I skied to investigate. And found what would in Finland be classified as a cave: 2-3 meter long roof cave on a cliff. But not in Austria...
Full story

January 2020, Small cave, Obertauern, Austria
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Caving (Rock, Basic)

Re-visiting the Vienna flak towers
​I was in Vienna already in 2018, but for 2020 Janne and I toured the Vienna museums befor e heading to the ski resorts in Austrian alps. This allowed a new visit to Haus des Meeres, the refurbished bunker-turned-into-and-aquarium, and visits to three other bunkers.
Full story
(TGR version)

January 2020, Haus des Meeres, Esterhazypark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Stiftskaserne, Vienna, Austria; Feuerleit Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria; Flakturm Arenbergpark, Vienna, Austria
Urban-Exploration (Bunkers, Military); Caving (Man-Made)

Kettils Grotta
Kettils Grotta (Kettil's cave) near the Rosersbergs Castle for an evening hike in the darkness and rain.
Full story

January 2020, Kettils Grotta, Rosersbergs Slott, Stockholm, Sweden
Caving (Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Boulders, Basic)

This is the 10th set of articles. The previous sets were set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, set 7, set 8, and set 9. The next sets are set 11, set 12, set 13, set 14, set 15, set 16, set 17, set 18, set 19, set 20, set 21, and set 22.

The Planetcaver articles appeared originally in the Blogspot Planetskier series, at TGR posts, or at the Relaa website. See also the articles about skiing, urban exploration, climbing, cycling, flying, swimming, and saunas.