Welcome to the Planetcaver blog, featuring stories from caves andunderground explorations around the world, from the point of view of a beginner caver.
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![]() | 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. Full story March 2021, Korpikylän lohkaresuoja, Hyrylä, Tuusula, Finland; Korpikylän leikkaus, Hyrylä, Tuusula, Finland; Korpikylän rakennelma, Hyrylä, Tuusula, Finland Snowshoeing (Basic); Snowshoeing (Basic); Snowshoeing (Basic); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Surveying); Urban-Exploration (Railway, Military); Urban-Exploration (Buildings) | |
![]() | 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! Full story March 2021, Auringonlaskun luola, Kauniainen, Finland Snowshoeing (Basic); Caving (Rock, Basic, Rock-Gneiss, Surveying) | |
![]() | More Kauniainen cave maps and 3D models I spent Sunday biking and walking in Kauniainen's forests, mainly in the Kasavuori ("pile mountain") area. I wanted to visit a couple of small holes there are in the cracks and boulders of the rocky landscape on this "mountain". And draw a couple of simple maps about them, and use my new iPhone 12 Pro to record 3D models. Full story March 2021, Auringonlaskun luola, Kauniainen, Finland; Stockmannin Luola 1, Kauniainen, Finland; Kauniaisten luola 6, Kauniainen, Finland Caving (Rock, Basic, Surveying, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders, Morphology-Crack); Caving (Rock, Basic, Surveying, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders); Caving (Rock, Basic, Surveying, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Crack); | |
![]() | New cave (sort of) in Kauniainen While cataloguing Kauniainen's tiny caves (if one can call them that), I came across another one. A small tunnel between two boulders. The tunnel part is maybe 3 meters (though with a small crack at the top for some part of that). Full story March 2021, Kahden kiven luola, Kauniainen, Finland Caving (Rock, Basic, Surveying, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders) | |
![]() | LiDAR 3D modelling caves and bunkers I continued my earlier underground tests with iPhone 12 Pro's LiDAR sensor and software. This time I started testing the 3D modelling software. Can we produce an accurate 3D model of a cave using these sensors and software? Full story (TGR version) February 2021, Högberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland; Ansabunkkeri, Siuntio, Finland Caving (Rock, Basic, Equipment); Urban-Exploration (Bunkers, Equipment) | |
![]() | Högberget in LiDAR We visited the Högberget cave today, to test drive the LiDAR sensor in the iPhone that got today. Pretty interesting! Full story (TGR version) February 2021, Högberget, Kirkkonummi, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Erosion, Equipment) | |
![]() | 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. Full story (TGR version) February 2021, Kattilajärven pikkukolo, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion lippaluola, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion lohkareluola 1, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland; Lippukallion lohkareluola 2, Nuuksio, Espoo, Finland Caving (Basic, Morphology-Boulders, Rock, Rock-Granite, Surveying); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Surveying) | |
![]() | Christmas Caving Christmas seems like a good time to spend on improving your cave lights. Or, "improving" as it may be in my case. But I really like to the colours of the new lights :-) Full story (TGR version) December 2020, Lohkarepuristimen luola, Kauniainen, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders) | |
![]() | Grottan 3 The third issue of this year's Grottan -- Swedish Caver's Association's magazine -- came in mail today. Full story November 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland Caving (None, Research, Media) | |
![]() | White wall I recently watched the new mini-series "White Wall" on YLE Areena. This is a Finnish-Swedish production. The plot is about a mine being converted to store nuclear waste... until they hit something strange. Full story November 2020, House Arkko, Kauniainen, Finland Caving (None, Media); Sauna (None, Media) | |
![]() | Strange rock Tero and I were on a trip... while caving was not the main purpose of the trip, as usual I also wanted visit a cave. A promising-looking hole at the Pyhä ski area turned out to not be a human-sized hole. But while returning to the airport in Rovaniemi, we drove south of the city to look at Tapulikallion onkalot (Tapulicliff holes). We founded a very weird, large boulder. Full story (TGR version) November 2020, Tapulikallion onkalot, Rovaniemi, Finland Caving (Rock, Basic, Rock-Other, Morphology-Boulders, Morphology-Weathering) | |
![]() | Dogs and caves in Löpärö Jouni had organized a tour of the Löpärö island in Sipoo for us, including the local guide Jukka showing is the cave locations. I think all of us were expecting a nice walk but pretty small caves. But were were really impressed by what we found! Just take a look at these photos by Jarmo Ruuth! (Also some by Jari or Elena.) Full story (TGR version) November 2020, Dyviksbergenin luola, Löpärö, Sipoo, Finland; Dyviksbergenin luola 1, Löpärö, Sipoo, Finland; Långbergetin lohkareluola, Löpärö, Sipoo, Finland; Långbergetin lohkareluolan sivuhuone, Löpärö, Sipoo, Finland; Långbergetin toinen lohkareluola, Löpärö, Sipoo, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Crack); Caving (Basic, Rock); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders, Morphology-Crack) | |
![]() | Laukkakoski cave Nice cave, but I had to reverse my car out of the road that led to it. No way to turn around, and road got impassable after a while. Full story November 2020, Laukkosken luolakallion onkalot, Pornainen, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Crack) | |
![]() | Looking for the Urtvuori cave I spent at least an hour trying to find the cave, despite a tag on the Google Maps from someone, as well as coordinates from the book of Finnish caves. It turned out that the cave can be entered from the middle of the sloping rock face, in the cracks that have opened in it. But what a wonderful cave there was! Full story October 2020, Urtvuoren luola, Sammatti, Finland; Urtvuoren kalteva rakoluola, Sammatti, Finland; Urtvuoren lippaluola, Sammatti, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Morphology-Boulders); Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack) | |
![]() | Ramunder's stone Right in the middle of Tammisaari there's a classic "stone table", Ramunderinkiven onkalo (The Hole of the Ramunder's stone). Stone tables are stone formations where a rock sits on other stones. Ramunder is the strong man of old tales, and the story is that he threw a large boulder to crush some giants, giants that are now the stones holding up the boulder. Full story October 2020, Ramunderinkiven onkalo, Tammisaari, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Gneiss, Morphology-Boulders) | |
![]() | Nice basement The book Finnish Caves (Suomen Luolat) lists several caves in Perniö. I had already been in the 'Hiidenkellari' (Devil's basement), but since I needed to drive through Perniö today on my visit to Tero's summer cottage, I wanted to visit more of the caves. I chose 'Antinmäen Hohteen kellari ja paja' (The basement and workshop at the Antinmäki shine). Full story October 2020, Antinmäen Hohteen kellari ja paja, Perniö, Finland Caving (Basic, Rock, Rock-Granite, Morphology-Crack, Morphology-Boulders) | |
This is the 8th set of articles. The previous sets were set 1, set 2, set 3, set 4, set 5, set 6, and set 7. The next sets are set 9, set 10, set 11, set 12, set 13, set 14, set 15, set 16, set 17, set 18, set 19, set 20, set 21, set 22, and set 23.
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.