Today's evening excursion was to an abandoned railroad tunnel. The tunnel is 600 meters long, and in the middle of everything, at a place I've been many times, but I had never heard about the tunnel before.
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April 2017, Undisclosed location, Helsinki, Finland
Urban-Exploration (Tunnels); Caving (Man-Made)
Lazy Saturday, and all nearby caves have already been visited! Janne and I decided to visit a rock painting in the lake shores of the Hvitträsk lake in Kirkkonummi.
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November 2016, Hvitträsk cliff, Kirkkonummi, Finland
History; Hiking; Urban-Exploration (Historic-Sites)
This lazy Saturday's program for me and Janne was to visit some of the bunkers and moats around Helsinki's WWI defence structures. There are plenty of these structures, sadly all slowly rotting away. Historic sites, officially almost forgotten and certainly not cared for.
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September 2016, Pirkkola, Helsinki, Finland
Caving (Man-Made); Urban-Exploration (Bunkers)
When skiing or hiking at a new place, suitable maps are essential. These maps can be hard to come by, however, and most GPS maps do not contain information about walking paths, ski slopes or lifts. OpenStreetMap, however, has a lot of good information, and I have been using it in off-piste skiing, finding ski areas, and hiking around the world.
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August 2015, Los Arenales, Araucania, Chile
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Climbing (Mountain); Urban-Exploration (Ski-Lifts)
A blown-up bunker. Debris. Darkness. Bats. Concrete rising to the heights. Walls hanging where they should not be. An ideal climbing place, if it wasn't for the grim past of this place and the morbid pictures of soldiers.
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June 2015, Humboldthain Flaktürme, Berlin, Germany
Climbing (Wall); Caving (Man-Made); Urban-Exploration (Bunkers)
Have ice axe. Will travel to London to go ice climbing. My cab driver thinks that is the weirdest thing he has heard his customers do. I think that if it is true, then his rides have been pretty boring.
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May 2015, Vertical Chill, London, United Kingdom
Climbing (Ice); Urban-Exploration (Buildings)
Avalanche pack, check. Skis, check. Mule, check. I am sitting on a mule, on my way to the ski slopes in Oukaïmeden in the Atlas mountains of Morocco.
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February 2015, Oukaïmeden, Morocco
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Climbing (Mountain); Urban-Exploration (Ski-Lifts, Buildings)
Desperation, n. Travel to the end of the world in search of snow, and then find none. Lose your favourite tools, the skis. So desperate that you consider taking up heli-biking, but end up gliding on your butt in an imaginary world instead.
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August 2014, Hobbiton, Middle Earth, New Zealand
Sliding (Grass); Urban-Exploration (Amusement-Parks)
The Berg - a creation by architect Jakob Tigges - is the latest source of pride for Berliners. This artificial mountain covers almost the entire Tempelhof, an old airport. A park like no other. And I am in Berlin to make the first descent!
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June 2014, Tempelhof airport, Berlin, Germany; Arkko summer cottage, Teisko, Finland
Skiing (Outdoor, Substance-Other); Urban-Exploration (Airports)
So close, yet so far. I wanted so much to ski down from Volcán Copahue (2953 meters), but despite trying very hard it was not going to happen.
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August 2012, Caviahue, Argentina
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Climbing (Mountain); Urban-Exploration (Ruins, Buildings); Swimming (Outdoor, Thermal-Bath, Water, Waterbody-Lake)
Many of my friends are regulars at Riksgränsen. But I had never been to this place that calls itself "Sweden's most legendary ski area". The legends are true. It is an amazing place. For starters, we were there in midsummer, skiing at midnight. In bright sunshine! The ski area is far above the arctic circle, and for about two months in the summer the sun does not set.
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June 2012, Riksgränsen, Sweden
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Afterski; Sauna (Normal); Urban-Exploration (Buildings)
It is Sunday, +10 degrees, raining heavily, and it is the middle of summer in southern Finland. What should I do? Go ice climbing in Espoo, obviously.
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June 2012, Mankkaan lumenkaatopaikka, Mankkaa, Espoo, Finland
Climbing (Ice); Urban-Exploration (Landfills)
It is the first time this has happened to me, honestly. I am embarrassed. I failed to find skiing on a trip.
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June 2012, Venice, Italy
Travel; Urban-Exploration (Bridges, Skating-Rinks)
We went to Matinkylä, southern Espoo today. One of the largest shopping malls in Finland, Iso Omena ("Big Apple") is located in Matinkylä. But they are also known as the site of M2, a mountain with icy slopes even in the middle of the summer. The steep slopes of M2 rise a whopping two feet above the surrounding landscape, scaring skiers and mountaineers alike. Indeed, very few climbers have climbed it.
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June 2012, Matinkyla, Finland
Skiing (Outdoor, Imported-Snow); Urban-Exploration (Skating-Rinks)
If I have to spend eight days per year in Moominland, it is clear that I need to come up with something interesting to do there. How about skiing down the President's Cliff? Fifteen meters of near vertical rock. Too bad I forgot my ice axes, because the return was even tricker.
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February 2012, Moominworld, Naantali, Finland
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Urban-Exploration (Amusement-Parks)
Saturday evening's exercise.
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January 2012, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, Finland
Skiing (Outdoor, Snow, Lifts); Urban-Exploration (Castles)