Valkulamminvuoren luola

Useful Information

Location:	17950 Kuhmoinen. From Kuhmoinen 24 north, at the city limits turn left on 3291 3.6 km, turn left on 3284 12 km, after Kannus turn right on single lane gravel road. After 1.1 km a road branches off to the right, park here and take the trail to the left. 500 m/10 minutes hike. (61.6760369, 25.0471682)
Open:	no restrictions. [2024]
Fee:	free. [2024]
Classification:	Neotectonic Caves
Light:	bring torch
Dimension:	L=30 m (estimated).
Guided tours:	self guided
Photography:	allowed
Accessibility:	no
Bibliography:
Address:	Valkulammi.
As far as we know this information was accurate when it was published (see years in brackets), but may have changed since then. Please check rates and details directly with the companies in question if you need more recent info.

History

Description

Valkulamminvuoren (White Oak Mountain) is a maze which consists of numerous huge boulders forming a labyrinth of caves and gorges. They are a result of tectonic activity, neo-tectonic to be precise, which means they were formed by the ice shied of the last ice age. The weight of 3.5 km of ice shield compressed the rock and built up internal forces, which were released in rock movement after the ice had vanished in a quite short period of time. So after the ice had vanished, the rocks started to move in huge boulder and when they came to rest, there were crevices between the boulder, and between the boulders and the underground.

Valkulamminvuoren luola (Cave of the White Oak Mountains) is the most spectacular of those caves, but not in size, actually it’s the same narrow set of crevices as the others, but its total length is the longest in the area. As always with such neotectonic caves, there are mostly narrow crevices, and some quite spectacular passages and gorges, typical extremely straight with flat walls. One such crevice, almost vertical, is about 4 m high, 40 cm wide, absolutely straight and about 10 m long. As it does not have a roof, it is actually a gorge, not a cave. Another section forms a massive gorge, which is 25 m deep and

Those caves are not really dangerous, nevertheless, sturdy shoes, appropriate clothes, probably kneepads and gloves are a good idea. It’s not really necessary, but normal caving equipment seems a good idea if you want to visit one or the other craw. However, the greatest danger here is that you will not find the cave.

This is a sort of mystery place, as there are numerous resources on the web which shorten the name to "Valkulammi". Unfortunately, Google Maps lists three lakes of the name Valkulammi, all of them northwest of Kuhmoinen, but far from the cave. The site is right outside the southeastern border of Isojärven kansallispuisto (Isojärvi national park), and the Finnish cavers find it quite amusing that they missed the most spectacular site by some 200 m when they created the site.