Explore geocaching at new heights! Watch “This is My Hobby – Rock Climbing and Geocaching.” Rock climbing offers a vertical dimension to an extreme geocaching adventure. Geocaches which require specialized equipment, like ropes and harnesses, are rated a difficulty five. It’s the highest difficulty rating. Rock climbing takes geocaching to the physical extremes. Have you ever logged a smiley on geocache which required rock climbing? Share your story in a comment below.
This is My Hobby - Geocaching and Rock Climbing
Premium Members of Geocaching.com can sort geocaches by difficulty and locate rocking climbing caches with ease. Explore membership options here.
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The subject of sustainable geocaching goes under the microscope during the German geocaching event “Gecko 2012.” The Geocaching “Konferenz” (Gecko) offers three days of workshops, lectures, and events on the topic of keeping and expanding, “sustainable geocaching in harmony with the environment, nature, and in harmony with our fellow human beings.” It’s a powerful undertaking in Germany, which has the highest geocache saturation of any country in the world.
Gecko 2012: Sustainable Geocaching
Jan aka Czerkus is part of the organizational team for Gecko-2012. Jan says a majority of geocachers play in harmony with nature. “Geocachers often say that the world is their playing field. If you use nature for your hobby, it should be self-evident to protect your playing field. This is the central slogan of the conference.”
This is one of the first conferences of its kind. Jan says, “All workshops, activities and discussions are focused on environmental education and building bridges between geocachers and their critics. As well, we’ll give geocachers who are environmentally aware a platform to develop networks. At the moment we are learning a lot, because there is no experience or event like this that we can lean on [and learn from].”
The events at the conference don’t just teach people about respecting nature, they embrace the outdoors and geocaching. Some of the sessions of the conference include courses on “T5 tree climbing,” “Observing and protecting animals,” and trips to nearby EarthCaches. Jan says there’s more, “There will be workshops about planning Cache In Trash Out (CITO) Events, discussions with hunters, forest rangers, and environmental activists and nature-guides will lead the geocachers in the woods to show them their play field.”
Location of "Gecko 2012"
Jan says geocachers have a great responsibility to the environment because geocaching is a highly visible activity, “Geocaching is very transparent and leaves geocachers’ marks in the World Wide Web. Everybody can see what we do, where, and how often.”
Along with seeing geocaching, Jan also hopes the greater community sees geocachers’ environmental efforts like Gecko 2012. He says, “We have a very special responsibility” to care for the environment. It’s even more fitting then, that after Gecko 2012, a giant Cache In Trash out (CITO) is planned. Gecko 2012 begins on June 8.
See and experience the locations that help define the adventure of geocaching. Watch this new Geocaching.com Presents video to experience 20 unforgettable geocaching destinations in just 40 seconds. Adventurers not only discover an amazing location but they also log a geocache find.There are more than 1.75 million geocaches hidden around the world. Geocaches overlook serene mountain lakes. They are found near little-known vantage points to breath-taking views and can be located just down the street from your home. The video features caching destinations in Slovenia, the United States, the UK, Spain, Portugal, and beyond.
Here are just some of the destinations found in the video: http://coord.info/GC2DRM9 – US http://coord.info/GCED51 – Portugal http://coord.info/GC3EV2J – Spain http://coord.info/GC1D3Q8 – US http://coord.info/GC30HQ2 – Portugal http://coord.info/GCN8FQ – US http://coord.info/GC14N3H – Slovenia http://coord.info/GC255T3 – UK
Can you guess any of the other 12 geocaching destinations? Put your guesses below in comments, with a description the picture, when it appears in the video, the GC code, and the country. Good luck!
Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
Talking about geocaching doesn’t often result in a whirlwind trip and a chance for national recognition, unless perhaps you’re Jim Bishop. Jim is known in the geocaching world as jcacher15. He’s a High School student in Washington State, USA.
Jim won competitions with a presentation on geocaching at the local and state levels to compete this weekend in a national DECA competition. DECA is a student organization for emerging leaders in business, marketing, finance, and hospitality. Jim will travel hundreds of miles to stand in front of judges and talk about a business plan for Geocaching.com.
Jim’s knows his topic well. He’s accumulated more than 3500 finds across three countries since he started geocaching in 2009.
He says, “I first learned about geocaching when I saw a TV advertisement for the GPS Adventures Maze exhibit at the Pacific Science Center [in Seattle, Washington] in early 2009. A few months later I was surfing the web and ended up on Geocaching.com. I got a membership and my first GPS device and was instantly hooked.”
Other geocaching experiences helped Jim choose his topic for the DECA presentation, including one of the more memorable trips of this life, ” I went with a few geocaching friends up to Canada for the weekend to do a 200 cache trail. It was a great weekend, we hiked many miles through the forests and hills of British Columbia and slept in a cabin each night. The trip was like nothing I had ever done before.”
Jim geocaching
Jim not only had to talk about geocaching to make it to DECA Nationals, he has to write about it. Jim developed a 30-page Geocaching.com customer loyalty plan. Presenting his plan for geocaching at DECA nationals requires Jim to step into a business setting. He says, “I will be discussing the implementation of a new customer loyalty plan addressing a situation related to the geocaching membership program. The presentation is 15 minutes and takes place in an office type environment. The presenter sits on one side of a table across from one or more judges.”
Whether Jim wins first place or not, he’ll will walk away with a powerful experience. He says, ” I hope to learn how to present effectively as well as how to make good business decisions. I also hope that this competition will help prepare me for the business world after I finish college.”
Leave Jim a message below to wish him good luck this weekend talking about geocaching for a grade.
Check out and share the latest Geocaching.com Presents video. This is My Hobby: Geocaching & Hiking takes you along on a geocaching adventure hiking up a picturesque mountain trail, accompanied by a four-legged geo-companion. Show your friends how geocaching adds adventure to a hike in the hills, or a mountain trail climb with the family dog.
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Subscribe to the official Geocaching.com YouTube channel to be one of the first to see new videos about the evolving world of geocaching. Watch the more than 50 videos produced by Geocaching.com on our video page.
