/ Eric Schudiske /

Helicopter Geocaching – The Ultimate First To Find (FTF)

Darcy Kydd at ground zero

Darcy Kydd, KaliKydd, describes July 3 as, “A pretty awesome day.”  The sunny Vancouver Island, British Columbia day involved the outdoors, geocaching and a daredevil helicopter ride to claim a First to Find (FTF).

Vancouver Island is home to a skilled geocacher named ceebeecee. He has tallied more than 600 FTFs. But there was one  new Vancouver Island area geocache that lingered without a FTF for weeks. There was a reason.

The traditional geocache, Mt Shepherd (GC2Y4FK), is a difficulty two, terrain five cache. It’s hidden at the top of an island mountain off the Western coast of Canada. Cachers on Vancouver Island would typically need to take a two ferries, drive a four-wheel drive vehicle up the mountain and then hike steep terrain for hours.

Then inspiration struck geocacher Aranea Van Burik, part of the geocaching team Coombs Wooden Shoe. On July 3, Aranea posted a simple question on the “Geocaching on Vancouver Island” Facebook page. The post read, “HELI CACHING!! DOES ANYBODY WANT TO GO?”  The post had a link to the Mt Shepherd geocache. Less then a minute later Darcy responded, “YES!”

Location of Mt. Shepherd cache

Darcy says, “This wasn’t really in the budget, but it was the chance of the lifetime and couldn’t really pass it up.”  Soon, Mike, the other half of Aranea’s caching team Coombs Wooden Shoe, and WossVegas joined.The three geocachers called themselves “Team Nuts.” They had never met in person before this cache. The helicopter was booked for the next day.

Aranea wasn’t able to take the flight but says, “The next day or so was nerve wracking, because I sent out the above notice also to ceebeecee, the FTF hound. He now knew what we were up to, so now the race was on! It turns out that Darcy has her own thing going on with ceebeecee and FTF’s, so I didn’t need to tell her what was at stake here. We kept checking the cache page obsessively and continually to see if he had logged it or not. WE WANTED THAT FTF!”

Darcy has been geocaching since 2007 but nothing on the scale of they were about to attempt.  She says, “I like to get out in the bush, and out in the mountain and up in trees. The more forest the better, and normally my dogs are with me, but they couldn’t come in the helicopter.”

Team Nuts: WossVegas, pilot Mike, Coombs Wooden Shoe and KaliKydd

Dogs on the ground, the plan to snag a FTF was close to literally lifting off. First the team listened to a safety briefing, and then waited for cloud cover to lift from Mt. Shepherd.

The helicopter eventually got the green light to take flight. What would have been a five hour cache run was reduced to a leisurely ride through the clouds.

The helicopter touched down within 30 meters of the cache. Aranea was listening to the radio chatter when she got the news, “When they radioed back saying that they found it and it was a FTF….I did a happy dance…”

Darcy thanked ceebeecee for being a good sport and wrote in her cache log, “Our cheeks will hurt for weeks from the grins on our faces… Seriously, thanks to everyone for an amazing day!” In the log book for the terrain 5 cache she wrote, ““Quick, easy, find.”

She took this video of the flight as the helicopter was about to lift off.

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WossVegas logged, “Fanfreakingtastic! Found as part of “Team Nuts” with Coombs Wooden Shoe and KaliKydd. What a day! Nice little stroll from the chopper, admired the view, scanned the slopes to see if ceebeecee was closing in, signed the log, snapped photos and loved every minute of it.” Team Nuts claimed the FTF and took a victory tour of the island by helicopter. Darcy shot this video of this flight into the cache.

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Darcy’s advice for anyone interested in helicopter caching is simple. She says, “Find a pilot that’s willing.” And Team Nuts’ pilot might be one of the newest geocachers. Darcy says, “It was his very first cache. He did log the find, and might sign up for an account on Geocaching.com.”

Aranea says she’s ready for the next FTF challenge, ” We go for a FTF at any time, you name it…middle of the night, yup, no problem. We are in! I bought a 20 million candle powered flashlight just for the occasion. This puppy lights up the moon. Anybody that sees this thing asks if I needed to register it with NASA. So I am ready for the next challenge, whatever that might be! I can hardly wait!”

 

 

 

 

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

Ten Years of Geocaching in Austria

Logan Ripoff, Jeremy Irish, Spider+Spidi and WantedDeadOrAlive at the Memorial Cache site

By: Kelly Ranck

In July of 2001, Thomas Klestil was president, the most popular album was “1” by The Beatles, and the country had recently cheered on David Coulthard as he won the Grand Prix. It was Austria.

And on July 30 of 2001, the Italian Geocacher Giorgio introduced Austria to the cutting edge GPS-enabled treasure hunt called geocaching. His original cache on Mount Niedere in Vorarlberg disappeared a short two years after it was hidden. Local geocachers placed a memorial plaque at the original cache coordinates and hid numerous caches nearby – all under the name ‘A Tribute To Austria’s First (ATTAF)’. These caches were placed in a circular shape along a beautiful path with breathtaking views of the surrounding Austrian mountains.

ATTAF memorial plaque

On July 3, 2011, the Austrian geocaching community gathered to celebrate ten years of geocaching in their country with the event ATTAF – 10 Jahre Geocaching in Österreich. Geocachers met on Mount Niedere to make the circular trek to the memorial cache, ATTAF – In Memoriam “Austria’s First GCE47.”

The group of geocachers included Geocaching.com CEO Jeremy Irish and German reviewer Stash-lab. Dozens of geocachers stopped to take a group photo and toast the occasion. This moment would not have been complete without the stunning mountainous backdrop. What better way to celebrate an anniversary than on an Austrian mountaintop?

Group of geocachers who attended the event

Since the first cache was logged ten years ago, more than 18,000 geocaches have been hidden in Austria.  Some caches, such as You have got mail, are so popular that they have accumulated over 170 favorite points.

Geocaching is quickly growing in popularity. As you’ve been reading this article, more than 100 caches have been logged on Geocaching.com from around the world. In fact, 3-5 caches are logged every second!

Because of its popularity, geocaching anniversaries such as Austria’s are continually being celebrated around the world. These anniversaries signify commitment to the activity, consistency, longevity, history, and tradition.

The beautiful mountains of Niedere

Let’s continue to gather together to celebrate this much loved activity.

/ Eric Schudiske /

A Baldwin Attraction (Otago) GCRZ51 GEOCACHE OF THE WEEK –

"A Baldwin Attraction (Otago)"

“A Baldwin Attraction (Otago)” (GCRZ51) takes geocachers to a world record setting street on New Zealand’s South Island.

Baldwin street in Dunedin holds the distinction of being named the World’s Steepest Street. A sign proclaims the Guinness Book of Records™ title.

Geocachers hoping to log “A Baldwin Attraction (Otago)” are encouraged to park their car at the bottom of the hill and then walk up the harrowing incline.

It is a difficulty one, terrain two cache. It was placed in 2006 by GSVNoFixedAbode and has rewarded more than 200 geocachers with smileys. The cache page suggests discretion or the cover of night when searching for this micro cache. The cache owner writes, “As this is a popular and well-populated area a reasonable degree of stealth is required.”

A World Record Street

One cacher from Switzerland who logged this cache wrote, “A really cool place! We enjoyed the walk up the steepest street of the world. Good to know, that it can’t get any worse… T4TC”

Continue your exploration of some of the most engaging geocaches from around the world.Explore all the Geocaches of the Week on our blog or view the Bookmark List on Geocaching.com.

 

 

 

/ Eric Schudiske /

A Lackey’s T5 Adventure at an Austrian Mega-Event

Editor’s note: Groundspeak Lackeys are traveling thousands of miles from H.Q. this year to share smiles, shake hands and make geocaching memories at more than a dozen Mega-Events worldwide. Sean Boots, aka bootron, attended the Mega-Event Pinzgau 2011 (GC2JTB2) in Saalbach-Hinterglemm, Austria. Sean has been a Lackey since 2004 and works as a Senior Developer. This is Sean’s account of his trip.

By Sean Boots (bootron)

Pinzgau 2011 Climbing Wall

Michael Krause (krauswaller) pointed to the peak of the two story climbing wall and asked if I was game for grabbing the T5* geocache at the top. The wall was a skyscraper towering over the surrounding booths in the main courtyard of this year’s Pinzgau 2011 Mega-Event. Enticing as the idea sounded, I had just finished my liter of Weissbräu, and had already partaken in a full day’s worth of geocaching, so I politely declined. He accepted my answer but it soon became clear he wasn’t finished with me yet.

Earlier that afternoon, my wife and I had been given a personal geocaching tour around the general area by Christian Laucher (C.H.R.I.S), who along with Rainer Edlinger (edei) is the founder of the now annual Pinzgau Mega-Event. He was gracious enough to spend a couple hours with us in the middle of his busy day. He drove us to various caches he’d found months before and observed our caching technique like a proud father. He helped us find our first letterbox and showed off several of his other favorite spots. Despite being under immense pressure to perform, we put forth a respectable effort and got to see a nice bit of the Austrian countryside along the way.

C.H.R.I.S helps bootron find his first letterbox

As we collected our finds, Chris talked about his experience putting together this grand event. He told us of the special Pinzgauer Kids Art Power Trail that was created specifically for the Mega, which consisted of a series of 56 caches designed by six to 14-year-old children residing in Salzburg’s Socio-Education Center. He talked of how important it was for the organizers to keep the event free of charge for all participants but he also understood that the choice to bring event sponsors may have also ruffled some feathers. His passion for the sport and desire to make people happy was on display throughout our time together.

“Geocachers” he’d say, pointing his finger at each caching group along the road as we passed by. And they all were. Even miles from the event, the place was teeming with them. “Everyone in Saalbach is a geocacher”, he said.

Rainer gets Sean to sign the Pinzgau logbook

It didn’t take long for Krauswaller to come up with a bigger, better plan. He now had convinced a group of friends to take a short “30 minute trip” down the main thoroughfare to find some “easy” T5 caches along the way. He asked me to join and this time wouldn’t take “no” for an answer. So with his family and our several new German and Austrian friends, we all met up for a spur-of-the-moment, early-evening, international geocaching adventure.

We arrived at our first cache destination, a quick stop off the road near what appeared to be a four-wheeler park. I was informed that the cache was located at the top of a nearby tree, and that it would take some teamwork to get ahold of it. But Krauswaller and Quaxi had other plans in store for me. In addition to this cache being a T5, they said they were “turning this one into a D5 too” and soon had the three of us equipped with helmets and our own four-wheelers. With a bit more trepidation than I wanted to admit, I mostly made it around the course, suffering only a minor ego bruise when my vehicle veered off the trail and I was forced to dismount. Darn it, but what a time!

Bootron climbs up to the T5

As we wrapped up our muddy ride, the rest of the group formed a human ladder and grabbed the cache from the tree. We all signed the logbook, got back into our automobiles and were off to the next stop.

Krauswaller, bootron and Quaxi

This time we took a side road and ascended up a hill alongside a tiny creek, until we arrived at a giant man-made bridge-like structure designed to stop trees from blocking the main highway if ever the stream was to flood. The cache was yet another T5, located on the upper inside of the structure a little more than halfway up.

As I watched Quaxi lower the rope from the top of the structure, I felt the trepidation creeping back in again. After Groundpeak’s Bavarian reviewer Rainer (SaRa) made the first climb, I decided that I wanted to log this cache legitimately, and not just mark my name down in the logbook after someone else did the dirty work. So we each took turns strapping into the climbing gear, grabbing the cache, and then replacing it for the next person. Much thanks to my excellent climbing coach, Krauswaller, who helped me navigate the side of the wall despite my having absolutely no idea what I was doing.

After event party with new friends

We rewarded ourselves later that night at the closing party with more Weissbräu and spent the final few hours solidifying our new friendships, while listening to Rainer Edlinger (edei) enthusiastically read off one thousand lotto numbers for the event’s raffle, which offered a 1:2 prize to ticket-purchased ratio. Excellent odds!

Needless to say, there was no flat screen television or all-expenses-paid return trip to next year’s event for us, but we did manage to score a brand new letterbox logbook, a local hockey team cap, and a stuffed Pinzgau clown. Perfect mementos for an amazing trip!

* T5 = cache with a terrain rating of 5 stars, D5 = cache with difficulty rating of 5 stars.

You can also find a Lackey at one of these upcoming Mega-Events:

Ohio, USA – Midwest Geobash

Wales, UK – Mega Wales 2011

Wisconsin, USA – West Bend $1000 Cache Ba$h

HQ in Washington State, USA – Groundspeak Block Party

Nordrhein-Westfalen, Germany – Geocoinfest Europa

Catalunya, Spain – Mega Event Catalunya

South Carolina, USA – Geocoinfest

 

 

/ Adela B /

How Teens Discover Geocaching

By Kara Bonilla

Ever think that the only things teenagers do are play video games, lay around, and complain? Think again. Teenagers worldwide have picked up on geocaching and their passion for the sport is only growing stronger with age. A recent survey shows nearly five percent of geocachers are 18 or younger, that’s still nearly a quarter of a million geocachers.

Joey with cache GC1QYHV, Camino a la Buena Vista

Joey (jmilla210), 15, from California has been geocaching for two years. Joey has loved the game ever since he was first introduced to geocaching. He found his first cache with family members on Thanksgiving Day of 2009.

When asked about out geocaching for the first time, Joey said, “Finding my first cache was amazing.  I didn’t really know what it was at first, but I learned much more about the game and quickly developed a regular habit of finding a few caches each day.” Since then, Joey has found 259 caches and hidden 13 caches in his area. Joey also likes to attend geocaching events, as they give him the opportunity to meet people, his age or not, that love geocaching as much as he does. The game always gives Joey something to look forward to wherever he is, and he is always excited to go find a cache.

Chad in a mineshaft while finding his all-time favorite cache, GC21QWN The Cobalt Zone

From Killingworth, Connecticut, United States, 18-year-old Chad Golembeski’s (DeluxeLunchbox) experiences as a geocacher all started with a gift of a GPS device for Christmas at the age of 14. Now, four years later, Chad owns 10 caches and has found 164 geocaches throughout Connecticut, Vermont, and Massachusetts.

When talking about his first find, Chad said,“When I found my first geocache, I thought it was extremely cool that someone had posted these coordinates online and I found them.”  Chad was a member of his high school’s geocaching club before graduation, and his first logged cache was the one at his school. With the club, he completed large multicaches, found caches at various state parks, and recruited friends who now like to geocache. For Chad, geocaching is fun way to get outside and explore with his friends. “I personally like geocaching because [it] brings me out to new places that I wouldn’t have known of before.”

Chris with cache contents of GC2XAF6, Feed the Mosquitos II

Chris (Coldgears), 16, from Pennsylvania in the United States, has recently discovered his love for geocaching. All it took was for him to stumble upon the geocaching app on his new phone about a year ago, and Chris was hooked. Chris then introduced his two friends to the game, in return for introducing him to letterboxing a while back.

According to Chris, what he likes most about geocaching, “ …is the time spent outdoors…Without it I wouldn’t be in the woods nearly as much.” With over 300 caches found, Chris enjoys how geocaching gets him to the outdoors with his friends on a regular basis.

There are many ways teens can learn about geocaching, and eventually love the game as much as these guys do. Finding a local organization or group who geocaches, such as Girl or Boy Scouts, checking for geocaching events in your area, creating an account on Geocaching.com, and downloading the Geocaching application for your smartphone are all simple ways teens can get started. The love for geocaching begins with a simple step like these guys took, creating a passion for the game that can last for a lifetime, and teens everywhere can take that step today.