Take a sneak peek into the new Geocaching.com international video series! Watch this trailer to see some of the Terrain 5 thrills and night caching adventures that are available in Germany. The country holds the distinction of posting twice as many night caches as any other country in the world. The innovative German geocaching community also enjoys thousands of Terrain 5 caches and a choice of more than 185,000 active geocaches.
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The “Geocaching in Deutschland” trailer includes heart-racing scenes from more than ten separate stories. The videos will be released one by one in the coming months. English viewers, select Closed Captioning (CC) to view English subtitles. The first video in our “Geocaching in Deutschland” series will be available at the end of July in the Videos section of Geocaching.com.
Quality Geocaches
In 11 years, geocaching has grown from a single container in the woods of Oregon to an international activity with over 5 million participants and more than 1.4 million geocaches. In the last week alone, Groundspeak Volunteer Reviewers published nearly 6000 caches. Wow. Thanks, Reviewers!
This rapid growth means that almost anywhere in the world, you can walk out your door and find a geocache within an hour. But it also means that geocache saturation is increasing. In some areas, it is becoming difficult to find a location to place a cache.
As the number of geocachers and geocaches grows, we encourage you to make sure that each and every cache you place is of good quality. We know that everyone has a different opinion as to what makes a “quality hide,” but there are some steps that you can take to make sure that others will enjoy your cache:
• Find many caches before hiding one of your own. This will show you how vastly different geocaches can be. We suggest finding at least 20-25.
• Think about your favorite geocaches and why you enjoyed them so much. Was it the location? The container? The story on the cache page? Try to replicate the elements that you enjoyed while adding some of your own creativity.
• Make sure that the geocache container is waterproof and will survive the elements. It is better to use a sealed container rather than a plastic bag.
• Maintain your geocache. This means replacing the logbook when it is full, checking on the cache every so often to see that it’s still doing well and responding quickly to “needs maintenance” logs.
You can see which geocaches others recommend by looking at the number of Favorite Points that each cache has received. Favorite Points can be found on each cache page and in the search results list. Premium Members can award 1 Favorite Point for each 10 caches that they find and can sort the search results list by most-favorited caches.
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!”
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.
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.
“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.
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.
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:
In 11 years, geocaching has grown from a single container in the woods of Oregon to an international activity with over 5 million participants and more than 1.4 million geocaches. In the last week alone, Groundspeak Volunteer Reviewers published nearly 6000 caches. Wow. Thanks, Reviewers!
