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Return to Hagengebirge

Marek Wierzbowski
Sekcja Grotołazów Wrocław



The Hagengebirge massif is located in the Austria in Salzburgcr Alps. It is known for its huge plateau and steep walls surrounding it. The geology of the massif is complex, and its present drainage runs parallel to the main valley of the Salzach River from south to north and perpendicular to the side valleys separating it from the neighboring Hoher Goll and Hochkonig massifs. The southern part of the Hagengebirge was a site of heavy cave exploration, done mostly by Austrian and Polish cavers. The main effects of the exploration are two vast cave systems which lie very close to each other but do not connect: Tantalhohle (435 m deep, 33 km long), explored by Landcsvcrein fur Hohlenkunde Salzbug, and Jagerbruntrogsystern (-1078 m deep., 28 km long). In 2002, after a long absence of formal expeditions to the massif cavers from Sekcja Grotoiazow Wroclaw and Sopocki Klub Taternictwa Jaskiniowego ran three expeditions to its north-western part.
We started our exploration with a cave discovered by a small Italian group in 1995, called Alvermannschach. The cave turned to be our type, two big drops on the start, turning into a narrow canyon with a stream and lots of short rope drops. Some phreatic tubes half-filled with water appear near the bottom of the cave.

Kastanienhohle entrance,
ph. W. Hunt

The water flow and its surges caused by rainfall scared us endlessly and the catastrophic weather and flooding that occurred in this part of Europe at the time of our expedition did not help us in exploration. Despite the obstacles we quickly reached the place were the Italians stopped, and we continued the exploration through narrow squeezes to the sump that crippled further chances for exploration. Next year, during better weather we rechecked the bottom of the cave and finished cartography. We never found the causes of airflow, which is strong in some parts of the cave.
In the mean time we discovered Kastanienhohle. The exploration of this cave was a nice break from wet and cold Alvermannschacht. This cave turned up to be a geologically much older, thus its meanders were dusty dry and the first water was found quite deep in the cave. The cave has fair amount of crystals, big rooms and unusual amount of cave formations as for an alpine setting. The exploration was fun and there was no need to get in the one degree water until we reached local level sumps which were logical continuation of the cave. Diving the sumps did not bring any discoveries because they turned out to be too small for the diver to pass them. The cave has still good potential and will be a sight of future exploration.
The second expedition had the best outcome. We surveyed and discovered over two kilometers of passage. We also had a chance to cave together and do some surface walking with our hosts, members of local Landcsvcrein fur Hohlcnkunde Salzbug and the legendary Walter Klappachcr. One of the entrances pointed during this walk turned out to be an interesting cave called Spaltchen. A cave consisted of a tight meander which leads to scries of drops which intersect horizontal passages that were created when erosional base was much higher than today. During next trips we will focus on surface exploration and we will try to find some other caves where exploration could bring similar results to the two cave systems mentioned in the beginning.

See also:

Wierzbowski M., 2002. Powrót do Hagengebirge. Jaskinie, 29:10.
Wierzbowski M., 2003. Hagengebirge 2003.jaskinie, 34:11-12.
Bartoszewski D., 2005. ,,Suche" lato w Hagengenbirge. Jaskinie, 38:16-17.


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