The Southern Tennengebirge Jaroslaw Rogalski Akademicki Klub Grotolazow

The Tennengebirge is one of the massifs in the Salzburger Alps. It is the biggest karst plateau in this part of the Alps, high up to 2100 - 2300 m. It is a gigantic white desert of limestone rubble, grooved by karst hollows. In the Tennengebirge there are a few deep and big cave systems already explored as for exemple: Eisäesenwelt, Schwer-Höhlen-system, Cosanostraloch-BergerPlatteneck Höhle. However, when we look at the location of these caves, we can see that the majority of them are at the rim of this plateau. The middle part of this big, karst sponge is still waiting for recognition. The hydrologic conditions show that the best way to get there is from the southern part of the massif.

The task of this paper is to present the activities of a Polish group of cavers of "FAKS" in the southern rim of the Tennengebirge, in the region of the peaks Kemetstein and Wermutschneid. The reason why we decided to explore there is in short presented above. I Krzysztof Makowski organized two expeditions in 1985 and 1988; it was the first period of this exploration. They penetrated the regions of Kemetstein and the blind valley Tiefenkar. At once it was obvious that the caves found below the rim of the plateau were those with the biggest chance of getting down the massif. Above this border, the ubiquitous rubble choked every slit. There were found a few entrances in the southern flank of the Tennengebirge. Three caves were chosen for systematic exploration: Ariadnahöhle, the Grosse Kemetsteinhöhle (already known) and the Schnee Maria Höhle. The entrance to Ariadnahöhle is situated in the western flank of the Tiefenkar valley, at 2030 m. The initial parts are like in any alpine cave - a narrow meander with many pitches. 200 m below something completely new begins. The steep series drops into vast passages which develop horizontaly. This level of huge halls and passages (between 1600 and 1900 m), so characteristic for the Salzburger Alps, is known in slang of Polish speleologists as "gangi". We found it also in this cave, and this parts were called this name - "Gangi"! They are decorated by wonderful dripstones, basins of cave pearls and little lakes surrounded by fabulous calcareous flowstones. In the first period of exploration we concentrated on finding the way down. So we left the fabulous passages "Gangi" and continued down just along the big underground stream, by passing through pitches and meanders. More or less 700 m below the surface,

below the huge pitch "P. 80" the series divided into two mud passages. The first one led to the depth 724 m and the way was stopped by mud siphons. The second one dropped into the passages made by the river and also stopped at the depth - 738 m. The exploration was finished in front of the next narrow cascade. Grosse Kemetsteinhöhle is well known to tourists - it is a big tunnel with two entrances piercing the rock of Kemetstein. Here, in one of the side passages we managed to get down through the ice into the lower parts. The cave appeared to have a lot of passages on different levels. The explored series are 3 km long and are up to 150 m deep. Their character is identical as the "Gangi" in the Ariadnahöhle. Unfortunately, the exploration could not continue because of silt and heaps of rubble, which choked passages to the ceiling. So we gave up the exploration in this cave. Schnee Maria Höhle is the highest situated cave (2147 m), it lies practicaly just at the rim of the plateau. At the very entrance we found very narrow and fragile parts which were very difficult to go by. In 1985 we managed to pass by the first bottom at the - 50 m. During the next exploration it was a rule - we got to the choked bottom, which we had to pass by narrow and brittle corridors above. In this way we got to - 500 m, where the cave changed into very narrow meander. At the end of it there is a new pitch, but it had to wait till the next exploration. Definitely we ended our activity at - 600 m, with plans for the future. During the expedition in 1988 it was made a film - "Below the Alps" (Pod podszewke Alp) - for the Polish Television.

Ariadnahöhle, "Gangi", photo A. Dajek Kemetstein, view from the north, Dajek