
"Weather Hole" was the former name of the cave, because of the
remarkable fog clouds that gathered around the entry hole before the
arrival of a thunderstorm.
The first man who entered the cave around 1900 was Peter Gamsjäger.
In search of his lost goat he was surprised by bad weather, looked
for shelter inside the cave and discovered the ice formations in the
light of his matches. It took some years after this event until the
fist explorations were possible. 1910 the ice abyss directly behind
the entry of the cave was mastered, 1913 the cave was opened to the
public.
The reason for the building of ice is the special way how the air
circulates, in winter into and in summer out of the cave. Most of
the ice is built in spring when the snow melts and the water seeps
through the rocks into the cave. If you turn around (in
this panorama) you can see the 'frozen waterfall' which had to
be mastered by the first explorers. Meanwhile there is a carved path
in the rock which you can also see if you look upwards.
Special thanks to Mr. Höll from the 'Austrian Federal Forests' who
made the shooting possible.
More information available at
www.dachstein.at
Panoramas captured for the Worldwide
Panorama Event
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