"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