A stupidly deep cave in Austria, or something like that!

Rob

Well-known member
Just heard through a long and very unreliable line of people that there's a new 2nd-deepest-in-the-world record just been set somewhere in the Alps, i think it was in Austria. Anyone know any more about this? 
 

graham

New member
Had a text from someone on the CUCC trip this morning saying they have 4 km of new passage, 1 of which was below 600 m, but nothing about absurd depths of that nature.
 
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hoehlenforscher

Guest
Just read that a couple of long caves in the totesgebirge (CUCC area) have been joined together to make the longest in the EU @ 120km. Still looking for the depth record, although the deepest cave was (for a short time), until recently in Austria anyway.  ;)
 
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Langthwaite Pot

Guest
This is from rom the last CUCC expo update:

"The biggest news in Totes Gebirge caving lately has come from the other side of this gap: Clemens Tenreiter and his gang from the Linz caving club have finally made the connection between Feuertal and Raucherkarhoehle, to form Austria's first system over 100km long -- the total is 120km."

George.
 

Joel Corrigan

New member
Just got back from the Dachstein (well, actually from the Pyrenees which was kind of on our way back...) and hadn't heard anything about a deep cave, only the 120km long one.  Clemens and co were very smug but we all know that the Hirlatz is still the big mamma of the area, as it's 96km long, over 1.1km deep, and has only one entrance (apart from a long and deep sump).  Think the one in the Totty Burger has multiple entrances.

I wonder if the deep one might be the cave in the Untersberg (Germany) that Ulrich Meier and co have been pushing?  Last I heard it was 960m deep and they were due down a week or so back to try to take it to a kilometre.  Foolishly I chose to go bimbling down the PSM instead...  Will find out next week how they got on.
 

Duncan

Member
A Russian friend sent me this a week or so ago:

On 7 th Aug 2007 Evgeny Snetkov reported in the Cavers Mailing List (which covers cavers from the former USSR) about connection, which was made on 2th Aug 2007 by expedition of the Russian Geographic Society between Illuzia cave & Snezhnaya-Mezhennogo system, the depth amplitude of the whole system is - 1750 meters, which makes it the second deepest cave in the world.  The total length of system is 23 km.

Brief info: The Snezhnaya-Mezhennogo-Illuzia system is located in the Hipsta mountain range in Abkhazia on the Northern-Eastern shore of the Black Sea. The entrances of caves are as follows (from left to right): 5th - Illuzia cave (entrance at 2385 m, depth: - 513 m, length: 1157 m), 6th - Mezhennogo cave (entrance at 2015 m, depth: - 1370 meters, length: 19 km ), 7th - Snezhnaya cave (entrance at 1980 m ).

Here is some photos from the last year expedition to Illuzia Cave by one of the expedition members (Maxim Popov)
 
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Thomas Matthalm

Guest
Hi Joel,

we pushed Riesending cave to -1058 depth (first German -1000m) and 9.9km length. Still going:)

Cheers,
Thomas
 
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hoehlenforscher

Guest
Well done Thomas. Give my regards to Ulrich. I would love to get back to the Untersberg and have a look at your cave. The last time I was there we were working on the Latschenshacht at -400m and thought it was already very deep! That was the hardest day of caving in my life.

I found the following translation of your success........


"Munich ? Five days of darkness around. Five days, in which only headlamps show the way, which suddenly discontinues and gives way to canyons, that seem to be without a ground.

That?s the way through Untersberg (1973 meters) in the region of "Berchtesgadener Land", bavaria?s most mysterious mountain (see below). For the first time, a bavarian-swabian expedition has managed to descent more than one kilometer from the entrance in a heigth of 1879 meters. The five members of the consortium for speleology in "Bad Cannstadt" made it to a depth of 1056 meters to the brink of the "Riesending-Schachth?hle" (a cave).

In Germany nobody has ever descended that far into a cave. B?rbel Vogel, chairwoman of the association of german speleology, called this a sensation.

Dr. Ulrich Meyer of the consortium "Bad Cannstadt" explained how this was possible: "The team could conquer (?) a very narrow part of the corridor at the hitherto end of the cave."

In doing so, the expedition discovered 800 meters of new corridors that were measured. In a depth of 930 meters a lake was found, that could only be crossed by a rubber boat. The lake lies at about the same height of the hamlet Ettenberg. "If there was an exit, we could have went out and have a snack at the local restaurant.", says participant of the expedition Thomas Matthalm (32). Unfortunately, this exit doesn?t exist in "Riesending" (giant thing), the giant cave, that was created by the lime-dissolving power of water, and whose chasms and caves keep people?s fantasy busy for centuries. Rightly so? Matthalm: "We speleologists make jokes about it ourselves, looking for swords or something like that just for fun, or for emperor Barbarossa himself...". Maybe something that hardens the myth will be found in one of the all in all 60 caves of the Untersberg. Because at least the end of the cave "Riesending" seems not be have been reached. "It could go deeper for 150 meters", thinks speleologist Matthalm. And theoretically, the end of the cave lies 4 kilometers further, in the cave of the well of F?rstenbrunn. A follow-up expedition is already planned...
 

Joel Corrigan

New member
Just got back from German/Austrian border and Riesending in the Untersburg is now 10.3km long (depth unchanged at over a kilometre).  Likely to be Germany's longest cave soon, as well as the deepest.  It was a chilly 5 day trip down a right monster of a hole.  There will be some stunning photos in a forthcoming issue of Geo magazine by Carsten Peter, the guy who did the shots of the Naica crystal cavern/mine in Mexico recently for National Geographic.

Not certain what the depth potential is but it's a long way to the resurgence and the cave is descending very slowly down big phreas.  Limit of exploration in the main tunnel was a pond where we'd have got our feet wet (obviously that's the end of the line for pansies like me!) but there's a hell of a wind coming through so looking good.  Down the shaft below/before the main tunnel we were stopped at a steeply-descending phreatic ramp that heads off into blackness.  And in a side passage we found a huge moist breakdown chamber with a massive wet pitch.  Only way to tackle this is with an immersion suit or a magical umbrella.

Great trip, and hats off to the gang who have been pushing it for the last six years or so.  Oh, and although many of the locals use Scurion lamps my prototype Bison did me just fine!  5 long days on 3 x flat packs is good enough for me.

   
 
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Thomas Matthalm

Guest
Hi guys,

Riesending-Schachth?hle is now just under 13km long and -1058m deep. This makes the cave Germany?s longest and deepest.
Some pictures + Survex plan/elevation are available at www.lehmpfuhl.org.

Cheers,
Thomas
 
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