Shaft Explorations "In den Karen" 

P.W. Jeutter & R. Seebacher    

Abstract  

The authors describe an interesting area in the south-eastern massive of the Totes Gebirge Mountains, where an extraordinary number of shafts appear in a dense small area. They mainly concentrate on the DÖF-Sonnenleiter-Cave-System, a more than 1000 m deep and over 16 km long cave in the centre of the area. It’s 16-year long interesting exploration history and genesis are illustrated. Furthermore previous activities in the area since the fifties and explorations in other caves are mentioned.  

Introduction of the area  

In den Karen (English "In the corries") is a little spot located in the south eastern massive, reaching 3 km N-S and 1.5 km E-W. For those who know the area the name makes sense. The entire place is covered with dolines, shafts and corries. In the south is a lake at 1445 m.a.s.l. the top End of the region is in the north at just a bit more than 2000 m.a.s.l.. During the ice ages a glacier rolled down here, scraped off the limestone and filled the caves with debris. To the East and to the west of this sector are mountain walls leading up to 2200 m.a.s.l.. In the north and in the south are valleys with resurgence at around 700 and 1000 m.a.s.l..   

The main rock is "Dachsteinkalk" a Triassic limestone. All described caves are full developed in this rock. There is a little bit dolomite as well. In the lowest parts of the area are still some big trees but already around 1750 m.a.s.l.. are only scattered spots of low Swiss mountain pines left. Above 1900 m sea level are no plants growing. In harmony with the little vegetation most of the karst features are rather sharp than round. During six to seven months of the year (from October to June) up to six meters of snow cover the area.  

Explorations "Tauplitz-Schachtzone"   

The first time speleologists put their attention to the area was when at 13. March 1948 Herbert Jungbauer, a skier, felt into a shaft in the western part of the sector In den Karen. The rescue team followed him reportedly down to –183 m depth, where they still found only blood, but the shaft continued. Given the circumstances of the time, especially the equipment it is understandable that they didn't follow deeper. Four years later in summer 1951 the speleological society of Austria held a camp at the entrance of what they thought would be the accident-shaft. However it turned out to be not that easy. They did a surface survey of an area of 250 meter x 150 meter and located 43 shafts. This part of “In den Karen” was named Tauplitz Schachtzone. The expedition failed to find the remains of Jungbauer.  

In 1975 French cavers from Doubs, Clerval-Baume and Cavernes took up explorations. Their interest was depth. As soon as a pit was reached they continued vertical. From the beginning they used SRT and introduced the local cavers to this new technique. In 1980 they reportedly managed to reach -827 m depth in the Burgunderschacht of which down to -420 m was surveyed. For a long period of time this used to be the deepest cave in this area. Due to the French caver's lack of interest into horizontal passages they left fragmented maps showing only a part of the caves actual extension.  

The "Verein für Höhlenkunde in Wien und Niederösterreich" (Vienna caving club) continued with the work in the western sector of In den Karen till today. They produced excellent maps and exceeded the "Burgunderschacht" from 1.5 km to 15 km in length, but did not follow the French tracks below -600 m depth.    The French reported that a body was seen in the ice at the bottom of the shaft labelled "II". The Vienna cavers brought up some bone-parts later, which have been buried from Jungbauer's wife in Linz.

Explorations "In den Karen"-Centre /East   

The main field of In den Karen was still a blind spot in terms of caves. In 1985 three boys 15, 16 and 18 years old (Klaus Jäger and the authors) came by and found a lot of pits. Though not as densely located than in Tauplitz Schachtzone, interesting enough for shaft-hungry youngsters. Until 2000 were 28 caves discovered, explored and surveyed in this area.  

Aquamineralschacht 1986 (R. Seebacher & P. Jeutter)

In this year, we explored and surveyed several shafts and connected all of them with a surface survey. Since then we continued to do explorations there every year for a week in summer and some days in autumn. The first remarkable discovery was in 1986 the Big Brother-pit, a 154m deep single drop in the cave DÖF-Schacht (DÖF stands for German-Austrian-Friendship). In 1989 we reached -322 m at a siphon in DÖF-Schacht after blasting a vertical squeeze at -277m. The same year Canyonschacht, another cave, with several imposing shafts including a single -145m drop was pushed and eventually explored to a length of 2040 meter and a depth of -287 m.     

There was not a single horizontal passage in DÖF-Schacht and its bottom End of '89 was definite. A tiny little crack just after the Big Brother shaft made us trying again in 1991. The good news was that it continued the bad news how it continued. An incredible meander named Exzess led eventually into another big pit. The meander is 40m long and caver not taller than 1,80 with a shoe size smaller than nine, no helmet, no SRT-gear and good nerves needs 25 minutes to negotiate it. It ends at a narrow one-man-platform just as big to stand and put on the SRT-gear before descending further. This year we reached -527m with open End.     

The third potential cave in the central area was Sonnenleiterschacht. After a big pit it ended again in a narrow meander passage. In 1992 Robert abseiled alone down to -165 m to check out a slippery vertical squeeze. After two meters he reached ground, crawled a bit further and looked into the next drop. This drop is actually 190 m deep. However on the way to the ground one passes two ledges for that it can not be regarded one drop. What followed was probably the most interesting discovery in the area so far; a horizontal phreatic tunnel system. The passages there have convenient 6-10m in diameters. Keyhole profiles reach up to 20 m in height. In the same year the surveyed length climbed up from 323 m to 3135 m and the depth from -165 m to -582 m.   

The explorations continued in Sonnenleiterschacht and in 1993 we reached a depth of 735 meters at 5439m length. During the same year an new cave was found, Geisterjägerschacht. This is again a good example for a just vertical developed cave. Two big single drops are on the way down: -92 m and the Sledge Hammer Schacht with -191 m. The other steps to the bottom at -431 m are following each other in a way that they appear on the section survey as a straight line. There are no horizontal passages. Due to proper surveying we found a tricky connection to Sonnenleiterschacht in 1994. This improved the vertical distance to 785 m. Further explorations brought the cave to 7483 m in length at a straight line distance of 800 m in this year.  

To continue with exploration in DÖF-Schacht requests good weather conditions. In 1994 this it seemed to fit again for a push into the depth. This time there was a camp inside the cave necessary. Though we were used to that from Sonnenleiterschacht, the DÖF-Schacht lacked of any suitable place for that. We decided for a small bottom of a shaft at -380 m, next to a loud waterfall. There is simply no other more or less flat place. The camp turned out to be terrible. A little rope prevented us from slipping into the waterfall's little pool. Further the whole place prevented us from much sleep. However we pushed the cave down to exactly -700 m where we ran out of rope at a big pit. We guessed 70-100 m for it. The water falls down here producing a lot of fog. This brought it to the name Nebelschacht (fog-pit). Robert's foot was inflamed and the returns from the bottom up to the camp and the next day out of the cave were difficult. Outside a lot of snow felt during our trip and we hardly could leave the little entrance corrie. Our tend was collapsed from the snow. We had to stay for the night and really everything was wet. The next day some friends rescued us using tour-skies. 

We had a bad summer and a great autumn in 1995, just the perfect conditions for another trip into DÖF-Schacht. Everything was fantastic, no rain, no snow. The camp's waterfall was tame. Nebelschacht turned out to be 95 m deep followed by many nice little steps with pools. It is under these conditions one of the nicest parts of the cave, however one must not forget how it will look like here during normal or even flood times! The part was named Viktoriafälle (Victoria falls) as the stream had already the name Zambezi from the 1994 trip. We reached –839 m. The cave continues at this point with another little, but convenient wide pit and a recognisable draught.     

In 1999 there was eventually a winter trip into deeper sections reaching –962 depth at a still open end. It was a altogether five day trip and a bivouac was installed at – 505 m depth in one of the blind shafts in the floor of the “500er-Gang”. There is very little space and difficult to reach (a 5 m drop to climb in underwear), but it is dry, quiet and so far more convenient than the old bivouac at –380. Below the point of turn of 1995 is a small step followed by the 56 m deep “Abyss” shaft and several other smaller shafts (Geschenkschächte). Here is still a bit of a draught and so far there are no signs of the karst water table.

In the meantime explorations continued also in the horizontal system of the Sonnenleiterschacht. A difficult passage could be overcome at the point where the huge phreatic tunnels of the “Pipeline” ended at a boulder choke. During several trips a 15 m high wall was climbed, a big chamber reached and two squeezes opened until eventually the big phreatic tunnels continued behind. This was the way to several extra kilometres of new land. Until summer 1999 the cave’s length was extended to 9772 m.  

In the same year the connection to the close by Sonnenleiterschacht was found in the horizontal passages at –350 m depth after three previous trips into that section. Also here a bivouac was necessary and only with the last piece of rope the traverse could be negotiated. With the higher Geisterjägerschacht-entrance of Sonnenleiterschacht the Döf-Sonnenleiter-Cave-System grow to a vertical range of 1040 m and a length of over 12 km. 

Another winter tour into the DÖF-Schacht in March 2000 with the aim to reach the karst water table was stopped by water at a depth of –550m. A side passage named “Mr. Freeze” was pushed and connected to the known system at a depth of –650 m. This enables now to descent to this depths without serious flood-dangers.  

During a trip into the southern sections of Sonnenleiterschacht more than 1 km of passages could be found during only one survey trip. The newly discovered parts with huge phreatic tunnels were named “Patagonien” with a singe tunnel of straight more than 400 m named “Magellan Straße”. Especially the trips into Patagonia are responsible for the further increase of the Döf-Sonnenleiter-Cave-System.  

Status of the explorations in the DÖF-Sonnenleiter-Cave-System in April 2001:

Surveyed cave length:             16.247 m

Max. vertical distance:            1.042 m

Max. horizontal distance:        1.545 m  

The explorations will continue into the depth and towards a connection to the Grubstein cave systems, which are about 400 m away from the southern parts of the system. Also in the focus is a possible entrance directly into the southern parts since we are closer to the edge of the mountain and with only about 200 m rock coverage above the cave. 

K. Jäger, P. Jeutter, R. Seebacher and since 1992 Patrick Hautzinger have carried out most of the explorations.  During the years several other cavers supported the team, either through trip joining or helping with material movements on surface or underground. We would like to thank all of them for their support.  

Character of the DÖF-Sonnenleiter-Cave-System and remarks to the speleogenesis  

Most of the corries, dolines and shafts open to the surface End between -5 m and -80 m depth. They are either blocked with rocks and/or snow. The glacier has shuffled a lot of material into them on its way down to the valleys. Due to the long winter period with much snow and the low cave temperatures of 1.5° C to 3.0° C the snow stays during the year in the holes and a part of it becomes ice. The recently warm climate has opened some of these caves to the speleologists, e.g. Geisterjägerschacht.     

Generally only narrow entrances, lead into open, unblocked and vertical developed caves. Often this are broad pits like Sledge Hammer (-191m, 20 m x 15 m), Big Brother (-154m x 16m x 10 m), Schleusenschacht (-45 m, -88 m, -56 m) and Durchfallschacht (-146 m, 30 m x 10 m).  

The only horizontal passage in the central caves so far is reached on the altitude 1550 m. In the three known feeders to this passage is this 330 m to 400 m below surface. A long time ago this was the level of the karst water table. The big tunnels Pipeline, Metro, Nordwestpassage, Große Kluft and Magellanstraße have collected the water and brought it to a big resurgence, probably in an area which does not exist anymore, became a much deeper valley. This "Collecteur" is extensive and not at all fully explored. So far around 13 km of it are surveyed and the straight-line distance is over 1,5 km.     

Many shafts lead into these large chambers and today most of them continue further down as the water table is dropped some hundred meters. Today the "Collecteur" is fossil and dry. For it's exploration the passing pits bring the necessity of many traverses to be able to continue horizontally. So far three of the big pits reaching deeper than 1550 m altitude have been followed. Two of them ended at the altitudes 1175 m and 1302 m. The deepest point reached is “Geschenkschächte” at 916 m.a.s.l.. The way water follows through a karst range is not always easy to understand. Through tests with spores in the fifties we know that the lake Steyrersee south of In den Karen has it's resurgence on the north western side of the mountains 30 km away. Although, just 2 km away in the south of the lake is a big spring, Sagtümpel, with water emerging at. 50-3000 l/s, depending on the season. Sagtümpel lies at 1020 m altitude and this is exactly the level reached by the French in Burgunderschacht. Two big springs in the North and in the West could likely be the resurgence of the system. Firstly the „Steyr Ursprung“ in the North at around 700 m altitude. Secondly the „Stimitz-Ursprung“ at the western edge of the mountains. Both springs are much bigger than Sagtümpel. Stimitz reaches up to 10 m³/s in springtime. The deep sections of the cave system are already below the Sagtümpel spring (“Abyss” and lower). Therefore this cannot be the resurgence. To the Steyr or Stimitz Ursprung would be an additional depth potential of around 150 - 200 m.  Yet at 916 m.a.s.l. there are no signs of mud announcing a soon end at a siphon. There are hints in other deep caves in Austria that there could be another "Collecteur" located between 800m and 1000m altitude, about 1000m below surface.     

Weitere Literatur/ Further Literature:  

Franke, H.W. 1956: Wildnis unter der Erde, Kapitel 4 "Expedition ins Totes Gebirge". Brockhaus,  Wiesbaden  

Franke, H.W. 1958: Wilderness under the Earth, Chapter 4 "Expedition to the Totes Gebirge". The Scientific Book Club, London.

Herrmann, Eckard (Editor) 1993: Die Tauplitz-Schachtzone, wissenschaftliches Beiheft Nr. 44 zur Zeitschrift  "Die Höhle". Verband österreichischer Höhlenforscher, Wien.    

Jeutter, Peter W. & Seebacher, Robert 1985-1999: Verschiedene Ausgaben der "Mitteilungen" des Vereins für Höhlenkunde in Obersteier, Bad Mitterndorf.   

Jeutter, Peter W. & Seebacher, Robert 1999: Tiefenvorstoß im DÖF-Schacht, Die Höhle, 50 (2):91. Wien.   

Pfarr, Theo & Stummer, Günter 1988: Die längsten und tiefsten Höhlen Österreichs, wissenschaftliches Beiheft Nr. 35 zur Zeitschrift  "Die Höhle". Verband österreichischer Höhlenforscher, Wien.  

Seebacher, Robert & Steinberger, Sepp 2000: Das DÖF-Sonnenleiter-Höhlensystem im Toten Gebirge – tiefste Höhle der Steiermark, Die Höhle, 51 (1):2000. Wien.