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Published: June 17th 2013
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The Dachstein mountains
Seen from around Mt Krippenstein It's another hot day today at 32 degrees and certainly not one to go biking. We walked up to the Krippenstein Seilbahn and were wet through with sweat before the day had barely begun. The cable way goes up to 2108m so it's long and high. It does it in two legs where the first stop is at the location for the Mammoth Cave and Ice Cave. Since it was a very warm and clear day it was best to go to the top first.
Once out at the top station there is a huge expanse of mountains for 360 degrees. The Dachstein is the highest at just under 3000m. The vast area is a huge karst landscape of limestone and dolomite with the typical look of our Takaka limestone at home. There are some of the largest caves in Austria in this area (up to 97km) and also fossils although I have yet to see any in the local rocks, only in shops. The basin at the top is huge and you can imagine it being filled with a vast glacier at one time feeding the many lakes in the area. Now the glaciers are only around the highest
Me on one of the 5 Finger platforms
What a view. The platform is out over a straight drop down. peaks and still receding.
After a walk around the area admiring the many views in every direction we walked to the Welterbeblick Five Fingers which is a viewing platform with five fingers sticking out from it on which you can stand. It is anchored to the cliff and extends out into the void. When you look down through the glassed floor it is to the valley bottom far below and out towards Lake Hallstatt. And yes, I did go out on it despite my fear of heights - if there are sides I'm okay.
We ate our lunch in the shadow of the radio tower because there was absolutely nowhere to shelter up there although it was a little cooler than the valley.
We headed down in the seilbahn to the middle station and did a tour of the Ice Cave. If anyone visits this area of Austria, this is a "must see". It is just fantastic and beautiful. There was a 20 minute, hot as hell walk up the hill to the cave entrance where we were met by the guide for the tour. We put on all our warm gear and entered into the -8
degrees cave. Talk about extremes. The first part of the cave is like many other limestone caves with large caverns and stalagmites and stalagtites. Soon we entered into the ice area and what a sight to behold. Fantastic ice forms, metres thick ice and glittering with icicles. It's like being on an internal glacier with rivers of thick shaped ice. The ice is formed by water which seeps from the Dachstein plateau down into the cave through small cracks and joins in the cliff. When outside temperatures lie above freezing but the caves still contain very cold air, the water freezes and forms magnificent ice shapes.
Going back into the hot air was a shock to the system. Back in the Seilbahn, we glided down in front of soaring limestone cliffs and eventually back to the Base Station. From there we walked back to Haus Hepi and did wonder why when there was a bus. Needless to say we arrived back, yet again in a heat sweat. It took ages to cool down. We believe the heat will continue at least until Friday and then there will be rain. We'll see. Maybe there's no happy medium - it's either
The ice cave
This is a must see. Superb. Amazing very hot, or wet - we're in the mountains - it's unpredictable.
The evening meal (as always, excellent) was once again on the deck with the telling of many stories and laughs.
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