Stellerweghöhle - Bug collecting with Karl
Sat 12 Aug 1978
Andy W
Karl [Gaisberger] arrived at 10am and we drove up to the plateau café. Walked to 1623/41a (Stellerweghöhle) which is very well concealed in Bunde. The phreatic-looking horizontal entrance led on into a hading rift and then to a huge snowpile below another entrance. Below the snow, the rift is very extensive, and at about 45 degrees, but further on it gets a bit more vertical.
The big pitch at the end is beyond a very nasty traverse through a window, so we couldn't see much, having brought no rope. On the way through and back, Karl kept looking under boulders and at one stage showed us a pile of bat bones, so we thought he was looking for bat remains, but when he found what he was looking for it proved to be a small creature - little worms c ½ cm long which he collected with forceps. Eventually, we had four, and left.
On the way back, we passed various entrances, and did a short trip in Elchhöhle (1623/31) which is a large phreatic tube in horizontally bedded rock, with lots of boulders. Karl again kept looking for bugs, despite having left his collecting gear at the entrance. Then he found a small beetle under a rock at which he seemed most upset not to have his gear, so Doug rushed off to get it. When he returned, the beetle had escaped, so Karl was dismantling the cave to find it. Large rocks crunched and eventually the terrified beetle was collected - Karl was very pleased as it is only the second specimen of that species found in Austria. We exitted and had lunch at the Loser Hütte before returning to camp and drowning the beetle in Vodka. Andy.
Andy W
id1978-41-1 12th August
Karl [Gaisberger] arrived at 10am and we drove up to the plateau café. Walked to 1623/41a (Stellerweghöhle) which is very well concealed in Bunde. The phreatic-looking horizontal entrance led on into a hading rift and then to a huge snowpile below another entrance. Below the snow, the rift is very extensive, and at about 45 degrees, but further on it gets a bit more vertical.
The big pitch at the end is beyond a very nasty traverse through a window, so we couldn't see much, having brought no rope. On the way through and back, Karl kept looking under boulders and at one stage showed us a pile of bat bones, so we thought he was looking for bat remains, but when he found what he was looking for it proved to be a small creature - little worms c ½ cm long which he collected with forceps. Eventually, we had four, and left.
On the way back, we passed various entrances, and did a short trip in Elchhöhle (1623/31) which is a large phreatic tube in horizontally bedded rock, with lots of boulders. Karl again kept looking for bugs, despite having left his collecting gear at the entrance. Then he found a small beetle under a rock at which he seemed most upset not to have his gear, so Doug rushed off to get it. When he returned, the beetle had escaped, so Karl was dismantling the cave to find it. Large rocks crunched and eventually the terrified beetle was collected - Karl was very pleased as it is only the second specimen of that species found in Austria. We exitted and had lunch at the Loser Hütte before returning to camp and drowning the beetle in Vodka. Andy.