The second Polish minus thousand in the Tennengebirge Rajmund Kondratowicz Speleoklub "Bobry" Zagan

The Tennalpe valley, photo by A. Zyworonek

Speleoklub Bobry from Zagan has been active in the Tennengebirge massif in Austria for 17 years already. It is there that we had our greatest achievements: Hdllenhöle - P-14 (-455 m), Meanderhöhle - P-4 (-1029 m), several tens of smaller caves, the recently explored Bleikogelhöhle - P-35 (-1010 m). 1996 was the year of the 30th anniversary of our club foundation. Our special reason for satisfaction in the anniversary year was the two successful expeditionsVietnam'96 in April and Austria '96 in August. From 26th July to 11th August 1996 our club went on a surveying trip to the Tennengebirge Ost. At a request of cavers from Salzburg we planned to tag the entrances of the caves we had explored in this area. But, as the Austrians had not prepared the tags, we decided to spend the planned two weeks on doing some lacking surveys and pushing some leads left over

The tent near the entrance to P-35 , photo A. Zyworonek

after our earlier trips. Leads are not in short supply in the Tennen. Moreover, the exploration targets were in the same caves where the surveys were pending, that is in Czerwony Pajak (Red Spider) - P-19 and Bleikogelhöhle - P-35. We had enough equipment and ropes deposited in Laufener hut. There was not much to survey: a gallery from the window behind a tyrolean traverse in the terminal shaft in Red Spider and the allegedly 100 m-deep shaft and some lateral branches in P-35. Having come to Abtenau on July 27th, for two days we transported tackle to the Laufener hut - our base camp. When we decided to explore, the surveying trip turned into a pushing one; we began activity in the mountains or, better say, inside the mountains. On 29th July we went with Robert to survey and push in Red Spider equipped with a 70 m rope. Having surveyed the branch after the tyrolean traverse we started abseiling to a pitch which opens from it. By tossing stones we estimated the depth at no more than 20 m, hence we did not expect a great discovery. We were more

interested in having a look at the window from which a noticeable stream was pouring out. Having descended the shaft we found a fissure going sideways and soon passing into a bell-shaped shaft. An abseil to the end of our 70 m rope still did not permit us to see the bottom. Meanwhile, the intriguing stream pouring from the window made us think of a possible connection with P-13. Everything seemed to indicate that the shaft in P-19 lies 200 m beneath the shaft P-13. On the same day the other part of the team went to P-35. Marcin, Tomek and Rafal rigged to -280 m, Daniel and Jacek to -450 m and they searched at this level. Krzysiek and Zbyszek were searching in the Mokre Kaskady (Wet Cascades) which branch from the main cave at -250 m. Only one team were lucky.

The P-19 (Czerwony Pajak) entrance, photo A. Zyworonek