Hölloch – Weekend in a Cave

Hölloch is currently the 10th longest cave in the world (it used to be the first). Spending a weekend there was a great experience that I can only recommend. It was also one of the toughest trips I've ever done.

Saturday

After a short briefing, we left the outer world and entered the underground. My mind wondered about a lot of things:

• How will we cope with the darkness? Answer from the future: just fine.
• How will we cope with narrow spaces? Answer from the future: mostly fine.
• Will we be afraid of getting trapped between rocks? Answer from the future: yes, a few times.
• Will it be physically demanding? Answer from the future: you bet!

The first 2 hours to the bivouac were easy hiking with occasional ladders and ropes. The corridors were wide and spacious.

First part was exactly like mountain hiking.

Under a the biggest waterfall we've seen in the cave.

We dropped our stuff at the bivouac and went to explore the cave. The corridors were getting smaller and smaller. Up to the bivouac, we were mostly standing upright, but now we appreciated every moment when we could stand up. We crouched, we crawled and everything started to hurt. I've also crashed many times into pointy rocks in the walls.

I didn't have to breathe out to pass through but Dano did.

We saw some of the best cave formations of Hölloch, but it was nothing compared to what you can see in the Slovak public caves.

These get destroyed during floods.

At about 8 PM, our guide asked us if we wanted to continue and I was the only one in the group who said no. Dano later told me that I just said what everyone else was thinking. The guide said that usually only one group per year goes further than us, so we still felt good about our stamina.

In total, we climbed about 1000 altitude meters in 10 hours. When Jakub told me about the trip, I imagined a light cave hiking with an occasional ladder or a rope, but this was some tough shit.

We went to bed but I couldn't fall asleep, because it was too hot. The cave has a stable temperature of 6 degrees Celsius, but it felt too hot in my sleeping bag.

Bivouac with sleeping space, kitchen and eating tables.

Sunday

We went for a fairly easy walk in the morning, checking out more cave formations.

I was impressed with all the infrastructure they have inside the cave. For example, there is a drinking water system that uses just gravity. Or you can send an SMS from the cave using very very long antennas transmitting long waves that pass through hundreds of meters of rock.

It was time for the local Rutschbahn (slide in German), where you slide on one shoe through a steep corridor. The record for it is around one minute, but we went much slower than that. We still hurt ourselves, though.

Before we exited the cave, we also made a small detour and took a boat over a small lake inside the cave. During rain, the water in the lake can rise up quickly and you can't come back the same way.

At this point I was really tired and really looking forward to the exit. Vladimír was not and he needed to crawl through every little passage that fits a person.

Typical Vladimír.

The end

At home I discovered that I had a lot of bruises on my body and two bleeding wounds on my back. Every one of my muscles hurt, but it was definitely worth it. Caving is hard but beautiful.

Photos album merged from multiple cameras is on Google Photos.

Snow cave in Binntal

I've slept in a snow cave for the first time ever and can only recommend the experience.

Saturday

We started the trip in Binn and went towards Mässeralp. At Manibode, we took out a probe to measure the snow depth. It was between 1.5 and 2 metres, just about enough for a snow cave. We left our stuff there and started skinning up towards Grosses Schinhorn. Almost immediately, I felt out of power and Vašek and Kubo were too far ahead. I decided to turn back.

Breithorn and Bietschhorn

It turned out to be a good decision. Since it was getting late and we had a snow cave to dig, Kubo and Vašek didn’t reach Grosses Schinhorn anyway and the good snow ended exactly at my turning point.

Back at Manibode, we found a spot with 2 meters of snow where we didn’t need to dig out an entrance corridor, because the wind did it for us. When planning the trip, we estimated 2 hours to dig the snow cave and that’s about how long it took. Next time I’ll bring a snow saw though.

Vašek working on the roof

Me standing at the entrace of our cave

We marked the top of the snow cave with skis to avoid accidental destruction

The cave had 3G internet, despite being in 2000-meter altitude in the middle of nowhere under 1.5 meters of snow. I have no idea how that's possible.

The views towards Aletschhorn (4193 m) from the cave were stunning.

Aletschhorn before sunset

Aletschhorn after sunset

Aletschhorn in the morning

Sunday

Even with an open entrance, the cave was around 0 degrees Celsius throughout the night. We could have made it warmer, but as Kubo explained to me, you want to err on the freezing side, otherwise you end up very wet from the melting snow and less comfortable than in a freezing but dry cave.

A 5-star hotel at 2000 meters with 3G internet

The night was surprisingly very good. In fact, I got the best sleep in two months (about 10 hours) despite drying wet clothes in my sleeping bag and keeping 3 liters of water warm so that it wouldn’t freeze.

Our plan for the day was to climb Schwarzhorn (3108 m). When we reached the saddle below Fleschhorn, we saw the last part involved too much climbing and as it was getting late, we changed the plans to go to peak 3112m instead. Just like the day before, I felt out of power and too slow, so I stayed below the summit. We had a bus to catch and too little time.

Kubo and Vašek successfully reached the top and had some great views.

Pizzo Cervandone on the right

Vašek at peak 3112 m pointing at Bietschhorn

The downhill ride offered steep skiing in great snow with a spectacular scenery created by fog and the Sun.

We reached the snow cave for the last time, packed things and continued to Binn to catch the bus.

The end

A short selection of my photos is on Flickr and photos from all 3 of us is on Google Photos.