Ice Cave Kings
For thousands of years caves have fascinated mankind, from their place as havens protecting humans from the perils of the outside world to havens of underground adventure for those with inquisitive natures and a high threshold for claustrophobia…like the eight adventurers who decided a photoshoot in one of Europe’s biggest glacial cave would be a good idea. On skis.
WORDS and IMAGES Markus Berger
Six in the morning and it’s already pouring with rain. Grey fog hangs between the peaks of a mountain range known as Totes Gebirge, part of the Northern Limestone Alps. It’s cold for early September. Nonetheless, even the smallest stain of snow is nowhere to be seen. And that’s what makes the sight of eight young men laden with skiing and photo-equipment, fighting their way up over wet rock, even more at odds with normality.
But then their destination, the Schwarzmooskogel glacial cave in Austria, is anything but ordinary. And nor is the cave men’s mission: the first-ever skiing photo shoot in the extraordinary confines of one of Europe’s biggest ice caverns.
Professional skier, Lothar Hofer, has been chosen as the first person ever to make a telemark turn in the cave. I’m a photographer who specialises in extreme sports – one with a with a penchant for rather unusual projects – and I have been charged with capturing the moment.
The night before the expedition I spend time stuffing photo-equipment into huge backpacks. I have no idea how the cave will look from the inside, nor the logistics of shooting its interior, so I make the decision to take all available gear – just in case. It’s a decision I’ll regret with every step of the ascent.
Eight adventurers make their way up to the cave entrance, each carrying 30kg of equipment: safety gear, ski gear, lighting, camera equipment, ropes. It’s an unfolding journey of the unknown for all bar the one person present who actually knows the hidden path to the cave entrance. Few have stood in its gaping confines. None have ever set a ski on its icy flanks.
Our outdoor gear is no match for the pelting rain. Everyone is soaked to the core. Furthermore, we vastly underestimate the time it is taking to reach the cave entrance. Every so often we encounter steep rock faces, which need to be traversed while heavy backpacks team up with gravity to try to pull us backwards into oblivion. The rocks are slippery and it gets colder by the minute and with every vertical metre. Skis tied to backpacks get caught in thick vegetation. The ascent is sheer torment.
After four hours our expedition team reaches a height of 1700 meters and the chosen Schwarzmooskogel cave entrance, first explored by the Cambridge University Caving Club. Inside is a studio of grandeur formed by the unknowable powers of nature: 120 metres long, 80 metres wide and over 50 metres high. This is the ‘Hall of the Snow Volcano’.
The impressive glacial cavern has never been opened to the general public. Few have heard of it at all and even fewer have ever set foot on its pristine ice. Excitement among the our number matches the enormous grace of the cave, and the strenuous ascent is forgotten the second we enter.
Time is crucial. Resting is not. The crew quickly but carefully rappell into the cave system. One after the other they glide down into the shaft and are swallowed by the darkness. The sound of climbing irons touching down on the ice below their feet richochets off stout cave walls. Every ounce of experience is drawn on to move safely on the frozen surface.
A power pack carried in for the lighting is turned on, its electricity flowing through leads and bulbs to bathe the cavern with artificial light. The dimensions of the colossal hollow are revealed for the first time. Everyone is staggered by the sheer size and beauty of this subterranean ice world. Crystalline figurines of ice project up to 15 metres into the void above. But there is no time to marvel: there is only time to ski and shoot.
As the photo equipment is set up, Lothar searches for the perfect spot to perform his trademark telemark turn: easy on a regular slope covered with soft powder…not so easy in a cave made of ice. Eventually the pro chooses a spot to test his skills and – if they fail – then his luck. I OK his position after setting up five photo flashes. For the first time the possibility hangs in the crisp but earthen air that this might work; we might just get an extreme ski image in a place as surreal as it is frightening.
A few attempts later it is clear that Lothar will need to hold his breath after he starts his turn, otherwise condensation will blur the picture. No problem. After hours of hard work I’m pleased with the results.
Meanwhile, time presses and no-one relishes the idea of descending into the valley after sunset. Still, the ‘hero’ shot is yet to be captured: a turn on the so-called ice-volcano.
The way up the sleek mound is troublesome and at the top Lothar realises that this hill of ice is much steeper than it looks from below. More troubling, there’s hardly enough space for a safe turn at the bottom. Lothar will have to execute a super quick pull up, lest he get a face full of multi-million year-old ice and rock.
I motion him to take off. The bright spotlights force Lothar to perform the turn blind. He opens his eyes in time to skid to a halt, teeth and nose intact, a safe distance from the rock face. I signal success.
Before leaving, we spend some minutes in silence, soaking up the wonder of the inside of a mountain. In the moment Lothar becomes self-aware: he’s the first person to ski inside this cave.
He also knows in that instant that he could easily be the last. Ice inside Schwarzmooskogel has been melting at an alarming pace for the last few years, a development very much comparable to the retreat of glaciers all around the world.
Yet the Schwarzmooskogel ice cave can be saved. Using soft measures of control such as covering the cave entrances in summer, the ice cavern would be able to regenerate itself. To date these measures are only used for caves that have been made available for tourists. That’s got to change.
The story you’re reading right now, as much being about a cave man’s mission, is about making the future of the Schwarzmooskogel ice cave – and the plight of ice caves in general – a matter of public interest. It’s about saving an extraordinary miracle of nature. More than providing the setting for a good photograph, even more than serving up a hardy adventure, it’s about preserving one of Europe’s biggest ice caves for generations to come.
Schwarzmooskogel has a big sister, also in Austria. Check out: eisriesenwelt.at/
