Falkensteiner Cave
| Falkensteiner Cave
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 Cave portal with a view of the outside |
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| Location: | Swabian Alb , Baden-Wuerttemberg | |
| Height : | 653 m above sea level NN | |
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Geographic location: |
48 ° 30 '51 " N , 9 ° 27' 10" E | |
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| Cadastral number: | 7422/02 | |
| Type: | Lime cave, active water cave, passage cave, Malm | |
| Discovery: | circa 1770 | |
| Overall length: | 4,259 m | |
The Falkensteiner Höhle is located in Baden-Württemberg on the Swabian Alb between Grabenstetten and Bad Urach . It is an active water cave, i. H. the precipitation seeps through the karst of the Alb plateau, collects in water-bearing crevices and passages and passes through the cave into the open. The waters of the cave form the source of the Elsach .
The Falkensteiner cave is not a show cave , but a natural cave or wild cave whose Befahrung is permitted only on application and is not without danger.
The Falkensteiner Höhle has been recognized as an important geotope and geopoint of the UNESCO Geopark Swabian Alb since 2019 .
Cave construction
From the entrance to the first siphon
Only the first 20 m can be driven with a helmet and two flashlights in persistently dry weather. The Elsach then seeps away here, only to emerge a little below the cave in various springs. Just a few years ago, the cave could be navigated up to the Regentörle , about 150 m after the entrance. The mouths there were blocked by vandals.
Further penetration is made more difficult by the water that is sometimes deep in the chest and forces you to take cold protection measures (diving suit). You could try to climb over the deepest places, but a sudden slip on the slippery walls with a subsequent fall into the water, which is only seven degrees warm, could lead to a circulatory collapse in less constituted people.
A diving suit is required for longer visits, the light supply must be waterproof and function over a long period of time, and replacement lighting should also be carried. Equipped in this way, at normal water level, one can enter the cave about 480 m up to the first siphon .
From the first to the second siphon
The corridor continues over a large area behind the first siphon, and after a few meters you are faced with a mighty fall, which forms the floor of the “Reutlinger Halle”. Here you have to climb a few meters up, cross the hall and then descend again to the creek bed. In the 1960s, iron ladders made it easier to climb and descend, but over the years the rust put such a strain on the ladders that they posed a safety risk and were removed.
Behind the “Reutlinger Halle” begins one of the most beautiful parts of the cave, the “waterfall route”. The corridor continues to be spacious throughout the mountain. Past sinter cascades and over small waterfall steps, after about half a kilometer you reach another fall zone, the blocks of which are covered by a slippery and sometimes meter-thick layer of clay similar to slippery soap (hence the name: "clay walls") and make progress difficult. Shortly before the “clay walls” you come across the “crocodile”, a meter-long stalactite that has fallen from the ceiling and a landmark at the end of the “waterfall route”; the “crocodile” was deliberately broken into two parts a few years ago.
At the end of the consistently dry clay section, you come to a larger collapse hall, at the edge of which a very narrow passage (“fox hole”) leads back down to the creek bed. Here you are about 1200 m from the entrance, and the following corridor now has a box-shaped profile: short dry parts alternate with stretches in which you have to wade in knee or waist-deep water.
Shortly after the beginning of this part of the cave you have to pass the “washboard”, a wide but low crevice only a few centimeters above the level of the stream. When the water level rises, a siphon several meters long accumulates here. After just under another kilometer there is another fall zone, and when you have squeezed between the blocks, you finally come across the “Bänischhalle” with the second or “large siphon”.
This is a real siphon, which means there are no air gaps to breathe.
From the second siphon to the Hohe Kluft
Directly behind the second siphon there is a third ("slate siphon") and in the subsequent section there is only an air gap of a few centimeters between the cave ceiling and the water surface, depending on the water level. This part is appropriately called "Last Unction". The passage then becomes larger again and past stalactite columns, sinter cascades and snow-white stalactites, after a further 600 meters you reach the "Eiseleversturz", a relatively young ceiling breach that completely blocked the passage and formed the end of the cave by New Year's Eve 1977, 2750 meters from the entrance .
The “reef stretch” that begins after the Eiseleverfall is the most beautiful part of the cave. Neither a further fall nor any other major obstacle make it difficult to progress to the “High Gorge”, at the foot of which the cave plunges into another long siphon (“Deep Siphon”).
Driving into the cave
history
- Beginning of the 18th to the beginning of the 19th century: Gold diggers searched in vain for gold after "Bergrat Riedel", later Johann Jacob Rehfuß and Anton Wunsch sold a kind of gold digger license to those in good faith.
- 1776: Suicide of a prospector in the cave. The man was buried in the cave.
- 1871 to 1874: First examinations and measurements by the architecture student Kolb and other cave researchers up to the first siphon (400 m).
- 1953: Klaus Böhm was the first to dive through the first siphon (400 m). The ArGe Höhlenforschung Reutlingen explored the cave up to the Fuchsloch at 1200 m.
- 1959: Hans Matz and Martin Kolb were the first to dive through the second and third siphons (2200 m) and explored the cave up to the Eiseleverfall at 2700 m.
- 1977: Jürgen Zerweck and Manfred Bartsch pushed through the Eiseleverfall and penetrated to the fourth siphon at 3400 m.
- 1980: Jochen Hasenmayer reached the 26th siphon at 5000 m.
- 1997–1999: Measurement up to the 8th siphon at 3987 m by Andreas Kücha .
- 2018: Discovery of 250 m of new land by members of the Arge Grabenstetten.
Cave tour today
Since April 6, 2018, driving into and entering the cave beyond the first narrowing has been prohibited. Exceptions are permitted on application if it can be proven that there is an insurance company that will cover any necessary rescue or rescue costs.
With good equipment ( wetsuit , neoprene socks, overalls or sleeping bags , helmet, headlamp, waterproof rucksacks with emergency provisions) an experienced cave visitor can now reach the fourth siphon (3400 m from the cave entrance) in around five hours . In order to overcome the fifth siphon, diving equipment (compressed air diving device) is necessary. Jochen Hasenmayer made the furthest advance in 1980 when he reached the 26th siphon (5000 m from the cave entrance).
hazards
The great danger of this active water cave is the rise in the water level. After heavy rainfall or in the event of a thaw, the first siphon closes and can no longer be safely driven without diving equipment, the way back is then flooded for several meters. In the case of very heavy rain, there is even another siphon at the “Demutschluf” entrance. The "Demutschluf", which is very wide open when the water level is low, can no longer be overcome without diving equipment . There have been repeated flood inclusions. An enclosure became known to the general public in 1964, when four students could only be rescued by cave divers after 66 hours .
Even if the cave has enough places where you can stay during high water , such inclusions are by no means harmless. Physical dangers are cold , hunger and thirst. Psychological problems also arise, especially in the case of insufficient equipment and the associated loss of the light source. If those trapped panic, deaths are possible. A typical accident happened on June 1, 2003, when four inadequately equipped students were freed from the Reutlingen hall behind the first siphon after a thunderstorm with heavy rain . The young people had been informed by experienced cavers, but ignored all warnings.
There were further rescue missions in 2015 and 2019. In July 2019, a cave guide with a customer was locked in due to the heavily increasing water masses caused by the previous heavy rains. Both were inadequately equipped for the unsurprising weather conditions. The rescuers dived through the flooded bottleneck to the cave walkers trapped in the Reutlingen hall.
In literature and art
- In the novel Rulaman by Christoph DF Weinland , of which a picture at the cave entrance reminds us, the Falkensteiner Cave is described under the fictional name Huhkahöhle as the home of a Stone Age tribe.
- In the crime novel Brennende Kälte by Wolfgang Schorlau , the private investigator Georg Dengler barely escapes his life when the water in the cave rises unexpectedly.
See also
literature
- Helmut Frank: Falkensteiner Höhle , Laichinger Höhlenfreund 16/17 (1973).
- K.-H. Zimmermann: The Falkensteiner Höhle, visitor information , ArGe Höhle and Karst Grabenstetten, 2nd edition (1978).
- Visitor information Falkensteiner Höhle, Grabenstetten, 1996, pp. 14–15.
- Wolfgang Graf: Wild Falkensteiner Cave. Verl. G & O Dr., Kirchheim unter Teck 1992, ISBN 3-925589-06-6 .
- Hans Binder , Herbert Jantschke: Cave guide Swabian Alb. Caves - springs - waterfalls . 7th completely revised edition. DRW-Verlag, Leinfelden-Echterdingen 2003, ISBN 3-87181-485-7 , p. 100 .
Web links
- Falkensteiner Cave on showcaves.com
- Detailed description of the Falkensteiner Höhle by the local cave association
- Falkensteiner Cave on caveseekers.com
- Private website about the cave with photos and information
- Geotope profile of the State Office for Geology, Raw Materials and Mining
Individual evidence
- ^ Longest and deepest caves in Germany - Arge Grabenstetten. Thilo Müller and Andreas Wolf, ARGE Höhle & Karst Grabenstetten eV, June 2019, accessed on June 24, 2019 .
- ^ Police regulation Falkensteiner Höhle. Community of Grabenstetten, accessed on March 28, 2018 .
- ↑ Falkensteiner Höhle - This is how expensive the rescue operation is - consequences for a rescued guide. Südwest_Presse , July 30, 2019, accessed on August 2, 2019 .