Skier survives 40 metre plunge into sinkhole 15. 02. 10. - 12:00 A Czech skier survived a 40 metre plunge into a sinkhole yesterday afternoon (Sun) at the Krippenstein ski area in Upper Austria’s Gmunden district.
Police said the man had been skiing with a Czech friend when they veered too close to the so-called "Teufelsloch" (Devil’s Hole) on the Schönberg piste. The friend was able to avoid falling into the sinkhole, but the other was not not so lucky. Alfred Höll, the head of the Obertraun mountain rescue service, said the victim must have "a giant guardian angel" since deep snow had prevented the man from being seriously injured as he fell down the hole. Rescuers used a cable to pull the Czech out of the hole. _http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2010-02-15/979/Skier_survi ves_40_metre_plunge_into_sinkhole_ (http://austrianindependent.com/news/General_News/2010-02-15/979/Skier_survives_40_metre_plunge_into_sinkhole) Note: The Teufelsloch is part of the Hermannshohle System which is 4.3 km long and 78m deep. The Hermannshöhle has two natural entrances, one called Teufelsloch (Devils Hole), high on the Eulenberg Plateau, and a second one on the east slope called Windloch (Wind Hole). In 1790 a small boy fell into the shaft called Teufelsloch while hunting pigeons. The first exploration of the Teufelsloch by the writer J. A. Krickel in 1836 was published two years later. He explains that he descended 66 Klafter (ca.125 m) into the shaft. On the second exploration in 1843, Hermann Steiger von Amstein, the custodian of castle Feistritz, found the link to the Windloch. He was very impressed by the cave, so he bought the whole area and the right to develop the cave. He started developing the cave immediately, but didn't have enough money to complete it. In 1844 he had to sell the cave to his employer, the owner of Burg Feistritz, Freiherrn Von Dietrich, but the name Hermannshöhle survived. There are presently two different commercial tours of the cave. The extended tour includes the Kyrle-Labyrinth, which is highly decorated.
