140 Schwa Schacht 140 2/S +

Altitude: 1796m
Location: South of Vorderer Schwarzmooskogel - 126m on 194° from summit.
47° 40' 41" N 13° 48' 58" E

From Top Camp, climb the "high" route towards 161. Just past the highest point, join a traverse round the Schwarzmooskogel heading south and eventually more west. If you pick the right level, this passes the large open shaft of 140. Alternatively, the cave may be approached from the summit (point 1843) though various cliffs make this approach difficult.

Shaft entrance is 9m by 6m, with first pitch 15m to boulders. A 6m pitch is immediately followed by a 10m drop to a sloping boulder floor. From the end of this, a 5.5m drop reaches a longer boulder slope, which leads into a canyon at 90°. Down this is a longer pitch split into 10 and 10.5m sections by a small ledge, landing on a very large boulder. Over the boulder are two ways on.

Through a squeeze is a shaft 10m deep to floor with continuing hole and a further shaft to one side, neither of which were descended, despite a draught coming out through the squeeze.

The way followed is a 5m pitch from the big boulder, to a boulder false floor. At the end of this, the roof rises into a high aven and an 11m pitch drops to a flat boulder floor next to another huge block. A hole down gives a 7m drop next to stacked rocks and a way on across boulders leads to a final 8m pitch.

Forward over boulders passes under another high aven from which water falls. A short climb down leads to where this water disappears into a scrofulous slot, at a depth of 95m.

The cave is in a key position, almost directly above the Breeze Block area of Chile, in Kaninchenhöhle. However, these passages lie between 250 and 300m below the 140 entrance, so this is probably not a potential easy way in.

Exploration: CUCC 1983


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