The cave rescue

Austria’s almost unknown special unit!

Austria's underworld is the operational area of the Austrian Cave Rescue Service.(Bild: Hannes Wallner)

Operations in caves are challenging, as they often take place at great depths, in the dark and in confined spaces. The "Bergkrone" was allowed to take part in an exercise deep underground. 

Secured by a rope, I hang in the middle of the Villach natural shafts, one of the more than 250 known cave systems in the Dobratsch massif. More than one hundred meters deep, these lead mostly vertically into the mountain interior, and mountain water keeps dripping down my neck from the surrounding rock.