On wooden boards across the gorge

Discover the beauty of our gorges! It has only been since 1992 that the Sigmund-Thun-Klamm gorge, named after the governor of the province of Salzburg, can be experienced in its full splendour once again. It was closed in 1938 when the utilisation of water power in the valley of Kaprun became more interesting. Thanks to the initiative of a regional association, the gorge is open again today.

Some 14,000 years ago, during the Late Ice Age, a glacier completely covered the valley of Kaprun and gorged its way through the calcareous schist rocks of the Maiskogel and the Bürgkogel mountains. When the glacier melted it left behind a gorge through which the river Ache of Kaprun ran. The river dug itself 32 metres deep into the ground and left behind strikingly smooth surfaces and natural whirlpools.

In 1890, Nikolaus Gassner began to create a pathway through the gorge to the Mooserboden reservoir. Three years later, Gassner erected a 340-meter wooden catwalk and thus developed the area. Signs which were cut into the rock are still a testimony of the work of the lumbermen.