Tigerente · CC BY-SA 4.0
The descent
The entrance, at 1,406 m.
The real relief above Dachstein Giant Ice Cave, measured on the Copernicus model every 30 m, and the cave going down at the same vertical scale.
The depth is the one published by those who explored it; the shape of the galleries is a sketch, not a survey. No depth has been published for this cave yet.
1,406m
Entrance altitude
published (Wikidata)
0°C
Inside, all year
the yearly average outside, at the entrance
617m
Rock above
the highest point within 1.5 km
Inside and outside
0 °C inside, all year.
Cold winter air sinks into the cave and stays trapped: the ice lasts all year, even when it is hot outside. In July the afternoon reaches 19 °C at the entrance, 19 °C warmer than inside: take a jacket.
- -2°-10°Jan
- -1°-9°Feb
- 3°-5°Mar
- 9°-1°Apr
- 14°3°May
- 17°7°Jun
- 19°9°Jul
- 19°9°Aug
- 14°4°Sep
- 10°1°Oct
- 4°-4°Nov
- -1°-8°Dec
Outside: afternoon and night averages for 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) brought to the altitude of the entrance. Inside: the yearly average, which deep parts of a cave keep. Near the entrance it follows the weather a little.
Cave in Austria
Dachstein Giant Ice Cave is a cave in Austria. The entrance is at 1,406 m. It has ice all year.
Getting there.
- Wild cave: only with caving equipmentNo paths or lights inside. Go only with a caving club or a qualified guide.
- Bad Ausseenearest town · 9.6 km in a straight line
- Viewpointsnearest viewpoint · 0.0 km from the entrance
- Salzburg Airport (SZG)nearest airport with scheduled flights · 61 km in a straight lineCar hire at SZG airport (Salzburg)Discover Cars · sponsored link↗
Plan the visit
Guided tours, a bed nearby, a car.
Some links above are affiliate links: if you book through them we may earn a commission, at no extra cost to you. It never changes what the data on this page says.
From above.
The ground above the cave, with the relief shaded, the line of the section and what people have mapped around the entrance.
N
1.5 km
Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 (EOX, CC BY 4.0), 6.0 × 6.0 km, north up. The line is the section above. Points © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Around the entrance.
- 19other cave entrances within 3 kmDachstein Mammut Höhle - Neuer Osteingang, Krippensteineishöhle, Höhle and 16 more
- 4springs within 2 kmQuelle, Stubenbodenquelle and 2 more
- 13viewpoints within 3 kmKrippenstein, Schergenkogel, Dachstein-Hai and 10 more
- 24marked hiking routes within 3 kmKarstlehrpfad, Wanderweg 661, Heilbronnerweg and 21 more
- 7climbing crags within 3 kmKlettergarten Niederer Krippenstein, Krippenstein, Niederer Krippenstein and 4 more
- 8car parks within 2 km
- 32information boards and visitor centres within 3 km
- 3bus stops within 2 km
- 4campsites within 8 kmCamping am See, Wohnmobilstellplätze Freibad Winkl/Obertraun, Wohnmobilstellplatz Obertraun and 1 more
- 41hotels and guesthouses within 8 kmOlympiahütte, Bräu-Gasthof Lobisser, Apartment Hotel Seerose and 38 more
- 7restaurants and cafés within 3 km
- sinkholes within 3 km
- caving clubs and spots within 15 km
- named waterfalls within 4 km
Counted in OpenStreetMap, the map anyone can edit, around the entrance. A low number may just mean nobody has mapped it yet. © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL).
Towns nearby
- Bad Aussee9.6 km in a straight line
- Altaussee12 km in a straight line
- Ramsau am Dachstein14 km in a straight line
- Bad Goisern14 km in a straight line
- Haus im Ennstal14 km in a straight line
- Haus14 km in a straight line
- Gosau15 km in a straight line
- Schladming16 km in a straight line
In our other atlases
What else is around Dachstein Giant Ice Cave.
The river at the entrance, the waterfalls, the lakes, the mountains and volcanoes above, the canyons, beaches and islands nearby — from our other atlases.
Figures from the sister sites' databases (Wikidata, HydroATLAS, GeoNames, NOAA, OpenStreetMap). Links open when each site is online.
Month by month
The weather outside, at the entrance.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Afternoon | -2 | -1 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 4 | -1 |
| Afternoon | -2 | -1 | 3 | 9 | 14 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 14 | 10 | 4 | -1 |
| Night | -10 | -9 | -5 | -1 | 3 | 7 | 9 | 9 | 4 | 1 | -4 | -8 |
| Rain (mm) | 82 | 67 | 81 | 75 | 140 | 166 | 177 | 175 | 132 | 96 | 73 | 76 |
| Rainy days | 14 | 13 | 16 | 15 | 20 | 21 | 22 | 19 | 15 | 14 | 14 | 15 |
| Sun hours/day | 3.0 | 4.5 | 5.2 | 5.7 | 5.5 | 6.4 | 7.0 | 6.5 | 5.1 | 4.5 | 2.8 | 2.4 |
| Snow on the ground (cm) | 27 | 25 | 18 | 8 | 4 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 3 | 6 | 12 | 19 |
| Afternoon | Afternoon | Night | Rain (mm) | Sun hours/day | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jan | -2 | -2 | -10 | 82 | 3.0 |
| Feb | -1 | -1 | -9 | 67 | 4.5 |
| Mar | 3 | 3 | -5 | 81 | 5.2 |
| Apr | 9 | 9 | -1 | 75 | 5.7 |
| May | 14 | 14 | 3 | 140 | 5.5 |
| Jun | 17 | 17 | 7 | 166 | 6.4 |
| Jul | 19 | 19 | 9 | 177 | 7.0 |
| Aug | 19 | 19 | 9 | 175 | 6.5 |
| Sep | 14 | 14 | 4 | 132 | 5.1 |
| Oct | 10 | 10 | 1 | 96 | 4.5 |
| Nov | 4 | 4 | -4 | 73 | 2.8 |
| Dec | -1 | -1 | -8 | 76 | 2.4 |
Averages 1991–2020 (NASA POWER) for a cell about 55 km wide, brought to the altitude of the entrance (1,406 m) with the standard lapse rate. Not a forecast.
Photographs
Inside and around.
Recent years
Wet years, dry years.
Rain of each month as a share of the 1991–2020 average. A dry year means a lower river and hotter rock; a wet one, more water in the gorge.
| Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2020 | 50% | 192% | 83% | 63% | 99% | 124% | 131% | 145% | 140% | 154% | 34% | 103% |
| 2021 | 110% | 55% | 86% | 84% | 120% | 59% | 118% | 122% | 56% | 49% | 129% | 135% |
| 2022 | 84% | 135% | 24% | 125% | 100% | 113% | 88% | 88% | 130% | 138% | 120% | 80% |
| 2023 | 90% | 125% | 134% | 182% | 96% | 64% | 121% | 144% | 35% | 94% | 269% | 216% |
| 2024 | 91% | 106% | 92% | 124% | 107% | 137% | 95% | 73% | 211% | 104% | 36% | 87% |
| 2025 | 51% | 40% | 147% | 112% | 134% | 76% | 152% | 68% | 94% | 94% | 107% | 29% |
130% or more: wet month 70% or less: dry month
Where these figures come from
| Name, type, published depth and length, visitors | Wikidata (Q23286) · CC0 |
|---|---|
| The relief above, the entrance altitude, the section and the 3D model | Copernicus DEM GLO-30 · © DLR e.V., © Airbus Defence and Space GmbH, Copernicus/ESA |
| Climate | NASA POWER, 1991–2020 |
| Entrances, springs, sinkholes, opening hours and what is around | © OpenStreetMap contributors · ODbL |
| Images | EOX Sentinel-2 cloudless 2016 · CC BY 4.0; Wikimedia Commons |
| Rivers, waterfalls, lakes, mountains, canyons, beaches and islands nearby | Coastya, Lakeyas, Peakyas, Cascadyas, Islandyas, Riveryas |
Every figure is an average, an estimate or a count from a public dataset. Licences and methods: data sources.
The family
Do you prefer beaches, lakes, mountains, waterfalls, islands, rivers, canyons, caves, dark skies, viewpoints, birdwatching or forests?
Same idea, other landscapes: field atlases built on open data, month by month, in seven languages.






