The Grottenblitz of Hintertux
2015
The mouths of the members of the Adventure Club of Europe were wide open when Professor Falco Wagner from the University of Innsbruck finished delivering his report. Nobody before him had ever managed to solve the mystery of the legendary crystal and diamond cave.
A few years ago we found tools, blades, and arrowheads made of rock crystal in the region of Hintertux, clearly pointing to the time of the first Neanderthal”,
Wagner announced to the room in a voice shaking with excitement.
In a thousand years of ancient tradition and lore, I had heard of this myth. It was said that a gate had been opened into another world – a world full of magical beings, crystals and diamonds so numerous that they could fill the Amber Room. People, however, soon became too greedy – as people do. The overexploitation increased and it wasn’t long before Gods’ punishment would strike them: lightning flooded the massive mountain and the few who knew where the entrance of the grotto was seemed cursed and lost their lives in bleak, mysterious circumstances. I searched for it for a lifetime. I travelled the Alps from the Ligurian Sea to the Pannonian Basin. It was only due to the many discoveries of crystal in the area that put me on the right track.”
From Innsbruck he started his search and climbed the Alps again and again. Often he had to be brought back to a regular temperature by his wife, Hedwig, with fruit brandies, hot tea and yeast dumplings. In his diary, he writes:
On the morning of the 4th of January I climbed up the Hintertux Alps. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw the rock fissure, hardly wider than a human body. A bluish shimmer penetrated from the inside and made the Enzian look even more intense. The diamond grotto finally lay before me; my search had come to an end! There was no doubt about it! Boulders and rocks had covered the entrance to the grotto where a lightning bolt had struck centuries ago!”
With difficulty, he forced himself inside and saw something truly unbelievable:
Fortunately, on account of my many hikes, I was already growing somewhat emaciated, this meant I could effortlessly slip myself through the gap! In the middle of the blue grotto stood an old steam engine with a wagon, smoking and swelling of its own accord. I found it held a strange power over me. I approached it, touched the trunk and swung myself onto the roof. Suddenly there was a load roar and lightning enveloped me. Although I barely seen the hand, it was as if a new dimension opened up right in front of me with things so strange and familiar at the same time that I forgot who I was. I rode the machine through the void. After this nothing would ever be the same way I once knew it! As I touched the crystals and diamonds that produced the blue glow, I saw beings and shapes that I had never seen before. I knew I had finally reached my goal! The lightning strike must have also had an effect on the wagon as the divine fire seemed to have opened a door into a neighbouring world…
The most amazing part was yet to come. I swung myself onto the wagon again after a short break. From my vantage point atop the wagon I saw new things that intoxicated my senses! The wagon had not only the power to take me to another world, there now seemed to be several different parallel worlds into which I could travel with the magical vehicle. It is hard to describe just what impact this strange vehicle would have on my life! A single source of inspiration and adventure! For the entirety of my life I had desperately travelled the world in search of proof of some long forgotten legend, and now, right here in the heart of the Alps, I had countless new worlds at my feet!”
