The eastern part of the northern limestone alps consists of the parts between Salzburg and Vienna. Most of the largest high alpine karst-plateaus in europe are located in this area. The largest ones are the Tote Gebirge (dead mountains), the Dachstein and the Tennengebirge. There are found some of the largest caves in the world, like the Schönbergsystem (>120 km), the hirlatz cave (~100 km) or the Dachstein Mammouth cave (~60 km). There are also located some of worlds most famous ice-caves, like the Eisrießenwelt, the Dachstein-Eishöhle or the Schwarzmooskogeleishöhle. Most of the exploring in the huge cave-systems has to be done in long more-day trips and often bivouacs in the plateaus are needes.
