The entry to the 320m long Sigmund-Thun-Gorge is situated next to the Kaprun Main Stage Power House and the VERBUND Information Center Kaprun. Here, Kaprun’s River Ache negotiates a difference in elevation of 40m and carves into a maximum depth of 32m.
Prior to the Ice Age a valley was already in existence here, the base of which lay at an altitude of 845m and which joined the Bürgkogel higher up, later forming the Sigmund-Thun-Gorge on the western side of the valley. Bearing witness to the changes through the flowing water, smoothing of the rocks, churn holes and potholes may be observed along the stretch of the gorge. Development of the gorge first began in the late Ice Age (approx. 14.000 – 10.000 years ago). The gorge is the result of a recent, rapidly subsiding degradation process, which advanced at an average speed of 1-3mm per year. It therewith represents the most recent phase in the valley’s formation history. Prior to that, during the Ice Age, the rock slopes above the gorge incisions were still being shaped by the glacier.
