Winter 2017/2018 was really hard for all the mineral collectors, before the end of March it was not possible to go searching for minerals.

Spring

In the beginning of April I visited several areas in the greenschist zones in the Zederhaus valley, but it was not very satisfying, too much snow everywhere, I only could find some small specimens. Finally the snow was gone and I visited one of my favourite areas and found some bigger Calcite crystals for the area and in another zone a new cleft appeared, which contained Rock Crystals, Calcite and Pyrite. I also found an open cleft, but unfortunately only one crystal was worth to take it home.

In late spring I visited an area, where I haven´t been for several years and never found anything interesting, but I had heard that beautiful minerals had been found. The walk is really hard, 2 hours straight up the mountain. I reached a canyon and started my search and had the luck to find something. During several visits I found Rock Crystals, Rutile, Adularia, Dolomite, Calcite and Albite.

Summer

In the beginning of June I started searching the higher areas. First it was cold, than time was a precious good, so I often chose areas with short ways. I visited an area, where I found a small cleft in 2013. The first visits were not very successful, but after a while I found an untouched area and a cleft, which was hidden very good. After 2 visits the cleft was empty, but it contained some lovely specimens with Rock Crystals, Albite and for my surprise light pink Apatite and Scheelite, both not really common in this area. Nearby I found a small spot, where I found Albite, Rock Crystals, Calcite and also blue Anatase and Brookite. The Brookites made me really happy.

Autumn

Temperatures were getting low and fall came, so I changed the collecting area. Back in my favourite area, the crystals were hiding really good. On 1st of November (All Saint´s da or Allerheiligen in german), my former collecting partner and I were on the way into a specific area. While walking up the mountain on the forest road, the hunting tenant came across and after a short explanation of what we are doing, he offered to take us with him up the mountain. He brought us to the border of his hunting territory and we went our way. After crossing a small creek, we reached the first rock and started to search. We were able to discover the first crystals immidiately, which is really unusual. The first small cleft contained not much, so we started to search the area. After some time, we made a break and had some lunch, weather became worse, so we talked about going home. I saw a rock a little bit above hour resting place and decided to check this last spot and then we wanted to leave. I reached the rock and after a small climb I found an obviously open pocket, I couldn´t believe it. We started to dig, but on this day we didn´t have the luck to find any crysals, but the signs were good. Time went by and we had to leave, but after one week, I was back at the spot and after some work the first crystals and specimens appeared. We visited the spot two more times, then winter arrived and the season was over. In fact that we wouldn´t have been able to find this cleft without the fact that we met the hunting tenant, we baptized the cleft "Allerheiligenloch aka Aufsichtjägergedächtnisloch".