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Mountaineer Finds Ice Age Cave Bear Graveyard in the Dolomites

Mountain guide Kurt Walde has found a hidden cave in the Italian Dolomites packed with the skeletons of Ice Age cave bears. The animals are

By Alistair Sterling

November 14, 20261 min read

Mountaineer Finds Ice Age Cave Bear Graveyard in the Dolomites

Mountain guide Kurt Walde has found a hidden cave in the Italian Dolomites packed with the skeletons of Ice Age cave bears. The animals are suspected to belong to Ursus ladinicus, a species that went extinct around 24,000 years ago.

The cave had never been charted. Walde found it high on a near-vertical slope, a little over 2,850 meters (9,350 feet) above sea level.

A desperate climb to the entrance

Walde set out to locate the cave by descending from the summit down a slope strewn with loose rock. He reached a ledge he hoped was the entrance. It was not.

"At that moment I felt a bit desperate," Walde said. "I continued to downclimb. Eventually, I reached the end of my rope."

He was convinced he was close. He had not felt well that morning but had shouldered his 22kg (50lb) backpack anyway. For the final few meters he dropped the rope altogether and reached the cave mouth without it.

What lay inside

Deep inside, the beam of his head lamp swept across a graveyard of skeletons. The remains are suspected to belong to Ursus ladinicus, a huge cave bear species.

The find offers a rare window into the Ice Age. Walde took the first images from inside the cave and sketched its layout.

The identification of the species is still described as suspected. Confirming it would require further examination of the remains.

For now, Walde's account of the descent and what he saw in the dark remains the core record of the discovery. "I continued to downclimb," he said, "until I reached the end of my rope."