The spring of the 505m cave is part of the great Schällbach drainage system. It is only a small accessible part of it.

 

The Schällbach disappears approximately 600m to the south-west of the cave entrance into the Schällbach ponor – a small shaft cave (see board 7). It runs through part of this cave, drops into a siphon and surfaces here from beneath the Boulder-choked Spring (4 Siphon). After another 100m the stream disappears again (5 Siphon), and reappears farther down the valley as a tubed spring, emptying into the Ibach.

 

The underground Schällbächli

The Schällbächli disappears into a small shaft cave, the Schällbachponor. It flows through part of this cave, plunges into a siphon and reappears from a siphon in the Versturzquelle. Around 100 metres further into the cave, the stream disappears again into a siphon, reappears further down the valley via a tube spring and flows into the Ibach.
Unfortunately, the Röhrenquelle (Tubed Spring) can no longer be recognised as such today. The outlet is mostly invisible in the gravel slope directly into the Ibach.

The special thing about the Versturzquelle is that it serves as an overflow for the Röhrenquelle during floods.
In this case, the water level in the cave rises about 20 metres until the entire cave passage is under water. This then emerges from the entrance cave-in and discharges into the Ibach.

 

The cave is only accessible when the first two siphons have been pumped out, but some depressions remain full of water and require freediving or diving with adequate equipment.