2025
I started my collecting season very early mid January and visited a well known quarry in Carinthia,
it was my second visit and I found some neat pieces, mainly Dolomite.
Although we didn´t have a lot of snow, in February and the beginning of March, frozen ground was the
biggest enemy. I visited an old spot in March and was able to extract a view good Calcite specimens.
Finally, spring arrived and normal trips were possible. I visited some areas I´ve already been, but also
went to a new area and was lucky at the first try. It was not a big find, mainly ugly Quartz crystals, but,
more important and making me happy, was the single light pink Apatite I found at that spot. Unfortunately,
it was the only one. I visited the area a view times more and was able to find some cool Albite specimens,
some with Quartz and/or Pyrite.
Towards summer, I visited several areas and followed the melting snow up the mountains.
Most of the time I didn´t find a lot, a few pieces which are unusual found their way into my collection.
In summer, I mainly focused on the search for Fluorites, walked literally hundreds of kilometers and carried
some really heavy backpacks for hours. But the effort and hard work paid off and I was able to find some
really nice specimens.
In between I visited some other areas to keep the fun alive.
In fall, early and heavy snow fall stopped the search in higher altitudes aprubt, so I spent my time
visiting a spot from 2024, where I already found some good Rutile, and put in some effort and hard work and
was lucky again.
Close to the end of the season, I visited some areas where I haven´t been for a while, mostly with no success.
On my last trip I visited an area, where I just noticed, that there was a construction site in a ditch in the mountains.
Knowing, that in the "good old days", there were good finds at several construction sites, I thought it would be interesting.
When I arrived, I saw that there were some spots which looked promising, but some of them have already been worked.
After some research I was able to find a small pocket with some Quartz crystals, but the big surprise came at home,
when I cleaned my finds, I found a really nice Pyrite specimen. A good season end!
