The site with fresh rubble from the mudslide  (Photo: Hans Lasshofer)

Hans carefully collected some pieces, put them in his backpack, and made his way home. He was intent to clean these pieces immediately and hopefully then could figure out their identity. Once cleaned, the crystal sheaves became clearer. Suspecting that the matrix was soluble, he put a larger piece in diluted hydrochloric acid. When he looked the next day, Hans was amazed as he held in his hand a nicely crystallized specimen. Even if the acid had not completed its work, he could see needle-like crystals with a hedgehog-shaped structure on the sample.  He suspected tremolite , but was not entirely sure. He took a picture and showed it to me. My immediate reaction was “Wow” and I too suspected tremolite. In the very early morning, a few days later, we scampering around the site of the mudslide. I curiously examined the boulders in the overburden and the rock. Together we started to chisel the rock. It was good that we were traveling in pairs, because the last two meters in this area are very steep and slippery. So one collector could always help the other. After about two hours of work and a cozy snack, we made our way home with a heavily packed backpack.

Hans invited other Lungau collectors to the site to work together. A few days later Hans Lasshofer, Anton Baier, Werner Hintringer, Michael Loidl and I worked together on the tough dolomite rock. We were able to recover some large pieces of the greenish tremolite. After cleaning, some particularly beautiful specimen of this rarity emerged.