The Eisriesenwelt: World’s largest ice cave with natural dynamic air system

Browsing the internet to search adventurous places is my hobby since I had the access to internet, which means long before. I remember early in my school days I had a world map just in front of my reading table, I used to see that map for hours, imagining myself in different portions of the world, just roaming around like hippy travellers.

When I finally got access to the internet in our late school days, I have done nothing but to browse for the most adventurous places of the world and thinking ‘how to make it possible to be there’.

I remember when I heard about Ice Caves, I misunderstood thinking that it may be a cave made of ice but to my astonishment, later, I came to know that the ice cave is something which has iceberg inside it.

My friends always tell me that I am very lucky to have the opportunity to live in my own way that allows me to follow my dreams of travelling.

And Yess!! I am lucky. Just two weeks ago, I visited the world’s largest ice cave ‘The Eisriesenwelt’ which is in Salzburg, Austria as it was on my travel wish list since I was a school girl.

Photo courtesy of Leo Concepcion

Thanks to our classmate Ira, she made the plan to go there just before the closing date as travellers are allowed to visit the cave from May to October.

We have taken a train to go to Werfen which is a market town in the district of St Johann im Pongau, in the Austrian province of Salzburg. It was my first train journey in Europe, and I was too excited.

The Eisriesenwelt is a natural limestone and ice cave located in Werfen, Austria, about 40 km south of Salzburg. The cave is located inside the Hochkogel mountain in the Tennengebirge section of the Alps.

The journey inside the cave is guided only by a headlamp and accompanied by giant ice formations while transcending even deeper into the depths of the 26-mile long cave. A truly unique journey!

High above the village of Werfen, amid the magnificent mountain world of the Tennengebirge, we find the entrance to the world’s biggest explored labyrinth of ice caves with a length of almost 30 miles. There are various ways in which cave ice can form.

The World of Ice Giants, discovered in 1879, is a dynamic cave, meaning that the corridors and the crevices connect lower-lying entrances to higher openings, hence making it possible for draughts of air to circulate – similar to the effect in a chimney.

Photo courtesy of Leo Concepcion

During spring, meltwater seeps through the cracks in the rock and when it reaches the still cold and frozen lower areas of the caves, it freezes and turns slowly into the wonderful ice formations visible inside the caves.

Before you head into the caves for over an hour long tour, lamps are handed out to the visitors. The first stop is the Poselt Hall, with the magnificent Posselt Tower stalagmite. Marvel at the greatest area of ice growth, the Great Ice Embankment, a massive formation rising to over 75 feet. Stalactites in Hymir’s Castle created the so-called ice organ.

For an even more stunning effect, the ice formations are sometimes highlighted with magnesium lighting.

Partly due to its isolated location in the high mountains and the lack of interest in cave exploration back then, this cave was completely unknown until the end of the 19th century.

It was not until the nature explorer Anton von Posselt-Czorich from Salzburg penetrated about 200 meters into this dark cave by himself in 1879 that the Eisriesenwelt was officially discovered. A year later he published a detailed report of his exploration in an Alpine association newsletter. Nonetheless, the cave was soon forgotten again.

Alexander von Mörk, the founder of the Salzburg Cave Explorers, realised the significance of Posselt’s documentation. He continued the latter’s research in 1913, joined by other pioneers in cave exploration, like Angermayer and Riehl.

After World War I, researchers such as Friedrich and Robert Oedl and Walter Czernig embarked on the truly trailblazing explorations of the extensive labyrinths inside this cave system.

As I mentioned earlier, The Eisriesenwelt is a dynamic ice cave. This means that the cave galleries and fissures form a link from lower entrances to higher openings, which – like a chimney - allow the passage of air.

Depending on the outside climate, the temperature inside the mountain is either cooler or warmer, causing an air draft from top to bottom or vice versa due to the specific weight differences of the air.

In winter, when the air inside the mountain is warmer than outside, cold air enters into the passages and cools the lower part of the cave to below zero degrees.

[Dilshad Hossain Dodul is an Erasmus Mundus scholar, currently living in Austria.]