Ice Cave

Our second day in Austria was dominated by cold and heights. We'd purchased the lower and middle cable car rides to take us to the ice cave and summit of the mountains above the lake. The ice cave required a steep climb from the end of the first cable car ride to the cave entrance.

We were added to a large Hungarian tour group (seen exiting the cave here),

as we mistakenly skipped the tour group assignment off the cable car but it was interesting to hear German and English spoken by the cave guide and Hungarian spoken by their party's guide.

The ice forms in the cave because of the cold air in winter chilling the cave rocks and the melting water in Spring pouring into the cave and freezing to the cold rocks.

The highlight and symbol of the cave is this ice tower which was only 5 meters tall when first discovered.

The view from the cave exit (higher than the entrance but the original entrance when discovered) is beautiful.