Destination: Eisriesenwelt
A cave up high in the mountains, that can only be visited on foot, and is freezing no matter the season.
The locals believed this to be the entrance to hell and so avoided it. But after a brave soul explored it, a wonder for the eyes was found.
Cave discovery
Literally translating from the German, Eisrisenwelt, the name of this fascinating cave, is ‘World of the Ice Giants’, and to be honest that’s a pretty accurate description of the Eisriesenwelt cave, and it’s a cold cave as well, just how the Ice Giants like it.
You can find Eisriesenwelt near a small Austrian town that goes by the name of Werfen, which is about 25 km from Salzburg. And the cave is a great hidden treasure because it isn’t exactly easily accessible, located on Hochkogel mountain which sits within the Tennengebirge range at about 1641 metres above sea level, which is apart of a little mountain range commonly known as the Austrian Alps.
Eisrisenwelt is much more than just a natural limestone cave, it carries the title of the largest ice cave in the world at a whopping 42 km, with mazes of passages filled with rocks and ice, making for some spectacular natural sights. Surprisingly, despite the 42 km in length, as a tourist you only traverse the first kilometre, which incidentally is the only part covered in ice, the rest of the cave is all limestone.
Probably not surprising, seeing how high up the cave’s entrance is nestled, Eisriesenwelt was known only to locals until the end of the 19th century when Anton Posselt came across it and was the first to officially discover the cave. A natural scientist from Salzburg, Posselt went ahead and explored just the first 200 metres in 1879. Why only 200 metres, that’s because there was massive wall of ice that blocked him from going any further than the first chamber. You’ll know when you’ve reached this spot because there is a cross and the date ‘1879’ scratched into the limestone wall, where Posselt marked how far he got.
The locals from Werfen, of course, knew of the cave well enough for their liking without feeling the need to explore its labyrinths. And that’s probably because they knew the cave as the entrance to Hell. I can see now why they were happy to keep their distance.
After his short exploration of this fascinating new cave he had ‘discovered’, Posselt set to work writing his account of his discovery in his mountaineering journal, and a year later he published a detailed report of what he had found in a popular mountaineering magazine. Unfortunately, the public just weren’t ready for new exciting ice caves and nothing really happened, so the cave was forgotten about and the world moved on.
But then before we know it it’s 1913, and along comes a bloke, a speleologist from Salzburg who goes by the name Alexander von Mörk. Von Mörk had read Posselt’s report and decided to have a look at the place for himself. And it’s a good thing he did, because he was the first person to be able to climb up the huge ice wall that prevented Posselt from moving further than 200 metres. Meaning that von Mörk was able to start charting the maze of paths even going so far as to dive through icy pools. In fact there was one pool of water, reportedly 3 metres deep that blocked von Mörk going any further, so he covered his body in tar, presumably to retain body heat, and plunged right into the icy water swimming into the next chamber. Luckily today tourists don’t need to do any swimming, hoses are on hand to keep the water to an acceptable level.
Von Mörk set right to work, carrying out several expeditions of the cave between 1912 and 1913, sadly though his expeditions didn’t go much further than that, as he was killed in action during the First World War.
But straight after the War, more researchers climbed up the mountain and continued exploring further and further into the mountain, exploring the cave. Amazingly it took them 4 years of exploring the frozen Eisriesenwelt cave to fully map all the paths.
Because the explorers were regular visitors of the cave, a cabin that went by Forscherhütte was built for them in 1920. It was also around this time that the first routes up the mountain were established, making going up and down a lot easier.
Next thing we know tourists start to stop by to see what this ice cave is all about, and thanks to the increase in popularity another cabin, known as the Dr. Oedl House, was constructed in 1925, with roads that come to the mountain direct from Werfen and nearby Tänneck being constructed.
By 1924, simple wooden planks are being used to safely allow tourists to walk over icy sections of the cave, and with the Second World War things did not slow down. Once the war had ended, several more paths were built up the mountain to the mouth of the cave, with a cable car also being constructed to make the journey easier for the interested tourists. The cable car did wonders, shortening the trip up the mountain to the cave to just 90 minutes. Good god, it must have taken a good several hours before that.
Now while the cave is owned by the Austrian State, since all the way back in 1928 the Austrian State has leased out the cave to the Salzburg Association of Cave Exploration, which are the ones who handle the tourists and keep the cave in tip top shape.
For a good 35 years, the only way to get from the bottom of the mountain to the cave was by putting one foot in front of the other and walking. But in 1953, an unpaved single-lane road was wound up into the mountain to give vehicle access to the cave for when things got a bit challenging. We do have to remember that these mountains see a fair bit of snow and ice in the winter.
Then a couple years later, in 1955, a gondola, or aerial cable car, was put in so that the steepest part of the path that you previously would have had to traverse by foot, could now be travelled over in just a few minutes.
On the way back out of the cave you’re reminded once again about von Mörk’s dedicated exploratory adventures, because you’ll have to pass right under his urn. That’s right after he was killed in WWI, his remains were placed in the cave that he explored.
Now with the addition of stairs and walkways throughout the cave, the place is much easier to traverse than I suspect it was for Posselt or von Mörk. And with the ease of walkways visitor numbers climbed to 10 000 people coming to see the cave a year. And when the cable car was added in 1955, that number jumped to 35 000. So take this little piece of advice, if you want more people to visit your attraction, add a cable car and they will come.
How the cave was formed
One thing that is so fascinating about the Eisriesenwelt Cave is how it was formed in the first place.
Well, friends, the story starts about 100 million years ago, when tectonic plates were shifting around causing the limestone in the ground to crack and fissure as it’s being pushed up to make mountains. And as we all know water loves to get into all those nooks and crannies, so as the Salzach River would flow through the mountain it would seep down in through the cracks in the limestone eroding the limestone as it went. After this happened several million times over several million years the limestone was eroded into spaces resembling corridors and large room shapes.
The cave we know today as Eisriesenwelt is much more than just a single cave chamber, we already know that it in fact has 42 km of passageways and chambers orientated in a maze like fashion, which isn’t as surprising when you remember that water decided the floorplan.
Now you might be thinking, Eisriesenwelt has snow and ice inside it, it must be a glacial cave. But you would be incorrect. Glacial and ice caves are often confused for one another so it’s important to make the distinction between the two. Glacial caves are formed within ice, while ice caves are formed within stone. So if as you’re walking around a cave and you can see stone walls, you’re in an ice cave, if you’re walking around a cave and you can see ice walls, you’re in a glacial cave. Hmm, that’s actually really interesting.
Now that we’ve established that Eisriesenwelt is an ice cave, you might also be interested to learn that it is actually a dynamic ice cave. But what does that mean? That’s a very good question.
I’m told that a dynamic ice cave acts almost like a chimney. So the chambers and corridors that make up the cave are connected from top to bottom, which allows air to pass through the cave like it would do in a chimney. This dynamic air movement means an air current can form which is named, quite unimaginatively if you ask me, the chimney effect.
So basically it depends on what the temperature is like outside the cave, the temperature inside the cave is either cooler or warmer, creating an air draft that passes through the cave. So in winter when the air is warmer inside the mountain than it is on the outside, the cold air flows into the mountain bringing the temperature down quite significantly as it moves from the bottom of the cave to the top of the cave, hence the ice inside the cave. Then in the spring, the air flow reverses, with the air current going from the top of the cave to the bottom of the cave. Someone into thermodynamics could probably explain it in more depth, but for now this is what we’re going with.
So when the warmer air outside melts the snow on the mountain, it does its thing and seeps into the mountain through the cracks made all those millions of years ago and when it gets to the bottom of the cave where it’s still pretty bloody cold the water freezes, creating more ice, this time in some pretty cool formations.
Because the ice forms in the spring when water melted from winter snow seeps into the rocks and then into the cave, as it gets to the coldest parts of the cave, where its freezing, the water also freezes, and then in winter, the cold air passing through the cave keeps everything frozen, so fortunately for us the ice formations are visible the whole year round.
With some investigations done, the oldest layers of ice that have been found are about 1000 years old, which means this chimney effect of melted snow making its way into the cave only to freeze again hasn’t been happening for a terribly long time in the grand scheme of things, and as this process of water eroding the limestone is still happening it means that the cave is still growing. So who knows maybe in a couple of generations there will be even more chambers to explore.
Visiting the cave
While we already know how fascinating the Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave is, the fact that it is invisible from the road means that it is virtually unknown as the tourist hotspot it should be. Despite this more than 200 000 tourists rock up every year to tackle the trek to the cave mouth.
It is recommended to put aside a whole day for a visit to the cave. There’s about a 5 km drive from Werfen to the Eisriesenwelt parking lot, then a 20 minute walk until you get to the cable car, then a 3 minute ride on the cable car, then at the top of the cable car journey another 20 minute walk before you get to the actual cave itself. So while it doesn’t take nearly as long as those first tourists had to endure, it is still quite a trek.
Luckily once you get inside the cave you do have the very modern benefits of gangplanks, stairs and handrails to make you’re ice cave experience that much more enjoyable.
And while that experience may only be a small portion of what the cave has to offer, it will still take you a good 70 minutes on a guided tour to see the whole thing. And I think you’ll come out of there suitably impressed.
Now once you get to the mouth of the cave, you’ll find massive doors blocking the actual cave entrance. Once you’re in your tour group you will be handed miner’s lamps, because of the extreme difference in air pressure between the inside and outside of the cave, the lamps will be lit once you’re inside the cave.
When the doors are open strong winds will either push you out of the cave or pull you in depending on the outside temperature.
In the winter, when it’s colder outside, we leave the door open, and the air is sucked inside. The moisture in the air forms ice crystals when it hits the walls.
That’s a quote from Alois, a tour guide working at the cave.
But as we already know, if you do want to go to experience the cave for yourself, you’re going to need to be prepared to work for it. After you’ve done the two 20 minute hikes to get up the side of the mountain, there’s another 700 steps once you’re in the cave. So definitely not a destination for those who have trouble walking. And for those who are all about the walking, you can even opt out of the cable car and go on foot the whole way. But if you opt in for the cable car, be prepared because it is currently Austria’s steepest gondola lift, making for some queasy experiences especially if you’re not a massive fan of heights.
As you move through the ice cave on your guided tour you will see many a fascinating majestic ice creation, endless stalactites and all sorts of wonderful things. There are even frozen waterfalls and ice palaces in this hidden world that can only be found on the inside of a mountain. And each ice formation has a name. Because the place is thought to be the ‘Word of the Ice Giants’ it means that most of the ice formations are named with Norse mythology in mind.
There’s a cave gallery called Hymir’s Castle. Hymir’s Castle is an enormous ice sculpture named after the ice giant of the Edda, which is the oldest mythological saga of Germanic origins. There is a curtain of stalactites called Frigga’s Veil, which also looks kind of like an ice organ. Until a few years ago there was a formation that looked like an elephant. While not strictly within the Norse mythology, formations do have the habit of coming and going, so we should probably be prepared for non-Norse names to crop up every now and then.
If you are going to visit the cave make sure to bring appropriate clothing, as, I’m sure you haven’t forgotten, it’s literally freezing inside. Even in the summer the temperature doesn’t rise enough to stop freezing the water so layering is a must. Especially if it’s a hot day and you’re walking up the mountain, make sure to bring a backpack with a jumper or two and perhaps a scarf and some gloves inside.
Now if you’re planning to visit from another country, it’s good to keep in mind that the cave is only open from May to October, so plan you’re trip accordingly. As you explore the cave on your guided tour you’ll learn all about the history and science of the cave. There are actually some cool images of the early cave exploration days on the Eisriesenwelt website.
If you’re lucky enough to be exploring the cave on a clear day, you will be graced with gorgeous panoramic views on the walk up and the walk down of the Tennengebirge Alps.
I suggest taking some time to enjoy the offerings of one of the food and drink joints that can be found on your way up the mountain. There are two to choose from, there’s Dr Oedl house that has a diverse menu, and then at 1000 metres up you’ll find YGGDRASIL Restaurant. What a gorgeous place to grab a bite to eat with such amazing views to enjoy.
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Originally published at https://destinationhistorypod.com on January 1, 2023.
