Exploring a natural ice cave in Iceland. Head to the light…
Having explored Iceland from the air, it was now time to explore Iceland from underground. Or at least under a glacier. There are more beautiful ice caves in Iceland, but those are manmade and crawling with tourists arriving in buses with big tundra tires. We chose a much less explored natural cave, accessible only by helicopter. We were the only two people for our ice cave exploration.
Crossing the Glaciers
But first we had to once again fly over seemingly endless miles of glaciers. Because we were exploring this ice cave in Iceland in August, there had not been any recent clean white snow to cover up the grimey, black sand. So we again saw the designs in the black sand mixed in with the glaciers. Below us was many feet of deep glacier snowpack, caked with black sand.
This is a color photograph of the miles of glaciers we had to cross to the Iceland ice cave.
More of the inexplicable curved designs of the black sand that somehow got twisted up within the glacier.
And here is the unassuming entrance for our Iceland cave exploration. How did anyone ever find this cave in the first place??
Our guide is required by Iceland to be licensed and must pass numerous emergency medical skills tests. This is so they may spring into action when the elderly tourists have an underground medical emergency. However, our official guide never showed up. After waiting almost an hour it was suddenly, or somehow, determined there was an employee at the tiny airport and helicopter facility who happened to have all the necessary training to save my life if called upon. The only problem was he had never been to this cave before. He was now our guide. All three of us would be exploring the cave for the first time.
Our Experienced Helicopter Pilot
Since we had to wait around for our Iceland official, approved, sanctioned and certified licensed ice cave guide, we had ample time to chat with our young helicopter pilot.
How many hours are required for you to become a commercial helicopter pilot ?
150.
How many hours do you have?
155.
So this is your first job?
Yes, I could not find a job in Denmark, so I applied at this tiny airport in Iceland.
So do you like it here in Iceland?
I really do not know. I just got here. Oh, it looks like it is time for us to get going….
There was a serious optical illusion for me going on here while flying. In all seriousness, I asked the pilot why he was flying so slow. He sarcastically told me he was afraid of high speeds. So I took photos of the instrument panels and shared it with an Idaho pilot. In the Garmin screen below there is a line in the center that reads “TAS 115.” That stands for True Air Speed, likely in Kilometers per hour. So were we clipping along at 71mph. I really thought we were going maybe 20mph.
Just Inside the Iceland Ice Cave
With the beautiful crystal blue ice cave visible ahead of us, I was interested in the black ice at the entrance, not knowing if we would be seeing more of it… we would. While Greg was busy extricating himself from a hidden mud pool our rookie guide failed to point out to us, I took time to set up my tripod to take this photo. Well, they all can’t be winners now can they…
The cave was not one giant long tunnel. Rather there were numerous separate rooms we had to pass through. An umbrella would have been useful had my two hands not already been carrying camera gear, a tripod and a much-needed walking stick. We had to pass under several waterfalls.
My photos in this series seem to be a wide composition of the scene, then zooming in on a special feature within that scene. Hopefully you can see the photo below somewhere in the scene above.
Again, no experts around to explain why there is clear ice adjacent to beautiful crystal blue ice.
It was quite dark in these caves. Many of these photos are 30 second exposures on a tripod to gather enough light for a photo. Our eyes were not seeing nearly as much as these photos indicate. We also were wearing headlamps to help us avoid those mud holes, wool hats beneath our helmets and gloves. It was a cumbersome trek for me.
This scene seems to make sense to me with the black volcanic sand grains embedding over the years in the bottom layers. There are water erosion cups in the lower three feet of the cave carved out when large volumes of water flow through. Finally at the top there are beautiful blues illuminated by the overcast sunlight from above.
Walking up to the wall to get a closer look at those erosions cups, I saw a nice abstract design. If photography has taught me anything about myself, it is that I really like abstracts…. which is why I enjoyed this trip so much.
This is another perplexing photo. How is it the white ice section seems to be floating in air. There appears to be no support for these rounded plates dripping with water. No ice supports below. I have no other photos to help explain what is going on here. (CLICK for a larger photo, then ESC to return.) Due to recent extensive travel, these photos get ‘developed’ many months after the fact, so I do not remember the specifics.
We Pass from Room to Room
Once again we had to pass through a small waterfall to get to the next room which often had a completely different look and feel. Well, the feel was the same, wet and cold. So many different shades of blue in the same cave wall. Oh, then there is was a discussion about the cave ants which build that giant ant hill…
I wanted to know how deep under the ice we were, 20 feet or a hundred. I could have asked our guide, but it was his first time in this cave as well, so what does he know? We would try to judge time remaining for us to spend photographing, wondering how close to the end we were…. nobody knew.
The depth of the river, when it flows, is evident by the more washed out black under cut area. Maybe it flows more in the Spring. Hopefully not in August.
We must be getting closer to the exit as everything is getting to be quite a bit brighter.
A photo of only the ceiling of the cave. So how did the sand granules get way up there? Beautiful crystal blue ice tones.
Finally the exit. Seems we got here a bit early, so Greg went back to explore some more of what we had passed up.
Greg exiting the Iceland ice cave.
I Should Have Known Better….
Clearly I must have seen the sand blowing. Somehow I thought I would be immune from the effects and would not get sand in my eyes since I wear glasses. No so. I got lots of painful sand in my eyes just to film this scene for you…. When finally back at the hotel, I rinsed and rinsed my eyes to no avail. My eyes watered and hurt through out dinner. I would again shower and wash my eyes with gallons of water. Greg was looking up a hospital or clinic for the following day. Somehow, my eyes cleaned themselves of the sand on their own while I slept. All was better the following day. Greg continued to do all the driving.
Drive Back to Reykjavík
Just for you Ken, a preview of birds we see on our drive back to Reykjavík.
A puffin takes in the many tourists passing by.
Spectacular photography, and a daring adventure.
Having 155 hours of copter training was that desk hours or actual flying hours? Still daring in my humble opinion. Love the blue coloring.
Thank you for continuing to follow my blogs Lou. I appreciate your comments as my most loyal follower over the years.
Thank you for sharing these unusual ice cave photos. looks so eerie!
Nicely done as usual!! I enjoyed it.
Thank you Lyle. I hope you are still active in photography as well.
Thanks for the preview 🙂
Bummer about the sand blasted eyes at least it cleared up.
Adventures in being a guinea pig for guide and pilot 🙂
If I understand your question about the ice color, it is all about compression of the bubbles. Blue ice in glaciers is extremely compressed. Less compressed have more larger bubbles that refract the color waves and appear more white. I am guessing the white among the blue might be recently refrozen ice that has not been compressed as the original glacier. Here is 1 of many sites to explain it. https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/iceberg-color.html#:~:text=The%20ice%20absorbs%20longer%20wavelengths,some%20icebergs%20their%20remarkable%20colors.
Thank you for the lessons you have provided, I appreciate them very much.
As to the black stripes: Glaciers scrape off the sides of mountains in addition to the bottoms. so think of each glacier of now having gray/black sides. When 2 glaciers meet as they come down adjacent mountain sides, where they join at the sides, these 2 black/gray sides join creating stripes, where the centers remain white. I find it fun to track back up the mountains so see where the original glaciers originate.
That all sounds good and reasonable, except for the tracking up the mountain part. Thank you for the info.