얼음속 깊이

Photographer Robbie Shone

Canvassing for caves

On the eastern side of the tourist town of Zermatt, two big glaciers fall on either side of Monte Rosa, the highest mountain in Switzerland and the second-highest in both the Alps and western Europe. One, the 14-kilometre-long Gorner Glacier, is home to a massive ‘moulin’ ice cave system.

Incredible entrance

Seeing how vast and extensive the glacier’s moulins and ice-cave systems can be gives an indication of how much water flows through them during the summer, itself an indicator of the rate at which the Alps’ majestic rivers of ice are shrinking.

Cold camping

The crew arrived on the glacier heavily laden with equipment and enough food for a week’s stay.

Big caves

Says Shone: “We discovered, surveyed and photographed three giant ice caves that ran for almost 150m through the glacier. The largest of which had a ceiling height of 20m in some places.”

Blue hole

Evening light bounces in, giving the ice cave an eery, other-worldly blue glow.

Liquid levitation

The cavers use climbing equipment to stay suspended over a pool of (frigid) glacial snowmelt.

Slim picking

“Many more moulins had opened up since last year’s expedition, and the team split into two and began abseiling down into those that looked the most encouraging,” says Shone.

Dropping down

After a storm meant a rough start for the expedition, the weather eventually cleared and the cavers had two great days exploring the spectacular world beneath the glacier’s surface.

Glacial retreat

Although the Gorner Glacier has a total area of more than 50 square kilometres, making it the second largest glacial system in the Alps, it has receded every year since 1892 – since then it has shrunk by almost 2.5km, including a staggering 290m over the summer of 2007.

Cracking up

“I flitted between both parties, desperately trying to capture as many images of this wonderful environment as possible,” says photographer Robbie Shone.

Wavy walls

“The dramatically sculpted ice walls reminded me of shapes I’ve seen before in cylindrical caves formed in limestone,” says Shone.

Ice tunnel

Moulins are well-like shafts through which meltwater drains from the surface of the glacier.