It can be very difficult to portray certain scenes, especially landscapes and macro photos, so that scale is evident. Unless you were standing there yourself, size is all a guessing game. So here is a quick snap I took of one of my clients from this recent tour to Cordova, Eric B. of Missouri.
The chamber where he was kneeling could easily accommodate a standing 6 foot tall man, with probably 2 feet of headroom to go – although it was fairly narrow at that point. There was a secondary chamber beyond that was shorter. I visited it for a short time, but it was too confining (for my tastes and for my photography:D).
Photographer kneeling in ice cave within the Sheridan Glacier, Alaska. ©2010 Dave Taylor/Sixtyone North
Stay tuned.
Hey, Dave -
Does the ice make any noise from pressure / movement? Just trying to get a feel for what it must be like to be inside… I’ve been in the ice caves on Lake Superior (between Bayfield & Cornucopia), but that seems like a very different experience…
- Jack
Hey Jack -
Yeah, I’ve been in those ice caves too. Very different experience. Some glacial caves (and glaciers for that matter) are much more active than others. I’ve climbed on the Matanuska several times and heard deep cracks and booms from far below my feet. It’s always “exciting” to hear those things, especially with someone who has never been on a glacier before. The Sheridan Glacier is less active because it’s not traveling down and calving into an ocean, it is just very slowly melting away. It does “push” forward still though, there was evidence of this as we travelled along the front face of the glacier. There were huge mounds of earth that had been bulldozed by the glacier. I only heard 1 small crack when I was in this cave, but I know that if I had hung around long enough, I would have heard more activity. It is quite different standing on top of a glacier and hearing it groan and creek and boom below your feet – VERY alarming, to being inside a glacial cave and hear those same sounds. From on top, it seems like the earth you are standing on could give way at any second and swallow you whole. Inside the cave, it is very claustrophobic, and seems like you could be crushed instantly if there were a collapse. I was also very nervous about snow bridges – they can cover crevasses with a thin crust of snow, hiding the danger very well. The cave was formed by a glacial melt stream that cut a moulin in the surface. There was no water in the cave anymore, but it had to go somewhere. That “somewhere” was exactly what I was afraid of
I get a claustrophobic attack just looking at it. I’ll gladly leave the ice cave photography to you braver souls…