In the belly of the glacier: ice cave in Switzerland
EEver ice – the term is used with caution in times of climate change. In any case, the name does not apply to the Aletsch Glacier in the Swiss canton of Valais, 22 kilometers long and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Because its volume is decreasing, the longest stream of ice in the Alps is slowly but surely melting away.
For 20 years, as operations manager, Martin Fischer watched the Aletsch Glacier grow and die at 3,571 meters above sea level at the Sphinx Observatory research station on the Jungfraujoch. The fact that the ice is becoming less can no longer be argued away, he says. Four to five meters of snow fell on the Jungfraujoch a year, it used to be up to 16 meters.
For a glacier, it takes a lot of snowfall, Fischer continues, and that for centuries. This snow is transformed by melting and refreezing into coarse-grained firn, traversed by air channels. Only when these air veins close, due to the incoming and freezing water, is the state of the glacier reached. Its ice is practically impermeable to water.
Perforated like Swiss cheese: the Aletsch Glacier on the Jungfraujoch
Source: Ice Palace
To take a closer look at this ice, you can crawl into the belly of the Aletsch Glacier. You don’t have to book an expedition for this, just a ticket to the Jungfraujoch (which may seem similar in price, from Interlaken there and back you pay more than 200 Swiss francs).
At the top you can then walk into the Ice Palace. As early as the 1930s, mountain guides began cutting cave passages into the glacial ice with ice picks and saws. The walls shimmer blue, a clear cold prevails here. The annual rings of the glacier lead back in time – in the form of brown veins running through the blue: Saharan sand flown here centuries ago. The eruption of the Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull in 2010 can also be seen in the ice.
Theoretically, this frozen layer of dust will still be visible for hundreds of years. In practice, however, the glacier will probably no longer exist. Because, see above: He melts. And with it the milled niches, in which deer, birds and other figures are now standing around, carved out of crystal-clear ice, which is supplied by an ice cream factory in Interlaken.
It’s not a shame about this kitsch decoration, but it is about the glacier. Should it really disappear, Europe would be deprived of an invaluable natural heritage. In any case, Swiss researchers fear that by the year 2100 only a few measly ice fields will remain.
Happy crazy: ice swimming in Finland
According to surveys, the happiest people in the world are the Finns. Maybe they are also among the craziest, and maybe the two are related, being crazy and being happy. In any case, it seems pretty crazy to swim between ice floes and have fun doing it.
In fact, it’s supposed to be healthy. At least that’s what a study from 2004 says: “Regular winter swimming improves general well-being.” However, only 49 Finnish winter swimmers took part at the time – perhaps not a very representative starting point. But the Finns believe in it.
In Helsinki, for example, where it is dark and cold for long periods of time in winter and the Baltic Sea regularly freezes over, you can go to the harbor first in the sauna and then step into the sea. Namely in the “Allas Sea Pool”, where you can cool down after each sauna session in the unheated seawater pool, which is open all winter long.
If the water freezes on the surface, the ice is simply chopped up. Even if the thermometer shows minus 20 degrees, the water in the ice hole is still plus two or three degrees. There is also a freshwater pool floating in the sea, but the water there is 27 degrees and is not suitable for cooling off.
Not for the faint-hearted: Swimming in Finland’s ice-cold lakes is best done with a hat
Which: action press
Ice swimming is also possible in other places around Helsinki, and there are even competitions, for example on the small island of Uunisaari on the southern coast of the capital. In total, Finland has a good 200 ice swimming clubs, on the Baltic Sea and inland, which is criss-crossed by countless lakes, which also reliably freeze over in winter.
However, you don’t need to be a member of a club to go ice swimming: you don’t need more than a frozen lake or the icy Baltic Sea on your doorstep, apart from a chainsaw, of course, with which you can cut your own pool into the ice and climb in for a few swim strokes, often garnished with spikes Scream.
Untrained people should only ice bath for a few seconds, a maximum of a few minutes, and only get into the water slowly. And the Finns have one more piece of advice: Chin up! It is not advisable to submerge in the ice water and wearing a hat is also recommended. Otherwise you will cool down too quickly.
High up: ice climbing in Austria
Anyone who has always wanted to climb up a waterfall should do so in winter. And travel to the Ötztal – that offers dozens of waterfalls that freeze in the cold season and are suitable for ice climbing. You need at least some climbing experience, the right equipment – and nerves of steel. Because such a waterfall tour is not a walk.
It is secured with long screws that are screwed into the ice, and the safety carabiner and rope are attached to them. The climbers hold an ice ax in each hand and take turns hammering into the waterfall. However, not with too much oomph, so that the whole curtain of ice doesn’t come at you, but also not with too little, because otherwise the teeth of the pickaxe won’t work.
Ötztal from above: Ice climbers at a frozen waterfall in Längenfeld
Source: Ötztal Tourismus/Elias Holzknecht
It takes practice, strength, and confidence to do this. Crampons are worn on the boots, the front points of which are kicked into the ice. So you stand there, on a vertical surface of ice, held in place by a couple of metal prongs.
Ice is not just ice. If it’s too cold, ice shatters like glass, can jump in your face, sharp-edged like a shattered mirror. However, if it is too warm, ice turns into water. It then runs towards the climbers at the front of the waterfall, and if you are unlucky, it also runs along the back between the ice and rocks – and threatens to detach the ice wall from the rock. Those who do not know their way around should therefore not undertake a tour without a mountain guide.
In the Ötztal you can book guided climbing tours
Source: Ötztal Tourismus/Christian Schneider
In the Ötztal you can book such guided climbing tours, including the necessary equipment. Workshops on ice climbing techniques are also offered in the ice climbing park in Oberried. In total there are more than 40 places for ice climbing in the valley, some with bizarre names like Milchschnitte or Cold Shower. The annual highlight is the “Vertical on Ice” ice climbing festival, with the next one scheduled for January 2022.
Dash through Masuria: ice sailing in Poland
Anyone looking for a challenge as a sailor goes on the ice. Of course, this requires real winters – no problem in Masuria. In the ice winter of 1929, 42 degrees below zero were measured in Treuburg (today Olecko) in the far east of Masuria. Temperatures of 20 degrees below zero are still not uncommon. So it’s no wonder that Masuria’s lakes are Europe’s largest ice sailing area.
The tradition of ice sailing in the region, which was part of East Prussia and German until 1945, goes back to the sawmill owner Georg Tepper from the village of Ogonken (today Ogonki) on the Schwenzaitsee. With his self-constructed wooden ice sled, which raced across the ice on razor-sharp runners, Tepper reached a record speed of 170 kilometers per hour.
Faster than any sleigh ride: ice sailing in Masuria, here on the Spirdingsee
Source: picture-alliance / DUMONT image archive
The ice sailing weeks he initiated advanced from 1929 to the largest ice sailing event in Europe. The centers of Polish ice sailors today are Nikolaiken (Mikolajki) on Spirdingsee and Rydzewen (Rydzewo) on Saitensee. Here you can rent ice sailing boats and have the technology explained to you.
And then off you go, preferably with a crash helmet and a thick ski suit: the wind hurls the wooden vehicle with its flapping sails like a catapult over the dark ice. It rushes like an arrow on scraping runners back and forth across the ideally mirror-smooth ice surface, but a bit of snow isn’t a problem either. In no time at all you are in a rush of speed, with neither the ice-cold feet nor the pain that the icy wind burns in your face.
We recommend Chopin – a Polish vodka – to warm up.
On skates: Ice skating in Swedish Lapland
Sure, you can also skate indoors, always going around in circles. It’s far nicer in nature when you can do really long laps on frozen lakes. But a completely different number is ice hiking on ice skates for kilometers – it is practiced in northern Scandinavia, in Swedish Lapland, in Luleå high up on the Gulf of Bothnia.
A paradise for skaters: Luleå’s ice rink is ten kilometers long
Quelle: picture alliance/robertharding/Christian Kober
There, in winter, an ice track encircles the city, leading from one port to another and then out into the Bothnian archipelago to the island of Gråsjälören. Tourists and locals can use the ten-kilometer-long ice rink every day, for ice hiking, sledding, jogging, skating; sometimes you even see riders on the ice.
And on the edge of the polished stretch you will always come across ice anglers who endure hours in the cold to finally pull a fish out of the drilled ice hole. The Isbanan (in English: ice rink) can be used as long as the ice measures one meter. Winter in Luleå usually lasts from October to May, and the ice is usually thick enough from December.
There is no need to be afraid of cold feet: at the edge of the ice rink, small stands offer Glögg, the Swedish mulled wine, ideal for warming up.
At the edge of the ice slope in Luleå, anglers wait out the cold in front of holes drilled in the ice
What: LULEÅ TRAVEL
This article was first published in November 2021.