ICE CAVERN 1: Mystic Blues

Where alpine streams flow under snowfields during the summer, ice caverns form. I started photographing these ice caves during the late summer and early autumn of 2011, venturing only a short distance into the opening, as these caves are dangerous. But to a photographer’s eye, it is a dazzling sight, especially when the ice takes on blue and pink and green colors (depending upon the thickness and translucency of the ice and how much algae is embedded in the ice to give it color). The results are astoundingly beautiful, and the sun cups carved by melting from the warmer stream give the caves a sculpted appearance. It is otherworldly.