A series of avalanches and rivers streams form an unusual 'ice chapel' below a mountain range near Hintersee, Austria.

Filmed on August 22, thick blankets of snow and ice have formed into a cave a the foot of a mountain.

The filmer told Newsflare: "The Hinterseer Eiskapelle, ice chapel of Hintersee, forms as loads of avalanches go down into this narrow valley during the winter, piling up meters of snow until spring.

"The snow pile occurs from many avalanches occurring during the winter on the surrounding mountains. With the specific, cone-like shape of the valley, all avalanches go down into the same spot, leading to a huge pile-up of quite dense snow during the winter.

"With a river flowing through the snow pile, there is a cave forming in the snow right when the melt season begins.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't go in as there was a hazard of the cave collapsing."

Here, in a narrow valley near Hintersee (Austria), I stumbled upon a huge pile of snow which remained from last winter. Despite it was one of the hottest summers here, the (very dense) snow still piled up to 10-20 metres on some spots in end of August, when I took this video!

The "Hinterseer Eiskapelle" (ice chapel of Hintersee) forms, as loads of avalanches, go down into this narrow valley during the winter, piling up meters of snow until spring.

Due to the orientation of this valley, hardly any sunlight reaches the spot where the snow accumulates which leads to the snow lasting until late in the summer (even though the valley is only 800m above sea level, approx. 2000 metres below the climatological snow line).

Thanks to the last winter being exceptionally snowy here, there is enough snow remaining that it will certainly survive until next winter.


unfortunately, I couldn't go in as there was a hazard of the cave collapsing

The snow pile occurs from many avalanches occuring during the winter on the surrounding mountains. With the specific, cone-like shape of the valley, all avalanches go down into the same spot, leading to a huge pile-up of quite dense snow during the winter.

Witha river flowing through the snow pile, there is a cave forming (and growing) in the snow right when the melt season begins. Usually, with
average snow conditions in the winter, the snow remains until summer, since the north-faced valley doesn't receive much sunlight
throughout the year.

This year, after an exceptionally snowy winter, the snow is very likely to "survive" until next winter (not
even this year's summer, being one of the hottest ones, was sufficient to melt the unusually large snow pile).

Avalanches and rivers form unusual 'ice chapel' below Austrian mountains