Caves in a Sea of Ice

These pictures come  from the Ice Caves of Mer de Glace, the largest glacier in France...which every year becomes smaller and smaller.   A cog train - the Montenvers Train - travels from Chamonix up the mountain slopes to a station. A gondola than travels back down the slopes towards the glacier, but not all the way to the bottom. The last 400 steps down are only navigable only on foot.  Every year more steps are added to the bottom as the glacier shrinks away.  

At the base of the stairs lies the ice caves, passages dug into the ice every year for adventurers who want to see the inside of the shrinking glacier.  The caves are illuminated by florescent lighting, which casts the ice in a array of colors.  

You are very welcome.   I usually sling mine over my shoulder anyway.

The ice caves are dug every year as they drift down the mountain slope.  The stairs lead into this years' carving, with the last three years visible to the left.

 There is a steady rainfall in the cave as the glacier melts under the summer sun.   It's not just seasonal melt that impacts this glacier either. The glacier is shrinking year over year- dramatically - one of the many tangible evidences that the planet is warming.