Photos illuminate Booming Ice Chasm
Stunning pictures offer glimpse of frozen cave below the Alberta-B.C. border
PIC BY FRANCOIS-XAVIER DE RUYDTS / CATERS NEWS – (PICTURED: Adam Walker) – These are the stunning images which capture the breathtaking beauty of a CAVE new world discovered in an ice chasm beneath the Rocky Mountains. The enchanting cave, called Booming Ice Chasm, was named for its incredible acoustics – as falling rocks crash and boom when they tumble down the 140 metre deep cave. Crystal clear ice is several meters thick and makes people feel like theyre flying, but one slip can send climbers hurtling down the frozen water slide slamming into the wall below. Echo makes communication in the 704 metre chasm hard so intrepid explorers Adam Walker, Nick Vieira and Christian Stenner had to wait several seconds after each syllable to make it understandable. The cave is known as a cold-trap cave where cool winter air settles into the depth and is never able to escape. As melting snow and rainwater trickle down the cave entrance its transformed into an amazing natural frozen water slide. The spectacular snaps were captured by Belgian photographer Francois-Xavier De Ruydts, 30, on an exploration to the Crows Nest Pass area of Alberta, Canada, in July. SEE CATERS COPY
Share
The Booming Ice Chasm, named for its ringing echoes, was first explored back in 2008, by a team from the Alberta Speleological Society led by Chas Yonge. Yonge stumbled on the chasm’s entrance, near Crow’s Nest Pass on the southern end of the Alberta-British Columbia border, by accident while en route to an established cave. In July, Vancouver-based photographer Francois-Xavier De Ruydts joined the only expedition to explore, survey and photograph a new passage there.
“I have never seen anything like it before,” says De Ruydts. “The ground is made up of hard, blue and very thick ice that forms a slide straight to the bottom of the cave.”
“Being in such a place is indescribable,” adds the 31-year-old. “The ice on the ground is so transparent. You feel like you’re flying.”
De Ruydts’ pictures will help explorers further understand the caves. “The headlamps used by cavers aren’t powerful enough to get a good view of the cave,” says De Ruydts, who brought portable lights for the shoot. “The photos allowed us to get a real sense of the size of the room for the first time.”
The chasm is known as a “cold-trap” cave because the cold winter air sinks to the bottom and is unable to circulate. This phenomenon insulates the cave from any warmer air, keeping temperatures below freezing and making ice present year-round. Slight temperature variations can alter the ice thickness from one to two metres between summer and winter. “It’s not a place frozen in time,” says De Ruydts, “but definitely a dynamic environment.”
