Steep and Deep

A view over the Salzach valley and the entrance of the Eisriesenwelt cave

I shot this panorama on the narrow ledge of a walkway just in front of the Eisriesenwelt cave. Shooting the panorama close to the abyss made me quite an attraction for the tourists.

Eisriesenwelt in Werfen (some 50 km below Salzburg) is the biggest system of ice caves known in the world. Until this day about 42 km of caves was discovered here. A small part of the caves can be visited under supervision of a tour guide.

The cave part that can be visited is beautiful. It has a wide and long slope of ice, 25 meters thick. Further on in the cave, stalactites, stalagmites and massive walls of ice can be seen. Inside the cave is a stair system with 1400 steps, covering a height difference of 136 meters. That's enough to keep you from cooling down.

When you enter the caves, you immediately have to face a hard cold wind coming through the doors. Inside small open fire lanterns are handed out to help you see the ice. The guide has a piece of wire that burns with an intense white light. This provides you with enough light to see the cave but little enough to keep the mysterious ambiance intact.

Officially it's forbidden to make photo's inside the cave, because that holds up the groups too much. Luckily, they are not very strict on that because you simply cannot restrain yourself from grabbing your camera...

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Europe / Austria

Lat: 47° 30' 9.33" N
Long: 13° 11' 28.13" E

Elevation: 2500

→ maps.google.com [EXT]

Precision is: Medium. Nearby, but not to the last decimal.

I used:

a Nikon D70s camera
a Nikkor 10.5mm fisheye lens
a Cheap portable Manfrotto tripod
a Nodal Ninja3 panorama bracket
Ptgui, Pano2QTVR and photoshop
my nerves