Glacial Ice Palace
The entrance to the "Nature Ice Palace" is just a small hole dug into the snowpack near the top of the Hintertux ski area.
Once inside, a network of natural caverns and tunnels (some excavated further to allow easier walking) provides about an hour-long tour deep into the glacier, even including a short raft ride through a water filled canal - all deep in the glacial ice underneath the ski pistes above.
An ice tunnel in the Hintertux Glacier.
A glacial canal deep in the Hintertux Glacier.
This is the "port" where the raft embarks on its short tour of the glacial canal.
An icicle-laden wall in the "Ice Palace" underneath the Hintertux Glacier.
Today we went back up to Hintertux and we skied on the glacier, then took a boat ride IN the glacier! In 2007 an opening was discovered near the top of the glacier to a series of natural ice caverns and tunnels. Then in 2011 a glacial lake was discovered, and now the tour includes a short raft ride through a natural water-filled tunnel deep in the glacier under the ski pistes! So surreal...