Snow caves of Kamchatka

Denis Budkov aka ratbud writes: “The end point of our photo tour was the Mutnovsky volcano area. I come here every year, but this time it was different. Last winter was very little snowy and besides, it turned out to be a hot summer. Therefore, snowfields, which never melt this year, have greatly decreased in size. As a result, passages to the snow caves below them opened up.”

(Total 23 photos)

Source: Journal/ratbud

1. Snow cave on the slopes of Mutnovsky volcano. Photo © Budkov Denis

2. Photo © Veronika Shumkova

3. Photo © Veronika Shumkova

4. At the entrance to the cave, the thickness of the ceiling is very small and the sunlight breaking through it gives us a spectacle of unique beauty. Photo © Sergey Krasnoshchekov

5. The conditions for shooting in the cave are not the best, to put it mildly: almost everywhere water is pouring from the ceiling, which just wants to flood the equipment. And it was not without excesses - Irina was so carried away by shooting that she did not notice how she put the device under a stream of water. Photo © Sergey Krasnoshchekov

6. Photo © Sergey Krasnoshchekov

7. The main colors that our eyes see in the cave are Green, Yellow and Blue, but the automation of modern cameras thought that Red-Pink shades of color are still present here. Photo © Natalya Belentsova. Winner of the contest "Wild Nature of Russia 2012"

8. Photo © Ivan Borovkov

9. Photo © Denis Budkov

10. Photo by © Florian Wizorek

11. The farther we moved away from the entrance, the thicker the vault of the cave became and the less light penetrated through it. Photo © Budkov Denis

12. Photo by © Florian Wizorek

13. Photo © Marc Szeglat

14. On the ceiling now and then bizarre images appeared, both in shape and color. Photo © Marc Szeglat

15. Photo © Ivan Borovkov

16. Here is the last ray of light on the way to the center of the cave. Photo © Denis Budkov

17. At first, I didn’t want to go further into the depths of the cave, but our restless Alena, with her zeal to go through the cave, simply forced me to go further and thanks to her for that !!)) Otherwise, I would not have seen all the charm lurking under these thicknesses snow. Photo © Denis Budkov

18. Somewhere in the middle of the cave (it is about 300 meters) there was a large hall with a small cascade. In this photo, where I pose for Veronica as a guide to Hell ???? it is clearly visible, like the annual rings of trees, the layers of snow from which the cave is composed. According to my estimates, there are about 5 layers of pressed snow. The bottom layer is already almost ice. Photo © Veronika Shumkova

19. The Mutnovsky volcano area is famous for its abundance of precipitation. This cave is located in a ravine up to 10 meters deep, through which an ordinary mountain stream flows. In winter, this ravine is level with snow, and the thickness of the cave vault can reach up to 5-6 meters. Photo © Martin Rietze

20. At the exit from the cave, a small 5 meters waterfall blocks our path, but it is dangerous to approach it, since the edges of the vault here are constantly collapsing. Photo © Martin Rietze

21. But the problem is solved by a small side exit through which we get out of the cave. Photo © Marc Szeglat

22. Going outside and looking around the whole snowfield, I can’t even believe that we just passed under it. Photo © Veronika Shumkova

23. To understand for yourself how much snow falls here and how much of it has melted this year. Imagine that this small waterfall is usually under the snow!!! Photo © Veronika Shumkova

And there are many such caves on the slopes of the Mutnovsky volcano, you just need to find them !!))