Eisriesenwelt Ice Cave
Eisriesenwelt Cave
This is not a post about the cave itself, its about the hiking adventure to reach this magnificent cave at the top of the Austrian Alps. Of course, you’ll be rewarded from this tough hike with a tour at the largest ice cave in the world! But if this is your only goal, then you can take a cable car directly to the cave’s entrance:) However, as we are all adventurers here, so we have to do it the tough way & On Our Own:) so lets start.
First, these caves are located near the town of Werfen in Austria, so you can take a train from anywhere in the country to this town. After reaching Werfen train station, there is a bus that will take you directly to the cable car station for the cave (click to request info). The trailhead to the top of the mountain and the cable car upper station is directly next to the station; yet, you’ll find very few brave people going that way as 99% of the visitors will take the cable car!
On the day I visited the caves the weather was not perfect as it was cloudy and raining and the guy at the cable car tickets’ booth tried to discourage us from hiking! But we checked the weather forecast and there were no thunderstorms, so we decided to go on with the hike as it will even be more adventurous in this weather:) The trail, as expected, is all uphill to the top with no breaks in between, so you’ve to be fit & up to it to be able to conquer this mountain. The trail itself is very adventurous. First, it starts steep in the forest
then, in some places, it crosses some rock fields on a steep slope that can be tricky to navigate.
After navigating the first sections of the trail, it starts to go around the mountain with sheer cliff drops next to you.
I remember on the day I did this hike, there were sections where the trail was hanging around the mountain and the clouds were making the visibility almost close to zero, so it was a bit scary, yet very adventurous:).
Finally, the last section of the trail becomes a bit steep and tough, but the reward of reaching the cave entrance in an adventurous way will keep you going. In total, it took us 1:15 hours to reach the top of the mountain, so time to rest and catch your breath before joining in with the rest of the tourists who took the cable car.
From the cable car’s top station, its another 20min uphill hike to the cave’s entrance with amazing views of that particular natural phenomenon.
When reaching the cave you’ll join the standard tour into the cave, no adventure here & no photos allowed, but the cave itself and the ice formations are amazing. However, beware that this is an ice cave so it is freezing inside so be prepared with some warm clothing!
After finishing the tour, its time to go back down using the same trail. Of course, this will be all downhill which will be much easier, yet still tricky to navigate in some parts. Lucky for us, the weather cleared on our way down and revealed the amazing views of the valley below that we missed on our way up:).
Final word, for me, the cave itself is not worth the trip unless you are in the area, but, the hike and cave combo is definitely worth it, so enjoy:)
