From May to October, about 200,000 tourists trek up Austria’s Hochkogel mountain via cable car each year to see Eisriesenwelt’s impressive maze of ice formations, including one resembling a trunkless elephant. Visitors are advised to brace themselves as tour guides swing open the entrance’s heavy door—unleashing gusts that can reach up to 56 mph—before using carbide lamps to explore more than half a mile of accessible glaciated tunnels. This alpine cave is one of the several European ice caves melting at an alarming rate due to global climate change.
