Chris & Jeremy Safely Exploring The Big Four Ice Caves

What with Washington's Big Four Ice Caves being in the news, for a deadly reason, with one person killed and several injured, after ignoring the warning signs indicating entering the Ice Caves was not safe in warm, let alone, hot weather, I thought I'd share some photos of a safe, winter, frozen visit to the Ice Caves with my nephews, Christopher and Jeremy.

This hike to the Ice Caves took place back in the early 1990s.

Winter is a safe time  to visit the Ice Caves. In late Spring the Spring Thaw brings about new Ice Caves as melting chunks of ice crash down from the steep cliff above, creating a spectacular attraction which attracts a lot of onlookers to look at the cascading chunks of ice  and listen to the explosive cracks of ice.

This pile of ice later morphs into the Ice Caves, becoming safe to enter with the return of freezing in Winter.

The Ice Caves are never safe in Summer. Just look at the below pictures of Chris and Jeremy in the Ice Caves and imagine being so foolish to do on a HOT summer day.

One my Washington website's Cascade Mountains webpage there is a good description of the Ice Caves....

Ice Caves
There is a road called the Mountain Loop Highway that goes from Darrington to Granite Falls. This road is in the Mount Baker Snoqualmie National Forest. It is the way to Glacier Peak which is one of the 5 volcanoes in Washington, and the least known and most difficult to get to. The Mountain Loop Highway is very close to the lowlands of Puget Sound and is easy to get to and closer than going up to the ski areas on Stevens or Snoqualmie Pass in search of snow to play on. There are many attractions on the Mountain Loop Highway, Mount Pilchuck, Granite Falls (the actual falls, not the town),  Monte Christo, an old mining town which is now a ghost town and a major mountain biking and hiking destination in summer and a cross country skiing destination in winter. But the most unique thing on the Mountain Loop Highway may be the Ice Caves which form every year as the winter's accumulation of snow that has slid off the mountain forms caves as water erodes the ice away. The Ice Caves are about a mile hike from the Highway. There are warning signs. 'Enter the Ice Caves at your own Risk', 'Ice Caves Dangerous on Warm Days'. People have died in the Ice Caves.

In the following three photos we go inside the Ice Caves with Chris and Jeremy.

Above you are looking at Chris and Jeremy looking at HUGE chunks of ice which fell from the Ice Caves during the previous Summer's melting phase. Again, why would anyone ignore the multiple warning signs and enter the Ice Caves on a warm July day?

11 Year Old Girl Killed at Big Four Ice Caves on Mountain Loop Highway

The Big Four Ice Caves are in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest, about 15 miles east of Granite Falls on the Mountain Loop Highway, accessed by a 1 mile, easily hiked, trail.

The Ice Caves are known to be dangerous. Signs caution against entering the caves.

Saturday afternoon a freak incident outside the Ice Caves killed an 11 year old girl and injured her mother.

The mother and daughter were standing on ice outside the Ice Caves when a big piece of ice came roaring down.

I have been inside the Big Four Ice Caves in winter, when it is below freezing, with the caves relatively stable.

I have also been to the Big Four Ice Caves during the spring thaw when high temperatures cause rapid thawing. I remember a large crowd of onlookers, watching from a vantage point, safely hundreds of feet from the Ice Caves, while avalanches of ice and snow came crashing down the steep cliffs, sort of like frozen waterfalls. The ice piles up at the base of the cliffs and eventually the warm temperatures of summer melt out the Ice Caves.

I would think that by July 31 most of the ice and snow had already come crashing down from the cliffs above the Ice Caves. Otherwise no one would have been close to the Ice Caves due to the obvious danger.

A memorable thing about the spring thaw was how loud the ice and snow was when it came tumbling down. The description of what happened at the Ice Caves on Saturday does not match the spring thaw ice tumbling down type scenario.

Others in the area at the time of the accident reported hearing screaming and that the ice did not drop, that it just started shifting.

Those are my nephews, Christopher and Jeremy, exploring the Ice Caves with me in the pictures.