Photographer captures ice cave network beneath Iceland's Vatnajokull glacier
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The stunning ice caves of Iceland's Vatnajokull glacier appear in a kaleidoscope of colours as the light and conditions change in these remarkable photographs by local guide Einar Runar Sigurdsson.
About 200 British tourists annually brave the network of caves in Europe's largest glacier mass found in the south of Iceland where Einar runs tours for keen photographers throughout the winter, the only time visitors can go inside.
The ice takes on the form of giant teeth or huge waves trapped in suspended animation in the maze of interconnected frozen chambers and they can be a luminous blue or near fluorescent oranges and reds when a fire is lit inside or when the sun outside is rising or setting.
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The incredible ice caves inside Iceland's Vatnajokull glacier as photographed by local guide Einar Runar Sigurosson
An ice climber takes the hard way out of the ice cave, which tourists can visit only during the cold winter months
Einar runs photography tours to the ice caves in the south of Iceland in the largest glacier in Europe
Sometimes the waves look like a giant wave in suspended animation but with light and conditions they are ever-changing
Einar runs tours for keen photographers throughout the winter, the only time visitors can go inside the cave network
Sigurdsson shot these images on the south side of Vatnajokull glacier, which covers more than 8,100 square kilometres or more than eight per cent of Iceland and is estimated to have a volume of 3300 cubic km.
'In autumn each year we start looking for the ice caves for the winter,' he says on his company website. 'Normally we find caves in several different locations on the south side of Vatnajokull. Sometimes they are very special, sometimes not as special but become special in the right light and conditions.'
Einar comes from a long line of Icelandic adventurers, with his grandfather Pall Jonsson in the first group to climb Iceland's highest peak, Hvannadalshnukur, 1891 when he guided the Britain's Frederick Howell to the top.
His father, Sigurour Bjarnason, packed in sheep farming to give bird watching and history tours in Ingolfshofdi in 1991. Einar then began taking tours of his own to the peak of Hvannadalshnukur in 1994 and say his 275 ascents of the mountain is a record.
He now runs the ice cave tours with his wife Matta and son Aron through their company Local Guide of Vatnajokull, formerly known as From Coast To Mountains.
About 200 British tourists annually brave the network of caves in Europe's largest glacier mass in the south of Iceland
The caves take on an ocean-blue colour as the crystal clear ice takes on the colour of the sky
A fiery orange-red reflection illuminates the cave on the south side of the Vatnajokull glacier as a fire is lit
A man stands in a majestic tunnel of ice that resembles the kind of barrel wave surfers dream about
Dramatic shards and smooth surfaces feature in this part of the cave network that is ever-changing and slowly moving
Sigurosson captures a tourist taking in the remarkable scenery beneath the surface
An adventurer gets settled to camp in the cave with a sleeping bag and a fire to prepare food
The rippling blue ocean or rock hard ice? Einar captures a close up view of the ice cave's beauty
'Some caves we find are very stable and we can go in there in any weather, but others are less safe and we might not even go there at all, even if they are very beautiful.
'Some caves are only accessible in below zero conditions for example if there is water in the floor that needs to be frozen over to walk into the cave.'
While some glacial caves are created by geothermal springs, Einar says the caves on the south side of Vatnajokull 'simply form because in the summer the surface of the big glaciers meld due to warm weather and sun and the water falls into thousunds of mullions (sink holes) and finally come out of the glacier tongue as a river.'
He adds: 'When winter is cold enough we can enter many of those tunnels that formed the previous summer. When the sun is lower, the glacier doesn't meld much and the tunnels are dry.'
A glimpse of the outside world from the cave as its roof shines the yellow of the sun
A man lights a fire alongside the steep wall of the network of caves in the Vatnajokull glacier, which covers eight per cent of Iceland
Einar says while some caves are very stable, others are inaccessible regardless of how beautiful they may be
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