Avalanches and rivers form unusual 'ice chapel' below Austrian mountains

A series of avalanches and rivers streams form an unusual 'ice chapel' below a mountain range near Hintersee, Austria.

Filmed on August 22, thick blankets of snow and ice have formed into a cave a the foot of a mountain.

The filmer told Newsflare: "The Hinterseer Eiskapelle, ice chapel of Hintersee, forms as loads of avalanches go down into this narrow valley during the winter, piling up meters of snow until spring.

"The snow pile occurs from many avalanches occurring during the winter on the surrounding mountains. With the specific, cone-like shape of the valley, all avalanches go down into the same spot, leading to a huge pile-up of quite dense snow during the winter.

"With a river flowing through the snow pile, there is a cave forming in the snow right when the melt season begins.

"Unfortunately, I couldn't go in as there was a hazard of the cave collapsing."