Ice Caves

Yesterday my roommate, Kristen, called me and asked me if I'd go on a blind date with her to the Rexburg ice caves. I agreed because I promised her that we would do something fun soon. It was pretty fun, it wasn't so much like a date as just hanging out. We dressed really warmly and as waterproof as spontaneous  spelunking will allow. The drive out there was pretty fun but the last part is pretty much off-road so it was really bumpy (thank you four-wheel drive!). The ice caves were really fun and I'd totally recommend the one we went to. It's not a good idea if you're scared of the dark or claustrophobic though. You can stand up most of the time but there is a lot of sliding on your knees and crouching.

You have to climb down around this spire of ice to continue through part of the cave. I slipped right at the bottom and slid a foot or two across the floor. 

This is a picture of one of the caves you can stand up in. The floor is an ice block that you have to climb up onto. At the end of the cave is a tunnel you have to slide on your knees through. At the very end of this particular set of caves there's a wall of ice that has steps and a slide carved out. It was fun and we had contests to see who could slide the farthest across the room. Us girls had no chance at winning though, we barely had enough mass to get to the bottom of the slope, but it was fun anyway. By the time we were finished we were soaking wet, but inside the caves was actually pretty warm compared to outside. When we got outside all of our pants froze. It was really funny. After we were done spelunking we got together at the other girl (Rebecca's) apartment and made dinner and played Apples to Apples.  I have quite a few bruises from the caves. My knees are pretty bad from crawling around on the ice. This is the worst of the two.

But the worst bruise I got is on my elbow. I banged it on the cave wall when I slipped down that spire. It's one big mass of purple. I can't even hardly stand wearing a long sleeved shirt. I don't have a picture though because it's really hard to take a good picture of your elbow with a  tempermental camera. Despite all the bruises though, it was tons of fun!