IWIC-X 10th international Workshop on Ice Caves

IWIC series

The International Workshop on Ice Caves (IWIC) is held every two years, and previously has been organized in Cluj-Napoca (Romania, 2004), Demanovská Dolina (Slovakia, 2006), Kungur (Russia, 2008), Obertraun (Austria, 2010), Grigna-Milan (Italy, 2012), Idaho Falls (USA, 2014), Postojna (Slovenia, 2016), Picos de Europa (Spain, 2018), and Liptovský Mikuláš (Slovakia, 2022).

Venue

The 10th International Workshop on Ice Caves (IWIC-X) will be held in Werfenweng, Austria, from May 12 to 18, 2024. The venue will be Barbarahof in the charming village of Werfenweng, located some 40 km south of the city of Salzburg.

Werfenweng can be reached by public transportation (train to Werfen or Bischofshofen and then bus), by car, or by plane to Salzburg or Munich (then train and bus). Details will be provided in the second circular.

Accommodation

We reserved the entire guesthouse Barbarahof (owned by a former show cave guide of Eisriesenwelt and his wife) for IWIC-X. There is a limited number of rooms available at these special prices (per night, per person):

• Single room    115 €
• Double room  100 €

The indicated prices are full board, i.e., they include breakfast, lunch and dinner.

We recommend to book early (info@barbarahof.com) quoting “IWIC-X” and to take advantage of the full board offer. There are other guesthouses and restaurants in this village but they are some distance from Barbarahof. You can find more information about Werfenweng on the website of the tourist office.

Camping is available at no charge (parking lot of the cable car, behind the guesthouse).

Schedule

Sun May 12                Arrival and ice breaker

Mon May 13               Sessions (oral and poster)

Tue May 14                 Field trip to Eisriesenwelt Cave, tour of the Castle Werfen

                         & conference dinner

Wed May 15               Sessions (oral and poster)

Thu May 16                Special session on cryogenic cave carbonates  

Fri May 17                  Field trip to Dachstein Rieseneishöhle

Sat May 18                 Departure

Field trips

Mid-conference trip to Eisriesenwelt widely regarded as the largest ice cave in the world.

Post-conference field trip to Dachstein-Rieseneishöhle, a jewel of the Salzkammergut region.

Conference dinner

The guided tour and conference dinner will take place in Castle Werfen following the field trip to Eisriesenwelt cave.

Guest speakers

Pascal Bohleber (Alfred-Wegener-Institut and Univ. of Venice): The fate of ice core research on high-Alpine glaciers

Birgit Sattler (Univ. of Innsbruck): (Ice) caves as microbial hot spots

Special session on CCC

A dedicated full-day session will focus on cryogenic cave carbonates (CCC). We plan to have a lively session that focuses on specific topics. We welcome contributions on these topics: settings of CCC formation, dating of CCC, experiments on CCC growth, proxy studies on CCC, and case studies.

Presentations

Oral presentations will be approximately 15 min followed by discussion.

Registration fees

                       Deadline                         Student rate            Full rate

Early bird      31st December, 2023           70 €                     130 €

Regular         29th February, 2024             120 €                   200 €

The registration fees cover the costs for the ice breaker, coffee breaks during the sessions, bus transfer and entrance to Eisriesenwelt, bus transfer to the conference dinner, the conference dinner and the evening tour of the castle.

Not included are the costs for accommodation (see above) and the optional Friday field trip to Dachstein Rieseneishöhle. The price for this post-conference field trip is 70 € and includes transportation by bus, cable car and entrance to this cave.

Registration is only valid when payment has been received.

How to Register in Three Simple Steps

1) Send an email to the conference address (IWIC10conference@uibk.ac.at) including 1) your name, 2) your affiliation, 3) which field trip(s) you intend to participate in (Tuesday, Eisriesenwelt; Friday, Dachstein), and 4) any dietary restrictions.  

2) Book your accommodation directly with guesthouse Barbarahof.

3) Arrange payment of your registration fee by wire transfer.

Bank details

Hypo Tirol Bank

IBAN: AT47 5700 0210 1113 0470

BIC: HYPTAT22

Project number: P7150-012-058

Visas

To check whether or not you need a visa for attending the conference, please visit the website of the Federal Ministry Republic of Austria, Integration and Foreign Affairs. In case you need a visa, please apply allowing sufficient time for application processing. 

Participants who require an official letter of invitation should send a request to IWIC10conference@uibk.ac.at with the required information including travel date, name, date of birth, and passport number of the invitee. The invitation is not a commitment on the part of the organizers to provide financial support. The organizer cannot provide or sign any EVE (Elektronische Verpflichtungserklärung) documents or guarantee letters. It should be understood that the organizers can only issue an invitation which includes the time of the conference plus the travel days directly before and after.

A letter of invitation can only be provided for abstract authors and/or registered participants (paid conference registration).

Travel grants

There is a limited number of grants available to cover travel and/or accommodation costs. Preference is given to students and early career researchers. In order to apply, send an informal application to the organizers by February 1. Submission of an abstract is required. All applicants will be informed about the decision in February.

Deadlines

Dec 31, 2023          Early-bird registration

Feb 1, 2023            Travel grant applications

Feb 29 , 2024         Abstract submission and late registration

 

Download 2-nd circular

Click here to download 2-nd circular of IWIC-X Conference

Download the IWIC-X Abstract book

Please use link: https://doi.org/10.25651/1.2024.0002

Contact

Please email IWIC10conference@uibk.ac.at for further information.

Organizing committee

Christoph Spötl (University of Innsbruck)

Gabriella Koltai (University of Innsbruck)

Yuri Dublyansky (University of Innsbruck)

Tanguy Racine (University of Neuchâtel)

Jeffrey Munroe (Middlebury College, University of Innsbruck)

Fritz Oedl (Eisriesenwelt GmbH)

Sponsors

We are grateful to the Vice Rectorate for Research and the Faculty of Geo- and Atmospheric Sciences, University of Innsbruck (Aurora), as well as the Austrian Speleological Association and the Eisriesenwelt GmbH for providing support for this conference.