“Personally I prefer to visit ice-caves that pose some challenge to get to. Not just because being in the the icy outdoors and crossing glacier terrain is my passion, but simply because chances are that you and your group will be alone while there. And, especially for people stepping into an ice-cave for the first time that does matter. It is such a unique experience and so much to take in. Not just the overwhelming surroundings, this surreal world where every shade of blue reflects from crystal ice formations and sculptures beyond your imagination - but because being in an ice-cave also plays with your senses. There is almost an alien kind of a silence that blends with echoing deep sounds from within the ice. Then you are breathing in the moist air and feeling the cold mist on your face and every direction you look is an out-of-this-world vision. You need stillness just to take it all in,” says Agust.

He first entered an ice-cave himself some 15 years ago. “A new world opened up for me and right there and then, it became my favourite world. It is like nothing else you can ever find yourself in and every trip is a new adventure into a new world. You are always exploring, always entering something you haven´t seen before because this is such a changing world. I was mesmerized that first time - and I still am,” says Agust. Considering that his guiding and group-leading work regularly takes him to other exotic parts of Iceland and glorious nature abroad like in Africa and South America, the comparison is strong. But ever since that first time, he says nothing has ever matched the glacier ice-caves. Since then his trips into ice-caves are close to countless; on his own, with groups, very often with photographers, filmmakers and media people - and he has even brought people to ice-caves for yoga and meditation purposes.

“For me personally, the excitement and privilege of this work lies no less in exploring the glaciers every year to find new caves or see if caves are still in the place they were the year before. Then to find out if they are safe to enter, how far one can go inside and what safety measures need to be taken before you bring other people along. That whole process is an annual challenge and a wonderful, rewarding part of the my work,” says Agust.

“But at the same time you experience a deep sorrow of seeing the devastating effects of climate change on Arctic nature. The speed at which our glaciers are melting and retreating is faster than anyone could have imagined only a decade back and it is very visible when it comes to the ice-caves. Like all parts of glaciers they melt faster, they are fewer and the ice is thinner so more are too dangerous to enter. Then, of course with retreating glaciers the ice-caves are a lot further to reach. Some are simply gone forever, like a small ice-cave I visited often. It formed around a glacier-water stream, a kind of a waterfall inside the ice where the glacier came down into a canyon. It was gorgeous but now it is gone. There is only the canyon with no ice in sight.”