At 7:30am on October 31, the temperature stood at 0 degrees Celsius at the cable car station at the summit of Fansipan Mountain. |
Icicles hanging from walls and surfaces inside the cable car station. |
Some visitors were surprised at the sudden freeze up, though many were delighted to take photographs of the icicles. |
Orchid flowers are frozen solid. |
At around 8:30am on October 31, when sunlight reached the summit, the frost began to melt. |
The peak of Fansipan Mountain is 3,143 meters above the sea level. The area freezes up at least twice a year. |
Luu Minh Hai, Director of Lao Cai Hydro-meteorological Centre said that the temperature in Sapa Town, which is 1,570 meters high above the sea level, was 8 degrees Celsius in the early morning of October 31. The temperature will drop by an average of 0.6 degrees C with every 100 meter altitude gain. |