The cone shaped mounds are called glacier cones or debris cones. They are mostly ice with a thin veneer of gravel and sand over a cone of ice. How do they form? Imagine putting a shovelful of gravel and sand on a flat glacier surface. Over time as the glacier surface melts, the sand and gravel insulate the ice just a little compared to the gravel-less ice around it. The center of the pile insulates just a little bit more than along the edges of the pile. As the entire surface of the glacier melts, the ice beneath the gravel melts slower and a cone gradually forms with the original pile spread across it. OK, but how does the pile of gravel get there in the first place? Well, check out the next photo... Photographer: Bill Eichenlaub