Stage winner France Kevin Vauquelin climbs during the second stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 199.2 kilometers (123.8 miles) with start in Cesenatico and finish in Bologna, Italy, Sunday, June 30, 2024. Photo by (Etienne Garnier/Pool Photo via AP Photo)

Penitentes, or nieves penitentes (Spanish for “penitent-shaped snows”), are a snow formation found at high altitudes. They take the form of tall thin blades of hardened snow or ice, closely spaced with the blades oriented towards the general direction of the sun.

A general view shows smoke and volcanic ashes billowing from volcano Cotopaxi in Pedregal, Ecuador, late 07 October 2015. (Photo by Jose Jacome/EPA)

A Hindu devotee is helped by other people as she walks on burning coals during a religious procession Vel Festival of the Hindu goddess Maha Mariamman (Sheetla Mata), in New Delhi, India, 06 April 2017. People get their bodies pierced with different kinds of metal needles and rods and participate in a religious procession as thanks giving gesture to the goddess in return of their fulfilled wishes during the annual procession. (Photo by Rajat Gupta/EPA)

A worker shows crayfish during an event celebrating the harvest season of crayfish in Xuyi County of Huai'an, east China's Jiangsu Province on May 18, 2022. Crayfish is one of the renowned specialties in Xuyi County. (Photo by Li Bo/Xinhua/Alamy Live News)

Russian policemen detain a person taking part in an unauthorized protest against Russia's partial military mobilization due to the conflict in Ukraine, in downtown Moscow, Russia on 24 September 2022. Russian President Putin announced in a televised address to the nation on 21 September, that he signed a decree on partial mobilization in the Russian Federation. Russian citizens who are in the reserve will be called up for military service. On 24 February 2022 Russian troops entered the Ukrainian territory in what the Russian president declared a “Special Military Operation”, starting an armed conflict that has provoked destruction and a humanitarian crisis. (Photo by Maxim Shipenkov/EPA/EFE)

A physically challenged girl looks at her brother as she is kept in a basin to seek alms from people on the street in Kano, Nigeria December 30, 2015. The girl has suffered from her condition since birth. (Photo by Reuters/Stringer)

Former Vice President Joe Biden, 2020 Democratic presidential candidate, right, watches as his wife Jill Biden, center, blocks a protester from arriving on stage during an primary night rally in the Baldwin Hills neighborhood of Los Angeles, California, U.S., on Tuesday, March 3, 2020. The biggest day of the presidential primary calendar will define the nomination fight for Bernie Sanders and Biden and determine whether Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren have a rationale for carrying on their campaigns. (Photo by Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images)