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.

Sikh devotees participate in the Baisakhi festival at Panja Sahib shrine in Hassan Abdel April 13, 2015. Hundreds of Indian Sikh pilgrims arrived into Pakistan to celebrate the Baisakhi festival with Pakistani Sikhs at the shrines of Panja Sahib and Nankana Sahib, the birth place of Sikh faith founder Guru Nanak Dev. (Photo by Caren Firouz/Reuters)

College students take shelter at a traffic point as a man paddles his rickshaw through a flooded road during heavy rain in Guwahati, India, June 13, 2017. (Photo by Anuwar Hazarika/Reuters)

Children of the Roma community play as they cool off in a fountain in the main square of Pristina, Kosovo on June 14, 2017. (Photo by Armend Nimani/AFP Photo)

A Nepalese Hindu woman receives TIKA on her forehead while praying to Lord Shiva during the first day of the Sarwan Brata festival, which is observed through prayer and a month of fasting, at the Pashupati Temple in Kathmandu, Nepal, 17 July 2023. (Photo by Narendra Shrestha/EPA)

A woman is soaked as she runs down the street as revellers take part in a water fight on Khao San road on the eve of Thai New Year, locally known as Songkran, in Bangkok on April 12, 2023. (Photo by Jack Taylor/AFP Photo)

Festival goers attend the 2023 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival on April 14, 2023 in Indio, California. (Photo by Matt Winkelmeyer/Getty Images for Coachella)

US M142 High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS) is launched as journalists film during a military exercise in Capas, Tarlac province, Philippines, 13 October 2022. The Philippines hosted simultaneous combat drills with the United States, South Korea, and Japan to improve interoperability in times of conflict. (Photo by Francis R. Malasig/EPA/EFE)