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The Crazy Gang
The 3 adventurer's and me - Tom,Evan,the Englishman and Ben ***CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE***
***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MY PREVIOUS DIARY ENTRIES, THEN CLICK THE 'PREVIOUS JOURNALS' AT THE FOOT OF THIS ENTRY***
***PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD ME ANY EMAIL ADDRESSES THAT WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE MY DIARY ENTRIES AUTOMATICALLY***
Apologies to everyone that has been patiently awaiting my next blog, but I simply haven't had any internet access for weeks. I am currently in Whitehorse and will be publishing a number of journals (not necessarily in the right order, but there you go). if you RECEIVE a number of emails, they will be different so don't delete any of them thinking they are duplicates. The internet access in Whitehorse is poor as well as being $12 per hour so I am not too sure how many blog's I can afford to get publish.
It has always been a lifelong ambition of mine to see a real glacier. I have only ever seen them on the television or in books, so the opportunity to climb up one was something that I was not going to miss.
I had met two great, but completely mad (and I mean completely) American's who knew Evan
the owner of the B&B in Stewart. Tom & Ben are the sort of guys who thought of something and then just did it, without any real concerns or planning. They were from Montana and thought nothing of running at bears whilst shouting “come on, give us a kiss”.
The plan was simple according to Tom & Ben. Climb up the Bear Glacier, camp for the night on the snow plateau at the top and then head back down to civilisation (and the warmth). Three intrepid adventurers and myself - a wet behind the ears, never climbed, not really camped, never hiked anywhere, never worn a rucksack, ex-bank working Englishman. I hadn't even built a log cabin before! A real softy in a world where men are real men and Beef Jerky is the staple diet. No Starbuck's skinny latte and blueberry muffin for me now.
Tom, Ben and Evan are all seasoned adventurers, with seemingly no real fear of anything. I didn't want to admit that I was scared of heights. Anyway, I really didn't give it much thought at the time, as I was swept along in the excitement of it all. Perhaps there will simply
be some steps going up the side of the glacier and a conveyor belt for the steeper sections.
Having borrowed a rucksack from Tom's daughter Jessie and some sturdy walking boots from Joseph (a geologist staying at the B&B), I was ready. An adventurer - if but a makeshift wannabe adventurer, stuck together with sticky back plastic and some glue.
My rucksack felt heavy. Tom & Ben both picked up my bag and commented how light it was. "Perhaps you can carry all the food, English" joked Tom, slapping my arm with the force of a falling tree. I gave a strange sort of nervous laugh, not quite knowing if he was being serious or not (and trying not to show that my arm was stinging).
Upon arriving at the glacier I had forgotten to bring my sunglasses. This was actually quite an amazing thing to do, because I had put them specifically on a chain to hang around my neck so that I wouldn't forget or lose them. I had however forgotten to hang them around my neck (this was not explained to me when I bought the chain). Perhaps a sign of things to come?
Fortunately, Tom lent me a pair of his sunglasses and although they were a throw back to his 60's heyday, I was grateful.
We loaded our kayak's to make our way across the snow-melt lake to the foot of the glacier. All I needed was a Deer Stalker hat and some animal hides and I would be complete. I felt like Grizzly Adams disappearing off into the wilderness. Okay, that was a bit dramatic, but I was very excited.
As I approached the glacier the more it seemed to glow sky-blue. Ben informed me that this was because when snow compacts into hard ice, the only colour in the spectrum that was not absorbed by the ice was blue and this was reflected outwards. This sounded like a really plausible explanation, but both Tom & Ben knew how naive I was, so they had plenty of fun with me. Ben could have said that blue snow fell from outer-space and I would have believed him.
It was also as I drew closer to the glacier that I realised how big and steep everything actually was. There weren't any steps or conveyor belts either. It was the first
time I had given any real thought to what we were about to attempt. Had I bitten off more than I could chew?
The route chosen was to climb up the right hand side (as you look at it) and we dry-landed the kayak's, donned our rucksacks and began to climb up the significantly steep scree slope (well at least it was steep for me).
The scree slope was horrible stuff. Everything had the ability to move, slide or fall. Ben and Evan climbed like monkey's (actually they looked a bit like monkey's too - ha ha). They were really quick and made it all look so easy.
Fortunately, old-timer Tom was not so quick. With his bad knees, he huffed and puffed along at 'Colin' pace. Tom was in his 50's but looked like he was in his 70's, he had had a hard life. Actually, none of this is actually true about Tom, but I know that he will read this at some point and it is my chance to get him back for all the times I got 'Banffed' (a term frequently used to describe having the p*ss taken out of you or being
wound up). In reality, Tom was very fit and agile and was kind enough to hold back to make sure I was okay.
I was concentrating so hard on where to put my hands and feet that I hadn't looked down at the height we had reached. Also, there were numerous rock falls occurring around us, so you also had to keep an eye out for anything coming down at you. Getting hit by the smallest of rocks would probably have serious consequences at this height.
It wasn't until we had reached the first ridge of the glacier that we realised the path we were following was no longer viable. The slope steepened even further and we had to head down towards the glacier ice itself.
Making our way towards the ice, I had my first semi-panic attack 'Oh my God' moment. The slope here was covered with loose mud, which made it difficult to grip anything solid. Scrabbling along sideways, it became apparent that underneath the mud was in fact solid ice. I had several slides and desperately tried to stop myself only to find that I was slipping on the ice underneath. This freaked me
out somewhat! It was bad enough when it was just the rocks moving about, but now you didn’t have any stability at all.
Eventually, I made my way onto the ice and I sat on my rucksack for a rest. Evan could see that I was a little stressed out and he mentioned that he had also found the ascent a 'little scary'. He also kindly offered to go back down with me, should I really not be comfortable. In fact, all the guys were great and this helped calm my nerves. However, I didn't want to let anyone down.
The ice on the glacier itself is rough like sandpaper. If you did slip, you weren’t going to slip very far, although you would probably smooth your arse somewhat. There didn't appear to be any crevasses per-se either, but there were quite a few large black/blue holes and grooves, the deepest perhaps being about 10ft.
Tom & Ben slowly made their way up and over a high ridge in the ice. Tom threw what looked like a washing line down for me, which helped provide some additional support on the glacier and allowed me to climb up
the ridge he had just traversed.
This was my second really scary 'Oh my God' moment. Even though you know that at most you are only going to slide 20 or 30 feet if you fall, your brain believes that you are going to disappear over the edge, only to be found at the bottom looking rather worse for wear and with a smooth super arse.
Tom and Ben walked off up the glacier as is they were going for a Sunday stroll, chatting about the weather (or something equally as trivial) and chewing their Beef Jerky.
The air here was cold. As I looked around me I felt in awe at the sheer size of this amazing natural wonder. Everywhere were modern art sculptures of snow and ice, formed by the wind, and melting (and freezing) water. All tinged with a 100 shades of blue. You also feel an overwhelming sense of age and time. It was very humbling to be part of its history, albeit for such a brief moment.
Ben & Tom finally returned from their stroll up the glacier. They advised that it probably wouldn't be safe to proceed further without proper
ice-climbing equipment e.g. crampons and climbing rope (I knew it was a washing line). Tom was delighted however, that he had found a spade on his travels. As they say, simple things please simple minds (ha ha).
It was agreed therefore, to call it a day and head back down. We all felt that going down the same way was a logistical nightmare, so we decided to cross the glacier and make our way down the other side and hope that this would provide a safer route.
The opposite side was truly beautiful and was much more interesting than the side we had initially come up.
There were beautiful sky blue holes in the ice filled with deeper blue, crystal clear water, disappearing downwards into the depths. Water was gushing and running everywhere. Like raindrops making their way down a window pane, these streams erratically followed any route the ice had forged. It was a beautiful, almost alien world which we were privileged to see.
However, this side of the glacier also provided potential dangers in the form of crevasses. As the ice buckled and concertinaed its way around the corner of its seemingly endless slide, snow
had built up false ceilings and floors, under which you could hear small rivers of water crashing and splashing.
Tom & Evan went first poking the ice in front of them to check that it was solid and Ben and I followed. Obviously if Tom & Evan disappeared down a crevass we knew not to go that way. As we eventually made the other side, it was covered in firm snow, which took us all the way down to the foot of the glacier. If only we had come up this way, things would have been so much simpler.
Having finally made the base of the glacier, we then had the problem of getting to our kayak's, which were now on the other side of the lake to us. Ben and Evan decided to wade along the edge of the glacier, which looked like it was going to be very deep water, but fortunately it was only knee deep. They brought the kayak's over and we made our way back to the car.
We all agreed that the experience was truly magical. I chewed on my Beef Jerky and then spat it out; it was like chewing
a salty bit of leather and was disgusting. I guess I will never be a proper adventurer, but I must thank Evan, Tom & Ben for allowing a soft Englishman the opportunity of a lifetime.
***CLICK ON PHOTOS TO ENLARGE***
***IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ MY PREVIOUS DIARY ENTRIES, THEN CLICK THE 'PREVIOUS JOURNALS' AT THE FOOT OF THIS ENTRY***
***PLEASE FEEL FREE TO FORWARD ME ANY EMAIL ADDRESSES THAT WOULD LIKE TO RECEIVE MY DIARY ENTRIES AUTOMATICALLY***
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Janice Gilbert
non-member comment
Awesome!
Colin those are such neat photos of the glacier I want to go now! Hope your travels are going well! Thankyou for the update! Cheers Janice (met at Totogga lake campground)