franz and fox....my best buddies

Oceania » New Zealand » South Island » Glaciers
January 26th 2006

Published: January 27th 2006

Edit Blog Post

caitlin

looking out

me looking out onto franz josef.

the past few days....as you all know michelle and i have spent exploring glacier country. there are 2 glaciers here, franz josef and fox glaciers. franz is retreating pretty quickly and has been for the past 20 years or so, and fox is moving ahead at a sprint!! 5 meters a day of movement on the upper icefall. that is incredible.

yesterday i woke early to set out on the trail. i climbed the 'alex knob' trail....a smaller peak surrounding the franz josef glacier. i was on the trail by 7:30am. it was incredible to know how close i was to the glacier and the entire trail was covered in green. it was lush, moss covered forest. the canopy was thick at first, so thick, that it became dark where i was walking. a little spooky, but alright. the trail climbed steadily zigzagging up the mountain for a couple hours....it afforded amazing views of the icefall and the surrounding alps along the way. i hit the alpine zone and the trail steepened, but not too bad. it swung around the back of the mountain giving me views of the west coast tasman sea. once i hit the summit surrounded by

southern alps

dry grass and mountain shrubs....i could see all around, but clouds were quickly moving in on my view. i was the only one on the summit....and made myself comfortable looking out.

today michelle and i did a 'heli-hike.' thanks, mom and joe for the birhday present!! we took a helicopter on a scenic flight up to the fox glacier. a little freaky, but neat to see the gorge the glacier has carved and the icefall from so high up. we landed high up on the glacier, got equipped with crampons and set out to explore. we didn't walk far, and it wasn't strenuous by any means, but we were able to see some amazing things. we climbed through ice caves, and into crevases, and all around the glacier. the blue was unreal, 'ice blue'....that's it. we walked to the terminal of the glacier after we'd arrived safely back on gravel ground. massive like the franz josef, but fox has a huge cave and the fox river running out of it.

i love it here!!

be well.

Additional photos below

Photos: 13, Displayed: 13