Day 4 - Trail Blazers! - Fox and Franz Josef Glaciers

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Today was the first day for a real active adventure. We were disappointed the night before to learn that the heli-hike was canceled, so we signed up for the half-day glacier hike at Franz Joseph Glacier. We of course woke up at the crack of 3:30 and tossed and turned for a few hours, since the hike wasn’t until 10:30. We arrived at the office to learn that this hike too, was canceled because of rain and wind. We also learned that the heli-hikes only operate about half the time anyway.

The rain has been constant since we arrived on the West Coast from Greymouth all the way down to Franz Joseph. After some scrambling, we were able to book an afternoon glacier hike 45 km away at Fox Glacier. They were still running tours and everyone was switching their tours. We drove to Fox Glacier, as did many others and prepared for our glacier hike. We were outfitted with wool socks, hiking boots, really large rain pants, rain jackets, crampons and a water-proof back pack. Everything is really laid back here. There were no waivers signing away our lives, and no long super safety spiels about the hike. Basically, get your gear, get on the bus, and get your hike on. There were 28 hikers that they split into two groups. The key is to choose your group and guide wisely. For once we chose wisely, Rob was our guide and we made sure we were in a group with no kids. Sorry to you families out there, but we have been on way too many tours in Turkey, Egypt, and Czech Republic where small kids were the ruin of the entire tour. The other group did have to stop when one of the kids got sick and they had to stop and wait for a guide to come and get the kid and take her and her family back to town. The hike was awesome. We were with 14 others from Canada, Brazil, Mexico, Australia, Taiwan, and France. Now the guy from France was a doozie. He was who you would call, “That Guy.” Even our guide knew he was a d-bag from the start. This was the guy who never listened to his instructions, never listened to his commentary, and didn’t pay attention while on the actual glacier. We had to hike 45 minutes to reach the ice itself where we were instructed how to put on our crampons. Now the first thing out of Rob’s mouth was telling us to listen to him first and then put the equipment on. He specifically said not put on the crampons until he had explained it fully. He said this three times, but do you think the French guy listened? Wait for it, no he didn’t and he put them on wrong. Rob quickly pointed that out to him too. Rob: one; French guy: nil!

We get everything on, and I remind you it has been raining constantly since we arrived in Franz Joseph/Fox Glacier. There was another couple there who didn’t take the rain coats and they were miserably soaked from head to toe. Now we were told that it would be really, really cold here. We are convinced these people are wimps. It was not that cold. We were told to have at least 4 layers to stay warm; we were sweating balls and never needed our winter coats even at the top of the glacier. The ice was amazingly blue. We tramped all over the ice in a line behind our guide who narrated the interesting history. Of course, as soon as he mentioned this fact and that, the French guy would come around and ask a question that he had just previously answered. Chester would have written this kid a referral for being annoying. The ice is unpredictable and Rob wanted us to ask him if we wanted to go in a different direction or see something else. You guessed it, Frenchy never asked and always got admonished to come back and join the group. He would also stop in front of the entire group and make the rest of us wait while he took pictures. At one point on the way back, Rob was commentating to us how close he was getting to a crevice. Rob did his best to keep his comments to himself, but we went ahead and said what he was thinking. We are pretty sure Rob appreciated us for that. At one point during the hike, Chester asked to go up to an area on the ice, and Rob checked it out for us and declared it safe. Chester headed up in between some ice formations and Kirsten took pictures of Chester clinging onto the ice’s edge. Then of course after everyone saw us do this, they had to copy us. From now on, we like to refer to ourselves as “Trail Blazers”. We can’t help it, it just comes natural. The hike was indeed awesome and we were so glad we were able to experience it. Fox and Franz Joseph Glaciers are two of only three glaciers in the world that are at sea level. Plus it was just cool to be in a rain forest and on a glacier. Rob was a wealth of information on glaciers, how they form, shift and none of this has anything to do with Global Warming. If fact the glaciers have gotten bigger in recent years. So we guess Al gore can just “Suck it”.

Many of you are thinking that, wait a second, they are on a huge piece of ice, where is the stumbling, tumbling, rumbling stories. There’s only one, and Kirsten unfortunately was the winner (imagine that). While holding Chester’s brand new very expensive, camera and walking up a small embankment, Kirsten got lazy and didn’t step properly with the crampons, and down she went. She protected the camera, thank goodness, but landed on her knee. No worries though, she’s fine and so is the camera.

The ride home was a little eventful too. Two young women from Mexico needed a ride back to Franz Joseph and since we could use all the good karma we could get, we told them we had room. They were very sweet and even asked how much for the ride when we dropped them off at their hostel. They actually saved us because, low and behold, the annoying French guy asked us asked if we had room in the car for him to go back to Joseph. Kirsten quickly shot him down and said we were full. It poured the entire way home and the rest of the night. It was quite the lighting and thunder storm most of the night.

We made it back to FJ by 6 and from there we headed straight to the hot springs. They were outdoor hot pools that we enjoyed immensely. Towel rental was $5 so we skipped that and contemplated stealing the Brazilians’ towels. Better judgment ruled though and we just walked back to the locker room and dried off with our clothes.
By 8:30 pm we were back in our routine of fading in and out of sleep while watching really bad TV. No wonder we keep waking up at 3 and 4 in the morning when we are asleep by 8.

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Photos

Looking Hot
Kirsten and Chester, wet

Fox Glacier
It is massage

Fox Glacier
The people give you some perspective to the size

Kirsten
Trying to stay dry

A tunnel
These change about once a week.

Chester
The Trail Blazer

The Steps
They cut these every morning and they move about every 5 weeks.

Comments

[Amy McKenna]

I am in agreement, totally hot!
I hope you two are having tons of fun. Keep up the posts!