A glacier town

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We started out early for a 10 hour drive from Nelson to Franz Josef. Fortunately I am finally adjusted to driving on the left and not nearly as terrified when Mike is in the driver seat (on the right side of the car). The drive was very scenic, though now I am convinced there is not a part of this country that is not beautiful.

Our intent was to hike on the Franz Josef glacier our first day in the city, but we woke to a torrential downpour of rain. Talking to our guides, all visits to the glacier were canceled for the day as the rain we were experiencing was just the beginning, there was a forecast for 12 hours of rain. It turns out that Franz gets an average of 500 centimeters of rain a year. We rescheduled our hike for the following day and stayed in bed to wait out the heavy rains. On day two we went in for the hike we rescheduled and again found the weather conditions to be too dangerous to go up on the glacier. Fortunately, the rain was not as bad on the valley floor, so we took the day to hike about the local tracks. We had lunch out at Lake Wombat (not an interesting lake, but the rain stopped enough to have lunch in the sun!). After the hike we celebrated with a few beers in the room and then a bottle of wine at dinner. On day three we were scheduled to take a helicopter part way up the glacier to hike and then do a kayak trip in the afternoon. Though it was not raining, the cloud deck was too low to fly up to the glacier so instead we went out for our kayak trip on Lake Mapourika. It was a beautiful paddle. The lake was smooth as a mirror at the beginning of our trip and we made our way into a little stream that was completely smooth - very peaceful and some nice reflections off the water. Made for a nice day overall.

Finally on day four of our visit to Franz we made it up on the glacier!!! We hiked about 3 km to get to the base of the terminal face before putting crampons on our boots (these are crazy spikes we tie onto the boots to get a better grip on the ice). We use a ladder to get up the first bit of the face and then climb about 200 steps carved into the ice that are so steep we use a rope anchored into the ice to help us up. We were on the ice itself for a little over six hours! It was just awe inspiring!!! The glacier itself is such an amazing thing. The deeper parts of the ice are blue because of their density. The top is white because it has more air in it thus not as dense. After we tackled those steps at the beginning of our climb or guide makes new trail, cutting through the ice and making steps at the steep areas for us to climb and descend.

A glacier is not stable like a rock mountain, the ice is constantly moving making holes, crevasses, caves, etc. We snaked our way through several crevasses so skinny and tight that you had to turn sideways and keep your feet in line. That doesn’t sound all that hard, but when you’re doing it between walls that are 20 feet high and on ground that is unstable and has small climbs and dips it becomes far more challenging. Your entire body is against ice as you go through these, front and back while you’re turned sideways. You come out completely soaked and really happy for the waterproof pants and jacket. At one point we were making our way through a crevasse when it become a small uneven hole. You had to get rid of any bag you were carrying and bend down sideways to get under the ice hole and through it to the other end of the crevasse. Anyone claustrophobic or not so flexible would never be able to get through. At one point we were hiking across an area with an ice hole that you could not span in one leap. I tried to dig my crampons into the side of the hole and failed...crashing against my left side and sliding down the hole. Fortunately for me it was wide and shallow so I could quite easily climb out without assistance, but it was a good indicator of how quickly the glacier can turn dangerous. The glacier itself is quite beautiful and I got some decent pictures of it and from its height.

It took us about 5 hours to climb quite a distance up the glacier and only 1.5 hours to make our way down. On the return trip it started to really rain, the kind of torrent that kept us from getting on the glacier on earlier days. At the base we removed the crampons and hiked the 3 km out to where we catch a bus back to town. By this time we are completely soaked. Wet from the ice & rain on the outside and from sweat on the inside (it really was quite a workout!). We made a quick walk back to our cottage to shed the wet layers and grab swimsuits…off to the hot pools!!! Yep, we wrapped up the day with a bite to eat (and wine of course) and a visit to the glacial hot pools where we soaked all our aches away.

Feeling very lucky for making it on the glacier after all, and blissfully joyful from the alcohol and hot pools, we spent our last night in Franz in a sound sleep.

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Comments

[dad]

WOW
AWESOME pictures Carissa! What a veiw! We're are happy to see you're enjoying yourself! Who's the nut in the shorts in the ice with you???

[Carissa Marie]

nut in shorts
He was some Italian guy with his wife on honeymoon. He was so wet and cold that his skin was all red and the shorts soaked. It was pretty funny to watch machismo be stronger than self preservation!