Day 24 Franz Josef Glacier Hike and Ice Climb

---

Today was an early morning as we had to be to the Ice Climbing tour office by 7:45am. It was only about a 5 to 10 minute walk from the hostel to the office which was nice. We ate lemon seed poppy muffins, bananas and coffee for breakfast.

Once we arrived at the office they had us read a disclaimer and sign our lives away basically. There were a total of 12 of us going on the tour along with 3 guides; 10 guys and 2 ladies. They provided us with waterproof pants and jackets, hiking boots with crampons(ice walking spikes), a wool hat, wool socks and wool mittens, a helmet, a backpack to put our ice picks in and our belongings.

After we got dressed all 15 of us loaded into a van to take us to the start of the hike. There was a 10 minute walk through the rainforest, then a 40 minute walk through flat rocks/dry river bed before we got to the front of the glacier. Once we got to the glacier our guides strapped on our crampons(ice walking spikes) to our hiking boots. We started to ascend the glacier and the first 20-30 minutes I was thinking to myself “What did I get myself into?” It was a very steep incline with lots of switchbacks and loose rocks.

Once we got to a flat spot we stopped for a quick breath and more instructions; they advised us that would be the hardest part of the hike. THANK GOODNESS!!!

We then started to walk through more ice and less rocks which was amazing. Some of the ice was so blue and also some spots had streams of water running down the glacier. Then some spots were very narrow and this is where I cut my hit by stabilizing myself. I looked down at my hand and saw the cut with blood; I didn’t even feel it happen the ice was so sharp.

Pete didn’t have his helmet on still and I told him they gave it to him for a reason, if the ice slit my had that fast it would slice open his head if he fell. As he didn’t really want to put it on, I demanded he do since I didn’t need a brain dead fiancé if he fell. While putting on his helmet he slipped and almost fell. See there was a reason I wanted him to wear it. (Pete thinks it caused him to slip)

I am unsure how far we hiked before we got to our first spot of Ice Climbing. The guides secured 3 ropes for us to ascend up the wall for us to try our first climb and gave a demonstration on how to do it. Mike was the head guide as he had worked on this glacier for 10 years, he asked us for the first volunteer and I went first. I wanted to show the guys how it was done and not freak myself out by standing around watching others.

It was very interesting and you had to really trust your movements and the rope for security that if you did fall it was ok the rope was there to catch you. I made it up about ¾ or 7/8 of the way before my arms got tired and I decided that was good enough. Repelling down the ice was really fun as it was no work just kick off the ice and descend down.

Pete then went next on another rope and made it up to the top very quickly. Pete decided for his 2nd climb he would go up the hardest of the three ropes so he wasn’t too tired and would make it to the top. He made it to the top successfully but not as fast as the first climb as this rope was on a more vertical part of the ice. I decided I should do it also and made it ¾ of the way up but it was WAY TOO HARD as your body starts to get tired and it really is a mental game also.

Our water bottles were starting to get low by this point but it was no probably as we could just fill them up with the glacier water. The water was so cold and the best water I have ever drank before.

For our last climb the other female made it to the top of the last rope that I needed to climb. She was in her 40s from Switzerland and it made me more determined or competitive that I need to complete the 3rd and final rope. I was secured into the rope and successfully made it to the top, but Pete was also climbing and didn’t get my picture at the top. DARN but I really did do it.

Once the guides got the ropes down we started to hike to another location. At this time one of the guys on our Kiwi bus also cut his finger open on a rock. His finger was bleeding pretty well so he washed it in the fresh glacier water to rinse it off. This was the 2nd person to cut their hand on the ice.

Our next part of the hike was up some stairs cut into the ice and through an ice tunnel that had water in it and you had to crawl through it. A few people went and I decided Pete should climb up the “so called” easier way the guides pointed out if we didn’t want to crawl through the tunnel to hand the camera off to get picture of us coming through the tunnel. It sounded like a good idea until Pete got ¾ of the way up this steep section of ice. I was turned around when he slipped and slide on his butt all the way down and put his hand down to stop himself. All I heard was a person falling and turned around to Pete coming down the ice and then cursing cause he hurt his hand.

There was blood everywhere. It was gushing from his left hand as he slit his palm open in multiple locations. He was it lots of pain and the blood was not slowing down at all. Mike, head guide, got out the first aid kit and put on 2 huge gauze pads onto his palm and wrapped his hand in an ace bandage. Pete said his hand was stinging and throbbing so bad. Mike advised him that we could hike to the next spot which was not far and then see how he felt and if the bleeding slowed down we could continue but not obviously climb as he wouldn’t be able to use his left hand.

Mike walked back up the area Pete fell with Pete to assistance him up since he wouldn’t be able to crawl through the tunnel with his hurt hand. I walked up the ice stairs and crawled through the tunnel without any pictures as this was the whole reason Pete climbed up the steep ice and then fell. I felt like it was my fault.

As we got to the next spot and the guides got 2 ropes secured to begin ice climbing Pete wanted to go done the glacier to get medical help as there was blood starting to come through the many layers of ace bandage. I thought it was a wise decision as I didn’t want Pete to act macho and ignore his injury then pass out from pain, loss of blood, etc.

Mike, head guide, radioed down to the medical team to make sure the doctor was there when we arrived. We were thankful there was a clinic in the small town so he would get medical attention right away. We then said goodbye to the other 10 climbers and 2 guides as we decided it was best to leave the hike/climbing early.

Pete told Mike that we still wanted to get some pictures even though we were going down early and Mike was awesome. He took our camera multiple times to get action shocks of us hiking and posed shots also. It was well over 90 minutes from the time we left the group until we got done off the glacier but we enjoyed the scenery and views.

Once we got into town we took off our gear and got our belongings back at the base camp then Mike took us to the clinic/community center. Again the town of Franz Josef was only 800 people; the doctor and nurse were onsite every Tuesday and Thursday so we lucked out but otherwise they are on call 24 hrs a day. Mike had to fill out some insurance form and we waited for a few other local residents to get attended to first.

The nurse gave Pete some codeine pills to help with the pain as he was hurting pretty bad still. Once we got called into the office they started to take off the bandages and it was pretty painful for Pete as the gauze was sticking to the wound areas. The nurse used some liquid to put on the blood to thin it out and reduce the pull between the skin, blood and bandages.

Megan, nurse, began to clean the blood from Pete’s hand to see the actual wound severity and location. She knew that he needed stiches right away but wanted Martin, doctor, to look at it first. He had 1 smaller cut on his palm and 2 larger cuts on his palm. They looked pretty GROSS as one had a large and thick flap of skin peeled back. Pete said it looked like roast beef.

Once the doctor looked at it they gave him local anesthesia to stich him up and also use steri strips on the rest of the hand. They wanted to use minimal stiching for some reason so he had 2 steri strips and 5 stiches by the end of his pain/screams/cursing of the stiching. He said he could feel some of the stiches going through the skin.

The nurse gave us a referral to have his stiches taken out in 7 days but we advised her we would be back in Hong Kong by that point. She said he could take them out himself if need be or see a doctor in Hong Kong. He also hurt his thumb but it probably is just bruised or sprained from the fall.

The total out of pocket cost for us was 80NZD=$57.60USD since New Zealand has government health care and we were international travelers it was higher than what a NZ citizen would pay. THIS IS WHY THE US SHOULD GET NATIONAL HEALTHCARE. The bill in the states would have EASILY been over $1500.

Back to the hostel we went for a laid back evening as it was around 5pm. We saw some of the other Ice Climbers in our group and they got back about one hour and twenty minutes after we got down off the glacier, so we didn’t miss that much of the tour. Pete was really bummed about his hand but we were both thankful that he was ok and we did get to climb up 3 ropes.

I went out and got takeaway Indian food to surprise Pete as he was excited to have some naan bread. We read books and lounged in the room the rest of the evening after showers from a long day. Pete’s hand started to show more blood after his shower and we thought maybe he pulled a stich so we will need to see a doctor tomorrow in the next town as we are scheduled to leave Franz Josef at 7:30am.

The pictures only show part of how amazing it was to hike up the glacier. It sure was a great experience even with the mishap.

---

Photos

can't do this in China
drink water from the glacier or anything for that fact that isn't bottled already