Into The Blue World

The dirty little secret of the south Island is they get a lot of rain, especially in certain areas. For instance Franz Josef gets rain in varying amounts about 200 days a year, and it's not something they go out of their way to advertise. So I was a feeling perturbed and unsure the morning of my big glacier hike.

The weather had been perfect the day before and I was starting to wonder if I would have been smarter to do the half-day hike right off the bus. The morning forecast was for rain and lots of it. They had already cancelled the helicopter tours and ice wall climbing for the day. But I had pre-paid and unless they cancelled the hike I figured it would be hard to get my money back. Between that and the fact that I knew I would regret missing the opportunity I decided to let my hand be forced and barrel ahead.

Before we got underway we were given boots, over-pants, waterproof jackets, hats and crampons. Crampons are the spikey shoe souls you see mountain climbers wear. They fit onto your boots like those strap on roller skates from the 1950's.

The skies were grey and threatening as we took the coaches out to the car park at the entrance to the glacier but as we started walking the sky brightened. It wasn't a crisp blue but it was much better than daybreak had implied.

(The Terminal Assertion)
Glaciers are massive. This was a small one and yet it's still so big it's hard to get a clear perspective on it. As you begin to walk toward it, it looks like the terminal assertion (where the bottom edge of the ice touches the ground) is about tens minutes away. Almost forty minutes later you arrive and your finally ready to begin the ascent.

A glacier is basically a river of ice moving in extreme slow motion. Ice is produced at the top and flows downhill, or rather it's pushed down by the new ice forming above. As it comes down it drags rock from the valley walls on either side as well as cold air, so walking on the glacier is actually a little bit colder than being on the valley walls beside it.
The guide companies actually cut stairways into the ice with pickaxes, but because the face is ever shifting they actually keep refining and redigging the steps as they go. It still can be steep so it's not like climbing the stairs at the office but it really helps.

At least that's how it works for the first half of the journey. The stairs go up about as far as the half-day hikers go after that they don't bother and you have to just learn to negotiate the terrain. Two things are working toward you advantage at this point. Firstly all that climbing of ice stairs gives you time to get used to walking on ice and using crampons. Secondly the grade actually gets a little less steep.

(For some perspective look at the ridge a little left of center. That was the group ahead of ours)
This was also the point where the ice got a lot bluer. Mainly because it was newer ice and it had not dragged as much rock and dirt across the glacier face.

Lunch was just off Franz Josef's "True Right" (your right if you are looking up at it from the bottom). If you ever hike a glacier think about this; Where do you go to the bathroom in the midst of untamed nature when there are no trees? Remember you are out for 8 hours and you need to keep hydrated, it will come up. Suffice it to say turns where taken.

Once we hit the upper level I saw some incredible shapes. The ice did majestic things and all in unreal shades of blue, but I think the picture can tell that story better than I can do it in words.

One of the entertaining moments was passing through a crevace so tight that not only did we have to take off our backpacks, but our guide had to take off his radio harness.

(The Crevass)
Unfortunately everything turned around at the same time we did. The rain hit gently at first and it never got too bad but it was unrelenting. The trek down got more risky. We were already tired, dower from the rain and the paths we had come up were now turning into channels for water to run down as well as small sliding rocks.

I must have given my knee a light twist at some point because it was getting sore with every time I had to step a little harder.

By the time we got down even the most chipper of us was getting pretty miserable and it was casting a shadow on the day.

It was unfortunate to end the day on such a down note but then I reviewed the pictures. It did a lot to erase the discomfort of temporary wetness. In the end I was glad I'd seen it.