Franz Josef Glacier - 18.9

When I got up at 7am it was raining. Got over to the tour center by 7:45 and as I was guessing they have canceled the climb because of bad weather. Apparently there is lots of standing around and doing it in rain is just no fun, it also seemed that there were too few people registered for this one as well. So I got an option to choose any other tour - I went for the full day one.

At the tour center we were all given a coat, trousers, boots, crampons (kassid) socks, gloves and a hat. All this clothing was much needed once on ice - as I learned in a little bit :) So we packed ourselves in and headed to the bus that took us to the parking lot by the glacier. From the parking lot it was 2.5km walk to the ice line.

Franz Josef and Fox Glaciers are one of the kind in the world as nowhere else at this latitude do glaciers come so close to the ocean. The glaciers development is due to all the moist air building up over the ocean and heading towards the island where the high mountains catch it. So at the mountains it falls down as snow and all this snow building up forms glacier that is constantly falling downward like a waterfall, melting at the bottom in the rainforest. The fall is quite deep, speed that the glacier is moving at is about 1.5m a day!

At the ice line we got to put on our crampons and off we went. Within 30 minutes on the ice we were all wet from head to toe. One helping factor was us getting stuck between two walls of ice. There were 8 of us in a group, the guide went first and then we followed in a single file. So there is this narrow passage way between two high walls we need to pass through. The walls are not even by any means, passage way is curvy and the bottom is rough - so it is difficult to walk. At the end of the passage way you needed to take few big steps up to make your way out of it. So there we are, the guide made his way up, but first girl was not able to pull herself up the steps. There was nothing to hold on to either and the walls were all slick. So there we stood all packed up. Passage way was quite narrow - you had to turn sideways to fit though, and hence walk sideways throughout to be able to keep going. Passageway was about 30m I'd say. But there we stood then. Our guide yells down at us that he will go and get the rope attached and throw it down so the first girl can grab on to it and keep moving.

As we stand there we are tightly packed between the walls. As it is raining there is water everywhere, it is coming down from both sides on the wall, standing there it is worse than in the shower :), water flows right down your neck and sides directly of the wall. Of course, this is not the most comfortable situation for a claustrophobic one like me :) Yeah, it was pretty tricky to stay calm there. But we made it out and after this incident I stayed well up front as I can get though tough spots, I can deal with anything as long as we are moving :)

I just can't believe they let us do some of the stuff on the track without any security ropes. I had hard time getting up and keeping my balance quite many times. "Don't look down" and "keep your body weight close to the ice" took you to places over here. Even if you wanted to use your hands you could not as your fingers were frozen and you could not feel your hands. We were given little axes though, those were great help, could at least lean on them and use them for balance.

There were 3 groups of us. 1st group was the fastest and went first, we were 2nd group and there was also 3rd group behind us. The fastest group was led by senior guide who also chose the track. At some point our guide just looks up and seems a bit lost. He turns to us and goes "I don't understand why he chose this track, nobody has been here for months" :) Oh goodie good :)

Another great moment arrived when we had just passed a tunnel and we see the next tunnel right in front of us, but between is a huge puddle of water. We see the track going on at the second tunnel, but the puddle is chest deep! Our guide was quite puzzled, he kept looking all over the place for an alternate route, finally we ended up finding one and just went around. But he figured that first group had passed it about 20 minutes ago and then the puddle was perhaps up to knees. Didn't realize that the rain is so heavy, saw many puddles later on as well, I guess they just fill up in no time.

The way up was about 2.5h. We did the whole trip a lot quicker than usual as we skipped many breaks (including our lunch break!), whenever we did take breaks they were very short as we were all wet and got cold quickly. Once we started our trip down I just looked at my feet and tried to remember what it felt like having toes :)

Way down was a lot quicker and it got warmer with every step. We were all just so indifferent, going through water up till half a leg nobody even bothered to lift the legs, just dragged ourselves through it. Once back at the tour center it was such a relief getting all those soaked things off :) Now everything was soaked. I was only dry from my hips to my chest I think - everything else was wet and cold. Now also all my documents got soaked. I wasn't smart enough and left the documents bag in the back bag - so all my documents were dripping wet once I took them out of the bag :( So if you know of a quick way how to dry off my passport quickly - please do let me know!

At first I was really bummed out that I did not get to do the ice-climbing, but at the end of the day I'm glad I got to go at all. It was absolutely awesome to be hiking on the glacier! Even besides the cold and rain - it was really something different and quite extreme!

Now I'm heading over to the local SPA - apparently this consists of some hot pools where water is from 36 to 40C - can't wait! 2 hours later my fingers are still not functioning quite well :)