Today we hiked on a glacier! This was the one thing we knew we wanted to do on this trip before we knew much about New Zealand. So we were a little disappointed that we woke up Sunday morning to hear rain on the roof of our little cottage. Regardless, we put on lots of layers, packed lunch and water, and drove over to the Franz Josef Glacier Guides offices. We all had our own hiking boots and begrudingly (later we'd be happy) took the ones from the guides. They also outfitted us with waterproof pants, waterproof jackets, and wool hats, socks, and mittens. We also got crampons (metal ice picks to wear on the bottom of our boots) in a nice fanny pack to carry up to the glacier. Then onto the bus to drive us over towards the glacier:
First, we hiked for about 15 minutes through a rainforest:
Then, we could see it! Look at how excited the Bohlens are, despite the rain:
We then hiked about 2.5km over rocks up to the base of the glacier. The last .5km or so was up a very steep pile of rocks. And then ... we were on the ice! Before we actually got to walk out on it, we all got out our crampons and put them on our boots. Because of the rain, our guide (there were 10 of us with each guide, 4 groups total) told us to move our lunches to the fanny pack we'd had the crampons in as we wouldn't be stopping for lunch. He said "by the time we get to the top, you'll be cold and miserable, so we won't stop up there for lunch - I'll let you snap a picture and then we'll keep moving to keep your body heat up." Sounds fun, right?
Ryan and me, geared up and ready to hike:
Our guide, Cliff, was right about one positive thing about the rain - the glacier is gorgeous and blue when it's overcast and rainy. He said on the sunny days it looks mostly grey and dirty.
See all the waterfalls on the mountains? In addition to the guides hiking with each group, they had lots of other guides out on the ice, checking crevices and trails, grooming the ice to keep it safe for all the tourists.
At one point, while trying to get around another group on the ice, we got ourselves sort of stuck and instead of backtracking, Cliff decided to scale the wall of ice and then cut some steps into it so the group could follow him up:
The scary thing was, we had to walk around a very deep hole (between Cliff and the group in this picture) in order to get over the steps. There were lots of times through the day where we'd come across a huge crevice in the ice that we'd have to just step over ... I kept wondering "if you fall down in there, do they come get you?" I decided I didn't really want to know the answer, so I didn't ask :)
Anyway, Cliff cut the steps and secured a rope to the top for use to use to hoist ourselves up. You can see Ryan coming up over the wall:
We got to go through some pretty cool caves on the way up and down. Also, at one point we got to slither through a crevice about 10 feet deep and about a foot wide. Cliff sent Ryan and the other guys to the back of the line ("if you get stuck, you won't hold up the rest of the group") and told us to take our backpacks off one shoulder, turn sideways, and shuffle through one foot in front of the other the whole way. I was right behind him and thought we were going to get stuck a few times, but with the ice melting and the rain coming down we sort of slid right through! (And Ryan made it too, don't worry.) Near the top Cliff scouted out this ice cave, but we didn't go through it:
And then we were at the plateau. It took about 3 hours total from when we got off the bus until we got up here, so about 2 hours on the ice.
Ryan w/ the pickax:
And a video from the plateau - Ryan had his phone in a plasic bag and you can hear the rain hitting it. You can also see the guy in another group cheer and take his shirt off. And in the background our group is chowing down on lunches before we hike back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrxvAtV1gE
First, we hiked for about 15 minutes through a rainforest:
Then, we could see it! Look at how excited the Bohlens are, despite the rain:
We then hiked about 2.5km over rocks up to the base of the glacier. The last .5km or so was up a very steep pile of rocks. And then ... we were on the ice! Before we actually got to walk out on it, we all got out our crampons and put them on our boots. Because of the rain, our guide (there were 10 of us with each guide, 4 groups total) told us to move our lunches to the fanny pack we'd had the crampons in as we wouldn't be stopping for lunch. He said "by the time we get to the top, you'll be cold and miserable, so we won't stop up there for lunch - I'll let you snap a picture and then we'll keep moving to keep your body heat up." Sounds fun, right?
Ryan and me, geared up and ready to hike:
Our guide, Cliff, was right about one positive thing about the rain - the glacier is gorgeous and blue when it's overcast and rainy. He said on the sunny days it looks mostly grey and dirty.
See all the waterfalls on the mountains? In addition to the guides hiking with each group, they had lots of other guides out on the ice, checking crevices and trails, grooming the ice to keep it safe for all the tourists.
At one point, while trying to get around another group on the ice, we got ourselves sort of stuck and instead of backtracking, Cliff decided to scale the wall of ice and then cut some steps into it so the group could follow him up:
The scary thing was, we had to walk around a very deep hole (between Cliff and the group in this picture) in order to get over the steps. There were lots of times through the day where we'd come across a huge crevice in the ice that we'd have to just step over ... I kept wondering "if you fall down in there, do they come get you?" I decided I didn't really want to know the answer, so I didn't ask :)
Anyway, Cliff cut the steps and secured a rope to the top for use to use to hoist ourselves up. You can see Ryan coming up over the wall:
We got to go through some pretty cool caves on the way up and down. Also, at one point we got to slither through a crevice about 10 feet deep and about a foot wide. Cliff sent Ryan and the other guys to the back of the line ("if you get stuck, you won't hold up the rest of the group") and told us to take our backpacks off one shoulder, turn sideways, and shuffle through one foot in front of the other the whole way. I was right behind him and thought we were going to get stuck a few times, but with the ice melting and the rain coming down we sort of slid right through! (And Ryan made it too, don't worry.) Near the top Cliff scouted out this ice cave, but we didn't go through it:
And then we were at the plateau. It took about 3 hours total from when we got off the bus until we got up here, so about 2 hours on the ice.
Ryan w/ the pickax:
And a video from the plateau - Ryan had his phone in a plasic bag and you can hear the rain hitting it. You can also see the guy in another group cheer and take his shirt off. And in the background our group is chowing down on lunches before we hike back. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PlrxvAtV1gEOn the way back down we went through a very cool ice cave:
And Ry took a bunch of videos:
Once they got her shoulder back in, Ryan got her back to our cottage, then came to find me after we hiked back (remember how we'd hiked for an hour just to get to the glacier? Yeah, I sort of forgot about that and was happy to get off the ice and then remembered I still had a ways to go! Oh, and I was so glad we didn't wear our own hiking boots 'cause they were absolutely soaked through by the time we got back ... as we walked through the rainforest on the way out we had to cross a stream and I laughed at everyone tiptoeing over the rocks - I figured I might as well walk straight through it - I couldn't get any wetter!). We stopped at the grocery store for Sprite (morphine makes Dana nauseous) and beer (hiking all day in the rain made me and Ryan thirsty!). Here's Ryan's video recap of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1v6B9DKzyk
And Ry took a bunch of videos:In this one you can hear Cliff ahead cutting the ice:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6Eg7MOSj8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0j6Eg7MOSj8
And here you can see Cliff working hard to clear the way for us:
Shortly after Ryan took those last videos, about 1/3 of the way down the glacier, we were walking down a pretty steep section where there were steps cut about halfway down the 10 foot drop we were going down. As Dana got to the bottom of the steps and was going to make her way into the valley, her crampon got caught in the ice and she fell head over heels onto the ice. I was in front of her and turned around to see her laying face down on the ice and said "what hurts?" She felt like she caught herself on her face, but it didn't look too banged up. When she tried to sit up, however, she found she couldn't move her arm, so we knew she'd dislocated her shoulder. Cliff and the rest of the guides were amazing - he found another guide who was up working on the ice to take the rest of the group down, he called for a helicopter, and the began wrapping Dana in a down jacket to keep her warm. At one point he looked at me and said "what are you doing here? I don't have room in the helicopter for you." So I caught up with the group and hiked my way out. Meanwhile, the guides cleared the ice for a landing pad and moved Dana about 200 yards to the clearing. Ryan was psyched about the (free!) heli ride, while Dana swore over the pain the whole way back. Once in town they called in a nurse and some EMTs to get her shoulder reset. You can sort of see here, at the clinic, where her left shoulder just abruptly stops:
Once they got her shoulder back in, Ryan got her back to our cottage, then came to find me after we hiked back (remember how we'd hiked for an hour just to get to the glacier? Yeah, I sort of forgot about that and was happy to get off the ice and then remembered I still had a ways to go! Oh, and I was so glad we didn't wear our own hiking boots 'cause they were absolutely soaked through by the time we got back ... as we walked through the rainforest on the way out we had to cross a stream and I laughed at everyone tiptoeing over the rocks - I figured I might as well walk straight through it - I couldn't get any wetter!). We stopped at the grocery store for Sprite (morphine makes Dana nauseous) and beer (hiking all day in the rain made me and Ryan thirsty!). Here's Ryan's video recap of the day: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O1v6B9DKzykRyan and I went to dinner at The Landing down the street - one of the best meals of our trip, I think. I had pasta and Ryan had a bbq chicken pizza. Then we used our free passes to the hot pools in town to relax a bit, then slept awfully well that night!
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