Friday, August 19, 2011
Today I got to do one of the things I really really (like really really) wanted to do in New Zealand. No I did not go bungy jumping because that is not something I wanted to do. But I did climb a glacier……like for real.
Franz Josef Glacier is certainly a New Zealand icon. It is one of the few glaciers in the world (I believe there are 2 others, Fox Glacier here in NZ and another one in Argentina) that end at a rain forest. Because of that, the glacier gets a lot of rain and can look a whole lot different from day to day, week to week and season to season. Today……no rain, just beautiful sunshine and after being snowed in at Lake Tekapo, sunshine is all I want to see for the next week.
4 of us from the group (Katie, Jen, Maggie and myself) decided we were going to tackle the glacier from below and maximize our time on the ice. The rest of the group shelled out the big bucks and took a helicopter ride to the top. I preferred to do it my way. I like to know I got there under my own power.
Franz Josef......just a peak. I'll show you more.
After the skiing the day before I was feeling part of my thighs I haven’t in quite some time so was a little worried about making the climb…..turns out there wasn’t much to worry about. The climb was very tolerable and there was lots of times where we had to stand around and wait for our guide to chop out some stairs with his big giant ice axe.
Let’s go back to the morning however. A short walk from the hostel was the Glacier Climb shop. Here we got outfitted with everything from boots to pants to coats to cramp-ons and whatever else we needed. We then hopped on a bus (with a whole lot of other people) and were taken to the trail head. The first little section was through that rain forest. Once out of the forest we were separated into groups, assigned a guide and began to make our way close to and then up the glacier.
This is the terminal cave of the glacier. All the snow and ice and rocks of the glacier is eventually pushed here. It takes about 50 years for the snow at the top of the glacier to reach the terminal cave. It is very unstable and very unsafe so we aren't allowed to go near it.
The change in weather conditions and the changing nature of a glacier means that there isn't a specific trail that we can follow when climbing the glacier. It also means that it is extremely unsafe to attempt to climb it on your own. One wrong step and you could end up in a crevasse or slip in a hole or have ice fall on you.
See.....DANGER!!!
So from here it was a totally guided tour and we followed our guide (Simon) and all his instructions. Here are a bunch of pictures from the roughly 12.5 kilometre (7.8 mile) hike.
Team Canada (Jenn, Katie and I) about to head out on the hike.
Here I am with Fraz Josef. The actual length of the glacier is about 12 kilometers (7 miles) but that can vary depending on the amount of snow the area receives and the time of year.
The glacier was discovered by Europeans around 1859 and named after Emperor Franz Josef I of Austria by a German explorer in 1865. The Maori name for the glacier is Ka Roimata O Hinehukatere (The Tears of Hinehukatere). The legend says that Hinehukatere took her less experienced lover (Wawe) rock climbing one day. He was swept off the mountain by an avalanche and the many tears she shed rolled down the mountain, froze and formed the glacier.
A look at some of the ice walls.....that could fall on your head.
Jenn and I at the top......well not the top but as far was we went. We only had so much time and had to get back down before dark but we made it a good distance.
Some of the tight little ice corridors we had to work our way through. If you get claustrophobic....this is not the hike for you. I thought I might have problems, but turns out it wasn't so bad.
That's our guide Simon. He was a pretty good guide. He wasn't suppose to wear shorts (apparently the bosses don't like it) but it actually got pretty warm so I don't blame him at all.
I probably should note however that every guide we met on the hike who was wearing shorts......also had bleeding knees. The ice.....not smooth at all.
Not much space along most of the trail. Safe to say pants and shirts and anything that rubbed the ice got pretty wet, pretty fast. I was really glad that I borrowed boots because while mine are nice......they aren't water proof.
Some of the steps we followed along our hike. The guides actually keep them in good shape by chopping them down and removing loose snow every time they pass by.
Another one of those tight little trails.
You can see the rope along this staircase. Just makes it a little bit safer to climb.
Jenn waiting for Simon to be done with his ice chopping. We actually did a lot of this type of waiting around so it wasn't an overly tiring day at all.
One of the crevasses we were trying to avoid falling into.
Probably shouldn't have my back to the crevasse behind me but I'm wearing cramp-ons so I think it's ok.
Not sure I like the way that tunnel is looking at me.
Safe to way we all got a little wet heading through this tunnel.
That's George....Aka: Mountain Goat. He got that nickname because he appeared to just bounce around the glacier chopping out stairs and putting up hand rails for us. There are always guides on the glacier without hikers who just work to keep the hiking trails safe for us.
A good look at one of those staircases. Just as steep as it looks but easier than trying to climb without it.
On the way down we wandered passed this band who decided they would use the glacier as a backdrop for their newest music video.
Once we got back to the hostel it was dress up time. Tonight was our last night together as a group and Verve likes to throw a fancy-dress dinner/night out to celebrate. Fancy dress on this side of the world means costume to North Americans. We had plans to go shopping for stuff in Queenstown but since we didn't make it we were all a little worried we'd have nothing. Turns out our hostel actually has a random collection of stuff for guests to us on just such occasions.
Verve, Burto and Evan all dressed up.
I found these awesome shoes. They were just my size too.
Here we are playing the box game before dinner. Basically the goal of the game is to pick the box up off the floor with your teeth without touching your hands or knees on the ground. Each round the box gets a little bit shorter. I think this was my last round. I'm not nearly as flexible as I use to be.
Eilidh, Nikki, Louise and I all dressed up. Nikki and I actually wore mostly our own clothes (ok the hat and goggles and shoes were not mine but the rest were).
The group getting ready to head for dinner.
A few of us at dinner. The little bar we went to (The World Bar) actually gave us a very nice discount on all our food and drinks. It's like they knew we were coming.
Managed to get a picture with one of New Zealand's finest. Turns out in New Zealand Police Officers don't carry guns......just tasers. As you can imagine there is often debate about this but as of yet it has not been deemed necessary for them to carry firearms.
We played a little group pool game. I'm pretty sure I didn't win.
Eilidh, Nikki, Myself and Louise again. Yes, we have less of our costumes on now than we did before but that was bound to happen.
Shots from Eilidh.
We still did have a lot more evening and tomorrow together but here's to the 16 days spent travelling together. CHEERS!
Julie
No comments:
Post a Comment