Glamming it up on a Glacier!

My talons on my boots. The metal spikes allowed for grip on the ice.
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Well, we arrived into the small town of Franz Joseph and were here to stay for a few nights. I was ready for a few nights in the mountains. And, this is just the place. Rolling rainforest mountains and glaciers galore.

We did a small hike to get some far away shots of the spectacular glacier from a nearby hill. It is just massive and one of only 3 glaciers in the world that is right near the rainforest.

Slipping, sliding, and squeezing on a glacier hike!

A look down the glacier. We had made up quite a bit of ground over the day.
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The next day was a bit more exciting as we headed out on a 9 hour day that included hiking to the base of the Franz Joseph glacier which was about 3.5km from the car park, then hiking up the steep glacier for another 2.5 km. You started up stairs made in the ice and followed the guide as he often stopped to widen the path or clear away collected snow that had fallen. The glacier was quite dirty close to the bottom and not the white glacier that you would imagine. But, as we climbed higher it got progressively nicer looking. Plus, valleys of ice seemed to develop which were pretty cool. About half way we began to make our way horizontally across the glacier which turned out to be interesting. We began squeezing through really little narrow ways between the ice valleys and climbing through ice caves. It was cool at first, but then we just got soaked. The ice was melting a lot so water would drip all over you. And, then you would phyically get stuck between these two freezing walls of ice and really push your way through - kind of shuffling with your feet. They provided us with a hat, gloves, and jacket, but by the end we were all soaked. I actually wrung out water from my gloves. They recommended you where shorts on the glacier - which I did but then successfully skinned both of my knees climbing over the ice walls. I was bleeding all over the place and looked like I had taken a tumble down the glacier. The day was alright in the morning with patches of sun, but it cooled off quite a bit in the afternoon and because we were all soaked the energy and excitement of climbing all over the glacier seemed to wear off.

Getting ready to climb through the ice. Boy, we were soaked by the end of it. Chec,k out my nice bandages as well. I scraped my knees on the ice and was bleeding all over the place. Didn't hurt - just battle wounds for the hike!
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But, it was cool to check the glacier out as apparently most glaciers are flat, not peaked and jagged like this one. Next time I would do the heli-hike as they drop you off in the middle of the glacier where it is really clean and then you can climb around for a few hours.