New Zealand Travels (April 2nd, 2003) Franz Josef Glacier

We changed into the mankiest boots imaginable then located our "Talonz" and GoreTex rain jackets. Then we piled into a bus and tramped from the drop off up to the terminal face of the glacier. Our guide, Kris, had a tongue stud and a large axe called Maverick. Since it was obvious that he knew how to use it, I kept my quips to myself and concentrated instead on figuring out how to walk on ice. Not snow - ice.

Fortunately this task was made all the easier because of the Talonz - a foot-mounted metal contraption that provided half inch spikes to drive into the ice. Before long we were merrily wandering about on the surface of the glacier as if it was a hill. That soon changed once we started to enter the crevasses. Kris would go ahead and carve out the various steps in the ice with his axe, we then had to follow. Only trouble was that the path was often extremely steep; we were wearing good sized packs that forced us to lean forward; and, probably most importantly, we were facing directly into the mouth of a yawning crevasse. Rarely did I get to see the bottom of one of these beasts which only added to the sense of fear as one made the careful descent to a precarious ledge twenty feet down.

Every so often we would have to tentatively squeeze foot over foot along the floor of a shallow crevasse. Either side would be a towering cliff of smooth ice forming the walls of the prison. Looking up a sheer face to daylight is reassuring when the space are working through is just over a foot wide.

I suppose I’m making it out to be more scary than it actually was. Kris looked after us all very well and the standard of walkers in the group was very high. Nobody freaked out, and we made good time over all the obstacles that were put into our path: steep climbs; near vertical descents doing the Franz Josef Shuffle; ice tunnels; narrow cracks; ice bridges; ladders over chasms; careful stepping to avoid deep pools of water and finally the narrowest crack on the glacier.

We had to take off our packs and gingerly slip through an 8 inch crack in the wall. Getting stuck is not for the faint hearted, and I was able to slide out and through the tricky part without too much trouble. By the end of the day we had seen many marvellous features on the glacier and we were less than halfway up. Imagine the effort involved in making a complete ascent.

That night I was pretty tired and ended up spending the evening by myself. I checked my email at a funky internet café made from a converted bus (which had Moon Safari by Air playing as background music) which goes to show that the Kiwis have a great sense of style.