We hiked a glacier today. No big deal

Thursday, May 1: Franz Josef


So yesterday we couldn’t take a helicopter (called a ”heli-hike”) up to the top of the Franz Josef glacier because visibility was crap. What am I talking about, you ask? Franz Josef is a town that has a glacier. Yes, it’s true. It is an uncharacteristic cascade of ice that has been able to form so close to the coastline because of all the rain they get here. Over thousands of years, fallen snow has fused into clear ice and surges down the valleys of the mountain. When you see the glacier in the distance for the first time, it feels like you are looking at some magical aberration.

Franz Josef is a tiny little town---the main drag runs about one city block and that’s it. You pretty much come here to see the glacier. It’s the main attraction. Everyone hangs out and waits for good weather conditions and then up you go. But since the weather sucked yesterday, we passed the day by having a lazy morning, then hiking to the bottom of the glacier ourselves and turning back. Rushing water from the rains kept us on our toes, but the hike was beautiful. The rocks themselves are amazing. They are heavily marbled and stratified. They would make the most amazing kitchen counters! Shalini and I filled our pockets with the most interesting ones we could find. I fantasize about bringing home a suitcase-full to landscape my garden.

Since yesterday’s hike was canceled, all our hopes rest on the weather today. We are praying that the heli-hike goes out for our scheduled 12:45 flight. We’ve heard that about fifty percent of the helicopter flights get cancelled because of weather. Every day is a crapshoot. But we can’t stay in Franz Josef forever. We need the weather to cooperate today.

The skies open up in the morning, but the clouds still hang over the glacier itself. There’s the rub. It can be sunny in town, but up on the glacier it can be quite a different story. All morning, Shalini and I watch the clouds from our hotel window like two wary hawks. At around 12:20, we go down to the booking office. It doesn’t look good. Word comes that the helicopter flight has been cancelled yet again.

It’s tragic. Shalini is crestfallen. She has wanted this so badly. We need to make some fast decisions about our options, which are thus: eiither take a half-day guided hike by foot up to the glacier (this hike doesn’t take you up as far on the glacier as the heli-hike does, but you still get a great experience) or don’t do anything today and take our chances and hope that the 9am heli-hike goes out tomorrow. I say we do the half-day hike--because heli-hike or no heli-hike, we’re leaving tomorrow for Queenstown. Shalini just looks so sad. I tell her the helicopter is not going to make or break her New Zealand experience and remind her of all we have done already. We stare at each other for a few minutes, not knowing what to do. We ask what the weather forecast looks like for tomorrow morning. It’s not looking good. With minutes remaining, we decide to go for it with the half-day hike today.

We join the foot-hike group and stand in line to get our waterproof Gore-tex jackets, heavy-duty boots and crampons that the tour provides. Poor Shalini. She gets handed boots that are wet from the last tour that went out, so she has swamp feet the entire hike. Because it has rained so much in the last several days, the normal trail to the glacier is not an option for our group, so we have to go through much more demanding terrain to get to the foot of the glacier. It’s very hilly and wet. We have to climb several ladders to go up and down the rocky hills. For about an hour, we are tramping pretty hard. It’s kind of worse than Tongariro. We pass through dense rainforest jungle and have to grab onto roping in many areas to avoid slipping. Neither Shalini nor I have mentally prepared for a foot hike today, so there’s a bit of mental adjustment. Finally, we get to the glacier. Everyone stops to put their crampons on. They are cumbersome to handle but feel good once they’re on. We break up into groups and follow our respective guides. Our group has some really nice people…a girl from Germany, one from Holland, some cousins traveling together from New York and Canada, an older British couple who bicker about who will go first in the trail of people..

Hiking the glacier is another world-class rush. The ice is blue in parts and we pass several crevasses that are too beautiful to describe. About five minutes into hiking the ice, a huge part of the glacier breaks off in the distance. Our guide says it’s the largest piece he’s seen break so far. It makes a ragingly loud sound. We all get really excited that we are witnessing something unique. The gash in the glacier causes the water levels in the rocky trail leading up to the glacier (the part that was off limits) to surge and transform from a stream to a river. It’s pretty exciting.

We climb icy steps that our guide forges with his gigantic ice pick. I imagine that we are on the Hillary Step on Everest. Hardly, but I feel so cool and pioneering. We summit a flat layer of ice, and everyone stops to take photos. At one point, Shalini accidentally drops her sunglasses in a small crevasse and dips her hand into the icy water to fish it out. Later, she loses her water bottle to a crevasse. Go, Shalini! She’s left a piece of herself on the glacier forever.

Finally, it is time to return back to town. We come back the same way we came, going through slippery terrain and snapping our ankles on endless rocks and gravel. Everyone is happy to finally see the tour bus. It’s been a tiring but extremely memorable day. I ask Shalini if she is happy. She says she is. The hike has satisfied her. I thought it was awesome. But don’t take my word for it. Let the photos speak for themselves….



Hiking volcanoes. Check.

Hiking a glacier. Check.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring…..