Ice Climbing? Whose idea was that?!
Trip Start
May 06, 2006
1
70
81
Trip End
Mar 23, 2009
Franz Josef,
New Zealand
Wednesday, April 2, 2008
Yesterday I went ice climbing on Franz Josef Glacier. I could've settled for the hike but the ice climbing came highly recommended by some friends I met and climbed with on the north island so I sucked up few more dollars and went for it! I was supposed to go on Monday but my legs were sore from Abel Tasman and then thanks to the bad weather on Tuesday it got cancelled so I stayed another night and went yesterday instead. Good choice being as the weather was absolutely perfect!
This was another one of those adventures that nearly killed me to get to. I thought it would be a nice stroll until we got to the glacier. I was mistaken. Turns out I was with a bunch of mission hikers - I hate walking at the best of times so forget it with mountain boots on that don't even bend with your feet - then when I attached the clamp-ons I thought I was gonna die! At one point the start of the ice looked like it was about a 10 minute walk away... an hour later we were still walking towards it! So deceiving! I thought I was going to have a heart attack, went pale, almost passed out and almost threw up but I made it in the end! Drama queen? I'd like to see you try it!
Anyway, once we got to our first 3 walls we were briefly shown how to climb with our ice picks and boots and then thrown on in! It wasn't actually as difficult as I thought it was gonna be and actually really fun! Although they were the easy walls! We hiked a little more, ate lunch and then began the challenging ones. The first was okay, the second was so difficult though! There was an overhang and while I'm okay with those on climbing walls (okay, not great!) by the time I got to the top I just couldn't muster enough energy to get the ice pick into the ice far enough - it was also really solid ice 'cos the sun hadn't been on it all day. Man it was tough. I frustratingly gave up 'cos my arms just didn't wanna play any more! I came down and tried the third wall. My arms were still sore and when I got to the first over hang I almost gave up but with some encouragement from the boys (there was just one other chick on the trip!) I kept going and made it to the top! A much better way to end than failing!
Once we'd all climbed the walls we made our way back down the glacier visa a worm hole - there are little crevices that are carved by the constant moving of the water and some of them you can crawl into. This is once of the tourist things I was looking forward to - so many of my friends got great pictures! Ours was tiny and, to be honest, a little bit disappointing but it was better than none at all so I made the most of it! I did lose my sunglasses somewhere in there though! Oops! We then headed back to the van, taking of the dreaded clamp ons on the way down and walking in gorgeous weather the long track back! By the time I got back to the hostel I was knackered... I jumped in the spa, ate something, watched a movie then headed to bed! I knew I would be in pain this morning but I had no idea I'd struggle to walk again! Oh well, I'll be over it in a few days! I was supposed to be moving on this morning but I knew I'd need to rest up so booked another night. Also, I seem to be moving around way faster than I'd planned to so I had some time to kill anyway! I'm meeting up with a friend from uni in Wanaka in a few days and then with another 2 friends from home in Queenstown after that! I can't wait to see some familiar faces and get the partying back on track!
Hope all is well with you and you're feeling my pain! I'll add some pictures so you can see what I achieved!
