Ice Climbing
Trip Start
Mar 10, 2007
1
118
188
Trip End
Jan 08, 2008
Franz Josef,
New Zealand
Tuesday, October 2, 2007
I had great fun!!
No really, I did.
I was given two ice axes, seriously big crampons and a harness to play with all day. I was also better than the boys (something with which they agreed, we did awards on the way back) and it was great fun. I highly recommend it for someone with some anger to dispel, or for anyone who just doesn't want to follow the track on the glacier, because we were allowed off it to go looking for the ice to climb.
We started early enough - 7.45am, and we were out on the ice by about 9.30am. It is quite spectacular, the ice really is blue, which is to do with density and the way that water molecules, aside from having a slight blue tinge, actually absorb the light. It is deadly picturesque. We climbed over some crevasses, skirted some holes, and wandered off the tourist cut track before making our first climb, and stangely, once we were off the tourist track I actually felt safer than when I had been on it. Something to do with massive safety precautions that every operator is forced to take, making you feel more acutely the danger of a place, which then becomes fairly intense if you had already realised it anyway. I always find it the same, I do not like, as a rule, safety railings, because they have the opposite effect on me, making me feel more unsafe than if they were not there, I think, because it is as if I cannot be trusted in the slightest to take responsibility for myself. Sue-Me societies hey?
It did not take all that long to find a suitable wall to climb, it was about 10-12 m high and had a slight gradient on it, which was pretty good for us to do because it meant we would not be climbing up sheer ice the first time around. Now came the most boring part of the day. Three of us had to stand around on the ice, while one person climbed up it. Obviously the boys wanted to go first, and Paul took the spot of alpha male, grabbing two of the axes and getting to the ropes first. I did not mind, I wanted to see how the others handled it, and also I did not want to be the first to take a fall, as I was fairly sure I would be doing. This is because when you climb Ice, the only things attaching you to the wall are the front four spikes on your crampons, and the very tip of the ice axe in each hand, all in all about four inches of steel, holding up ten and a half stone of my weight. Why was I doing this?
Paul had one or two minor slips, from lifting up his heels (it takes the pressure off the crampon and it slips out) - again, why was I doing this - but he made it to the top and the bench mark was set. Jim went next, and he took a slightly different approach, being afraid of severing the rope with his axe, he climbed in a slight diagonal angle and, when he slipped, he lost both feet, and with one axe out of the ice, his whole weight was on one ice axe. It did not hold, and Jim made a very graceful swinging/falling arc across the face of the ice wall, until he hung perpendicular to the anchor points. It is at times like this that I am especially glad that I am not male. If something like that happens to me, I do not have to worry about bits getting unbearably squeezed!
I decided I wanted to go next, I could not watch anymore, and I was getting very cold just standing on 150m of ice, so I picked up the axes, held on tightly, and made my way over to Dave, who attached me to the safety rope, and pulled it tight, setting me up for my climb (but hopefully not a fall.) I began to climb, taking a different approach to the boys, by using baby steps with my crampons, four little steps to every two of theirs. Climbing on so little was a very strange feeling - just the very tip ends of my axes, and the points of my front crampons. Consequently i found myself gripping the axes very hard (like that would make much difference) and took a lot of time ensuring my footing was good and that my heels were down. I may not have external bits to smash, but I still did not want to fall as doing so still would have been painful and cold. My more cautious attitude paid off. I was the first to reach the top of the climb without slipping, falling, or losing my grip. Well, someone had to show the boys how to do it, I thought it might as well be me. The only downside was that I had gripped the ice axes so hard i had cut my circulation to my fingers, and that meant that my hands were intensely cold when I got to the bottom - I had to steal two pairs of gloves off the boys to get them warmed up again, but I still made the top without falling.
Nick was last to scale the wall, and managed the best of the three boys, though he did do some spectacular scrabbling when he lost all of his footing and his axes. He managed to regain his grip, which as fairly impressive, and continued on to the top. After that, we all climbed again, just to see if we would improve, and everyone did, there was nothing as spectacular as Jim's arching fall this time around! For my part, I was more nervous about this climb than the first one, as I now had a standard to uphold. I did make one or two slight slips, but as it was as I was preparing to move up anyway it was not apparant from the ground, so the boys were none the wiser. I was glad of that, and the fact that by leaning more on the axe leashes I managed to stop my fingers going numb on this climb(thanks for the tip Dave), though they were still cold at the end of it.
After our second climb, Dave said that as it was so cold, we could either turn tail and go back into the valley, or go for a walk on the glacier to see some of the views, but after a general clamour for more climbing (I told you it was fun) he conceeded and took us back over the tourist trail to find some more walls - smaller but more challenging, just as we had asked. Ice in general, and ice walls in particular, were not hard to find, what with us being on a glacier, but finding a novice wall that fitted our requirements was a little more challenging, especially as Dave had to be able to climb to the top of the wall to set up the anchor point for the rope. We found one, eventually, on the side of the hiker's walk up the glacier, which meant that when Paul made his first ascent he had to cling to the ice about half way up while the day hike that had started with us walked past on their way back into the valley. They all looked cold and a little miserable, and I was glad I had chosen the climbing, because at least our day was not wrecked by the bad weather - we could still do what we had come to do, whereas the hikers had not been able to properly view the panoramic scenes from the higher sections of ice. Paul did a good job of not falling as they walked past, and the rest us flaunted our fantastical crampons (which were much more impressive than the walking ones that the hikers had on), and as soon as they were gone he carried on to the top of the wall, biting into the blue ice on the upper section, which is harder than white ice, and is therefore harder to climb (hence the more challenging aspect of this climb.) Again Jim went next, and although he had a few slips he did a good job of getting up the ice, not quite to the top, but as I was about to find out, the blue ice id hard to crack - literally as much as metaphorically.
I managed the first part of the climb well enough, perfecting a knee-up technique to get onto a small ledge, which I could then stand on to consider the rest of the climb. My reputaion was really at stake now - as far a the boys were concerned I was the only one so far not to slip on a climb, and Paul had just succeeded in an almost perfect climb, complete with waiting period to the top of this new wall. Oh dear. (Although I am not sure where all of this masculine pride in me has come from as I most definately not male.)
Standing on the ledge was not going to do anything, I attacked the ice, and scaled the white section with very little trouble, wven getting my axes into the blue ice to pull my feet level with the base of the blue section. This though, was where it got very hard. Literally. Without the ease of getting my feet into the white ice, my handling of the axes became more precarious, and very often I found myself shifting on only one firm axe and a barely firm foot, as I could no longer bang my crampon points deep into the ice. In short, instead of climbing on about two inches of steel, I found myself gripping the ice with about an inch worth of steel in total. It was difficult, even with the axes making a triangular base with the end and the point butting up to the wall. I was about three or four movements from the top when my fingers started to go numb again - I was back to gripping the axes tightly despite the leashes, beacuse I was trying to get force behind my blows. I just couldn't sink the axes far enough, and as my fingers lost feeling, I decided to come down, I could have another bash in twenty minutes when I had some blood back in circulation. Nick also made a good job of climbing, again with one or two slips, but nothing major, just more emphasised versions of my little slips that went unnoticed in the second climb I had done.
Again, we were to do two climbs on this face, and we had to do these inbetween the hikes that were coming down the glacier (we made sure to flash all of our crampons to the hikers as they went past), and only Jim declined the second climb on this wall, as he had actually quite hurt himself with his first fall, but was a good sport about it, doing two climbs after the event. I did not get very far into the blue ice this time around. I was tired and I could get neither ice axes nor crampons to bite to my satisfaction, and, not being male, and worrying about my now established reputation, I did not want to risk a fall. Maybe I should have, the crampons would support me on very little bite, but I was not particularly confident in my ability to stand on ends, so I did not do it, I had still made three quarters of the climb and I was not up on the glacier to try and kill myself, so I left it. Three very good, and one good climb was an achievement for my first ever ice climbing session I thought.
We made our way back down the glacier, squeezing through some tight cracks (which were not there two weeks ago apparently - the ice is always moving) and climbing down the massive stairs that the guides had cut, marching over some unpreped ice when we met groups coming the other way, courtesy of our cool crampons, all the way back down into the valley. Here we took off all of our gear and started back to the bus, taking the main track back to the car park just in case of any further rock falls on the side track, where we collapsed into the bus and were taken back into Franz Josef village, and given much hot chocolate by the guiding people before wandering back to the hostel and soaking in a hot shower that has never been more welcome!!
It might have rained, and I might have no photos (I didn't want to explain to the insurance people that after losing one camera in a mud slide I had wrecked another by taking it ice climbing), and I may have initially wondered waht was driving me to do this before hitting the ice, but I still had a great day, and I have now done three out of the five things that I really wanted to do in this country. A good day in all then.
