Ice climbing day! It turns out this same day it snowed 2 inches in Georgia! It NEVER snows 2 inches in Georgia! Anyway, I got my fair share of ice that day. The day began off with almost everyone doubting we could climb. When we woke in the morning, it was raining outside and dark. The ice climbing places are known to cancel tours due to inclement weather. But I remained optimistic. Even when the situation has seemed impossible, God has always come through. So I prayed and gave it to God. My friends would say we were lucky, but I know otherwise. Those of us who wanted to ice climb, rather than just hike, chose Fox Glacier instead of Franz Joseph b/c it had a climbing tour large enough for the 5 of us. The remainder of the group planned to hike across the Franz Joseph Glacier. We arrived at the Fox Glacier tour building a little early and learned that our tour was definitely still going to happen!
We suited up and started our hike to the glacier. When we got to the base of the glacier we had to wait a bit, while some people recut the ice steps we were to use. While waiting there, the rest of our group (the hiking ones) showed up – at our glacier! It turns out all Franz Joseph Glacier cancelled all tours! When you trust in God, He always makes it work for the best! So yeah, we were pretty excited that our tour was still a go!
We strapped on our crampons (spikes that attach to your boots and help you climb ice) and started our ascent up the glacier. It was a little tricky at first to get used to the crampons, but we all did really well. They took us through a narrow crevice where we had to shimmy our way through sideways – that was pretty cool. And we stopped at a place where you can fill your waterbottle with glacier water! Of course I did! IT was cool and refreshing! All this time it was drizzling slightly which was a little disappointing because we were getting pretty wet – BUT it really made you feel like you were in a different land! I felt like I was in Antarctica! After a while, we reached our first climbing station. It was an almost vertical 30 foot wall of ice. The instructor hiked around to the top and threw down three ropes. I had a go at all three courses. The first one was a little tricky because I had to get used to using the ice axes. How you ice climb is you have 2 ice axes and the crampons that stick out in front of your boots. You first drive both ice axes into the wall as high as your arm will reach and then jab your boots into the wall so that the crampons stick in and your boots are level. Then you push with your legs and drive your axes in higher. So on, so on… It was AWESOME! Difficult and tiring but Awesome. By the end though, I was going pretty fast.
We then moved to the next climbing face and did the same thing – 3 courses, one time on each – except I did one of them twice! So I got to climb a total of 7 ice walls! After we finished we headed back down the glacier. At the bottom of the glacier, the sun finally came out – the warmth was splendid!
Ice climbing = A++++++
Ice climbing vs. rock climbing: ice climbing is just different – it’s difficult b/c your hands get cold and have trouble holding onto the axes, but the technique is pretty straightforward. I like both of them… a lot!
Our class ended late in the afternoon and we had a long way to travel, so we started driving. It was a long drive and I got to drive (!) b/c Jay was exhausted. It was a lot of fun, and since it was nighttime I saw a lot of animals! I saw 2 hedgehogs, 2 rabbits, 2 possums, and a stoat! The stoat was cute – like a ferret. I liked him, even though he is an invasive (bad for the NZ ecosystem) species. It’s amazing how many animals you see at night!
We made to the hostel around 1am, and crashed. (As you are beginning to see, this trip is a lot of drive-then-do-something-then-drive-then-sleep. I like it!)
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