Today I went on a full day hike of the Franz Joseph Glacier. It is one of the fastest moving and lowest glaciers in the world. It can move about 1m a day!! Other glaciers move 1m a year.
Suited all up I went in the “confident group” that had about 20 people 30 people went in the “lesiurely” group. Then after hiking to the top of the end of the glacier, we split our groups down even further to “very confident” and “confident”. Xavier, a frenchman, and I chose to do the less confident group.
We followed the same path as the first group, just at a slightly slower pace and slightly more help help if needed.
The first group blazed a trail into a very deep cravasse and ran into troubles. The were not sure they could get out the other side. Our guide decided to catch up so that he could help in any way. we can always double back if the leads to a dead end.
Ends up that we are in a cravasse just barely wider than myself, standing in the same position for ONE HOUR while the guides are chipping out stepping holds for us. In the end, we had to crawl through a small ice tunnel and walk with one foot stepping on the left wall of a bottomless cravasse and one foot stepping on the right foot of the bottomless cravasse. I could not stop shivering and could not feel my feet or hands.
Needless to say, we were a full hour behind in getting back to base camp.
At one point, just past the ice tunnel where the guide cannot see back to the end of the group, 5 of us were sort of left stranded. We could not see anyone ahead because the cravasse was narrow and windy, and yelling did not receive a response. One of the gals started to freak right out and bawl uncontrollably at this point while making her way slowly over the bottomless cravasse. Her panic almost got me a bit worried until I realised that there is no way that our guide, Chris, would leave us totally behind. Once he reached a point where he could count the numbers in his group, he would come back for us.
It was extremely enjoyable and loved every minute of it! I’d do it again in a heartbeat, even the narrow bits and the ice tunnel. Good thing I had gone caving before and squeezed through some tight places there.
Bertha