a journey of a thousand miles: Apr 28, 2011

Ice climbing on Franz Glacier was beyond my wildest dreams. We got to the office around 7:30am and after we all geared up for the hike and climb we took a bus to the base of the glacier. Then we hiked 2km to the base of the glacier…then we had to hike up the glacier to our climbing spot. This was probably the hardest part of the whole day! The hike on ice was like walking up a vertical wall. Very challenging and took a lot of endurance. I struggled with it towards the end but luckily the guy’s took good care of me and helped me along. The views however, were indescribable!

our group

Bus ride to the glacier

DANGER!

Hiking trail

Most of our gear...I was hot

Hiking trail

Once we got to the climbing spot they asked who had belayed before and/or had any climbing experience. A few people (including me) had some experience and were the first to climb and belay. I started out on the medium route and made it to the top with flying colors…I absolutely LOVED it! Next I belayed a few people and then it was back to the wall myself. I flew up the easy route and then took on the harder one. I was getting pretty tired but the guide was impressed by my determination and interest in learning to correct techniques so he helped me learn them on my way up. I made it to the top (beating a few of the guys) and felt great about it!

First Climb

Fell in love with this sport!

Belay Certified :)

Made it to the top of the hard route :)

Cooling off

By this time we were all starving so we stopped and had some lunch.

Gorgeous views

After eating lunch we hiked a little farther to the next wall. This time the climb was a little different. We were lowered into the glacier and had to climb back out of it! It was a little intimidating but very exciting! One of the guys I went with ended up falling over the edge head first!! We were freaking out but he got right side up again and was never in any serious danger thanks to his harness and instructor. There were no more close calls after this.

Second climbing site

Climbing back up after being lowered into the glacier

Finally around the day was coming to an end. We stopped off at one last place to climb but only a few had the strength to try it. I was exhausted! Dehydration and overheating definitely got the best of me. I never thought you could get over heated on an ice glacier . . . but you can. They told us to wear about 3-4 layers and I was more comfortable in a t-shirt and light jacket. It was pretty warm when you were in the sun and moving. The only time it got a little cold was when we sat down in the shade for a rest (which didn’t happen much).

Exhausted after a long day of climbing and hiking

I would rank this as one of the most rewarding experiences on this trip so far. I had a blast (even though the hike almost killed me). I pushed myself and lived out the motto to be FEARLESS!

We got back to the office around 5pm and then it was on the road again. This time I drove to Fox Glacier to pick up the rest of our group which was about 24km. I was exhausted but was ready to push on to Queenstown. The drive was about 6 hours (including a stop for gas) but we had to be there for our sky dive appointment in the morning.

I pushed myself to drive for 5 hours and then had to hand over the wheel due to extreme fatigue. I couldn’t sleep for the last hour of the trip but once we got into Queenstown we found a hotel and snuck everyone in. Thanks to one of the guys (Misha) we got a hotel with two rooms, a kitchen, bathroom, and living room. I shared a room with one of the girls (Jen), Misha and Rory got the other room, and the other three shared the living room.