Fox Glacier

The weather in Arthur’s Pass continues to be wet, so I decide to drive to the west coast and then south to see the glaciers at Franz Joseph and Fox Glacier. I stop at a couple of pleasant quiet camp sites along the way. One is on Lake Mahinapua, just south of Hokitika and another at a small settlement on the coast at Okarito.

Lake Mahinapua

 

Okarito

As I drive down the coast the Southern Alps, including Mount Cook, are on my left, but I can’t see any mountains as they are hidden by the low cloud.

To get onto the ice of the glaciers you have to take a guided tour of some sort and I decide to have a go at ice climbing. Although it rains heavily overnight, the morning dawns clear and dry. There are only two of us for our Kiwi guide, Cole – me and an Austrian girl called Lydia.

We get kitted up in the village with ice climbing boots, crampons, helmet, gloves and ice axes and then walk up the valley towards the face of the glacier. The sides of the valley climb high above us and a milky grey river flows from the glacier through the wide rubble-strewn valley floor. Helicopters buzz around above us, taking tourists on scenic flights. Cole points out various points of interest, such as the positions the glacier has advanced and retreated to over the years and features such as terminal moraines and hanging valleys. The ice of the glacier is tinged with blue and the whole thing is rather dirty-looking. The surface is cracked and carved into cliffs and holes. As the day progresses and warms up, the surface of the ice becomes granular and the small streams run with more and more water, which disappears into the ice.   

First View of Fox Glacier

Looking down the Valley from the Glacier

On Fox Glacier

Me and Lydia Ready to Climb

We start our ice climbing training by learning some basic techniques of how to use the crampons and ice axes and then we begin some small climbs attached to a rope and belaying each other. The crampons and ice axes provide very secure holds for hands and feet. It is freezing cold and we are both shivering; which shouldn’t be surprising as we are on a glacier; but there is rather a lot of standing around. We take a break from the climbing and explore some of the interesting features that the glacier has created.

Me in an Ice Cave (sorry can't  turn this round!)

Me and Lydia in an Ice Hole

Then it is time to do some more climbing and Cole shows us a huge hole in the ice. He proposes lowering us into the hole, for us to climb out. That’s all very well, but there is some water flowing into the hole and out at the bottom, going somewhere under the ice. I’m not keen on that idea, so he finds us another hole, but this one has a bottom, which seems much more secure.

Abseiling into a Hole (orientation problems again)

Climbing out of a Hole

(ha ha - this should be me climbing vertically out of the hole, not crawling out horizontally!)

At the end of the day we both feel quite tired, even though we haven’t done a huge amount of exercise. I think it is a combination of the cold and the inefficiency of movement in trying to learn a new physical skill. I don’t think ice climbing is going to be my new favourite thing, but I am glad to have had this new experience and had the opportunity to spend time on the glacier.