The Helihike, Franz Joseph Glacier, Nov 28
The way J tells it, I tried to kill her. I forced her to walk two hours over blue ice half way up the glacier. The problem, J reckons, is that her legs are too short, and the deep crevasses in the perfect blue ice a tad too wide.
You see the picture unfolding.
Most of the day was perfect. It rains about 6 metres a year here - but this day was glorious powder blue cloudless sky. True,health and safety reminded me of Asia, as the blonde YOP's pre-flight safety talk was obliterated by the whirring of the helicopter blades. True, our guide on the ice was Pearl, a 20-something Kiwi, kitted out in shorts and T-shirt, springing across the ice like a mountain goat.
It started well. We got used to the crampons. We slithered on our backs down ice slides and posed with our picks in ice caves.
Up we went, higher and higher. The great ice blocks around us became mountainous, the crevasses deeper and wider. The ice is 30-50 metres deep in places; the blue ice the most dense compacted over the years, sucking in all light except blue.
The moment came when our guide Pearl tried to squeeze us through a tiny gap in an ice wall to a descent of some 2/3 metres. The ice was too hard to carve out steps with her axe and she screwed in a rope to the ice wall. I was right behind and slithered into a tiny ice crack, just managing to haul myself down the rope.
Behind me I heard a noise, and as I turned there was J hurtling towards us. she managed in mid air to throw away her ice pick and somehow pivot so that she landed with a sickening thud on her side. For a heart-stopping moment she said nothing - telling me later she was running through the check-list of limbs for breakages. Amazingly nothing was broken. J's years of hockey goalkeeping saved her. As she felt herself falling towards Pearl and me she had the presence of mind to chuck the icepick away from us and twist in the air so that she did not hit the ice arms and face first.
Shaken and bruised, but somehow nothing worse.
Although that has not stopped her telling all & sundry that I tried to kill her...again.
A bit of chocolate, a nothing-else-for-it mentality and she was back on her feet, as unbelievably Pearl tried to hack her way still higher up the ice mountain.
In total the ice walk was just over two hours but from that point on it felt like an age before we finally made it back to the ice helipad. To all mountaineers and ice climbers, even bigger respect. As J put it - it's very real out there. It's not Disney.
Pic: still smiling at the end of the glacier walk...
PS: anonymous commented on one of our recent blogs:
'your public is impressed'
A little later anonymous posted again:
'sorry that should read 'unimpressed'...
Whoever you are, keep posting
3 comments:
Our little sojourn to the lake district winter wonderland had one similarity...a hard landing. Not that we're jealous...
Anonymous - are you Lynda?
Or Steff?
You could be Di?
J'smoney is on Steff
Anonymous is the disembodied voice of your public and has no other identity. As you have decided to post a blog, you have a responsibility to your public to provide us with updates at regular intervals. It is the least you can do to reward the loyalty of those who visit at regular intervals. However, recent updates have redressed the balance a little and your public is now prepared to continue checking the blog for a little while longer....
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