Ice, Ice, Baby

On my way down the west cost the must do stop off is a glacier walk in the suthen Alps.

I stopped off in Franz Josef and with the start time of 8:15 was up with the early birds and getting kited out with boots and lots of spiky things.

The days walk took us from the valley floor up the near vertical face of the glacier using steps which our guides cut into the ice as we went. The front wall is moving at about 10m a day so new steps have to be cut each morning. (this picture is deceptive - it was still a 40 min walk to get to the base of the glacier)

After about a 45min climb the glacier flattened out and we were able to spend the day exploring through caves and crevices. Everything was spiced up with 200m deep holes we kept having to climb around where the water has been draining. And there is a lot of water running down the ice flow. To put into perspective how much water is involved in the glacier on average between 50 - 80 meters of rain falls at the top each year (normal in the form of snow)