We went to Mt. Cook in order to get up close to the tallest mountains in New Zealand. Unfortunately, the glacier kayaking trip we had booked was cancelled because of the weather (spoiler alert: that will become a trend over the next couple of weeks). We did a short walk to one of the lakes and were treated with large blocks of ice protruding from the surface. We joked that they were icebergs, but they appeared to be attached to the bottom which would technically make them ice anchors. The clouds were obscuring the peak of Mt. Cook most of the time, but we were able to snap a couple photos during a brief pocket of visibility.
We drove from the campground at Mt. Cook over to Fox Glacier. The crazy thing is that they are only about 18 miles away from each other as the crow flies, but the drive is 280 miles. It is just impractical to put a road over or through the mountain range.
Mt. Cook looming in the backdrop of ice in Hooker Lake.
One of the must-do things in New Zealand is to hike on a glacier. There are thousands of them in New Zealand, but Fox and the Franz Josef are the most well known and visited because they are fairly accessible. I use the word accessible lightly because it still takes a helicopter ride to get up on them, which makes a few hours walking on some ice pretty expensive. We figured that it was worth the cost and booked a trip onto Franz Joseph. And since the glaciers are retreating rapidly due to global warming, who knows how long they will even exist. We were extremely lucky to have a break in the fog and rain just long enough for our half day trip.
The helicopter ride only lasted five minutes, but it was awesome. It was small, carrying only five passengers, plus the pilot. I was surprised at how close we flew next to the mountains as we zoomed between the peaks. We had a great view of the mountains and ice, as well as the ocean. After landing, our group of nine strapped on our crampons and followed our guide over and through a labyrinth of blue ice. The immensity of the glacier becomes apparent as you see other groups hiking in the distance. It also puts the size of the columns of ice, called seracs, into perspective.
The seracs in the distance don't look so big...
...until you see the hikers next to them.
Our hike was easy both physically, and technically, as we didn't use harnesses, ropes, or ice axes. I have often thought that I would love to do some hard core mountaineering and use these things to get to some more remote places. However, I get cold easily, but more importantly, it is an extremely dangerous hobby. At the visitor's center near Mt. Cook, we looked through the books which have a short biography of each of the 230 people who have died there in the past century. We read about ten of the bios, all of which were of experienced mountaineers. Typical problems in the mountains are from unpredictable weather, high winds, and ice anchors failing. Glaciers present additional challenges because they are constantly moving, usually slowly, but at times very quickly and without warning. Crevasses open and close, seracs fall over, and ice dams break. At one point on our glacier hike, a huge amount of ice came crashing down not too far away from us. I was scared shitless for three seconds while I waited for our guide's reaction. When he said, "cooool!", I relaxed. I think he may have needed those three seconds to decide what his reaction should be.
- Jake
Are those Yeti?
The ice takes on some neat shapes and shades of blue.
Our ride awaits.