Visiting the Franz Joseph Glacier was definitely one of the highlights of the whole travels! We were extremely fortunate that we had a day without a cloud in the sky, meaning that we could visit the glacier via a HeliHike rather than a walk from the bottom. A HeliHike means a helicopter ride up and over the glacier, followed by a landing around halfway up. For those of you who know what sissies Friedi and I are when it comes to flying you will probably realise that the helicopter ride was quite an undertaking in itself! Especially when we got the “crazy” pilot who managed to scare even the staff! Once we landed on the glacier we got to add spikes to our boot and were then equipped with a pick axe. Our guide then took us around various parts of the glacier “carving out steps” along the way with his axe (check out the video below!). He took us to see ice caves, some of which you had to slide through “penguin style”, others that were 40m long and were a mix of upright walking, clinging to the sides to avoid the water in the middle and climbing up ropes to get back out. These caves were absolutely stunning, and our very basic camera really doesn’t lie when it comes to the colours! They were really that blue. The other amazing thing about these caves is that they only last for around 3 weeks before the ice collapses and then forms caves in new places. We also got to see the majestic “ice towers” as well as witnessing huge ice collapses further up the glacier. Overall this was a stunning trip and we are both so happy we got over our fears and took the helicopter ride!
The Photos:
A panoramic video of the Glacier form our landing place:
And a video of our guide carving out the ice steps (you might need to turn your head on it’s side for this one):
Wow, Pete, that looks absolutely amazing. Yeah, somehow Fockerberg doesn’t really seem so impressinve now. I was living quite happily in my little fantasy land and you had to go and tear apart my dellusions. Thanks Pete, thanks for ruining my life…
Seriously, that looks awesome! I’m completely jealous. Have fun (as if you need me to tell you that) I’m off to Webmontag now. I’ll probably bump into some of your old mates there. ttfn, John
Stunning!!!
(unfortunately, because of global warming those glaciers will soon be gone…)
Hey John,
great to hear from you! It was one of the highlights of the whole trip so far. We were really lucky with the weather as the helicopters only go up in good conditions and we were in the middle of winter!
how was Webmontag?
Hey Elli. This used to be one of the worlds few advancing glaciers, but i think in the last year or 2 it has started to retreat. The big rock face in the middle of the glacier didnt used to be there…