The red lichen is the first to colonize. When I first saw the red on the rocks, I thought it might be graffiti of some sort.
After breakfast in the hotel dining room, we walked the short distance to the Fox Glacier Alpine Guides, who were to take us up to walk on the glacier. After receiving our instructions in the boot room from Richard and Hillary, and getting their blessing on using my hiking boots with their crampons, a total of 31 folks (plus guides) piled into the bus.
The bus ride to the car park at the glacier took only about 10 minutes, although the snout of the glacier was still about 1 mile up the valley. The guides split us into two groups, with Nicky voting with her feet to go with Hillary. The rest of us Country Walkers followed and joined the group also.
The trail led us over the grey rocky gravel and rocks towards the left (north) edge of the glacier, then turned up into the temperate rain forest that blankets the hillside. There was some serious climbing to get high enough to get up onto the glacier but the track had been well developed and there were multitudinous steps with wood risers back filled with the ubiquitous grey gravel that characterized the glacial moraine. I was wheezing a bit, but it wasn’t as much a trial for me as the Bealy Spur Track.
The weather was low clouds, although you could see clear sky to the west over the coast. Fortunately it didn’t rain on us as we made our way up to the glacier. There was a 300 ft stretch of the trail where there was a major drop-off beside the track and chain had been bolted to the rock. The guides carried all our walking sticks through that stretch and enforced a “camera ban” (i.e. put your gear away) so that you could use two hands on the chain.
Nicky had warned us about this stretch, although she felt we’d be OK navigating that part of the trail. I did raise my hand on the bus when they asked if anyone had problems with heights. So once we reached that point of the trail, I got to go across first with the guide! It wasn’t as bad as I had feared and made my way across the trail (including a rise and fall of 20 meters) with no problems.
There were a couple of places where we crossed old rock falls - there the guide assumed a position of looking up the fall to warn us if there were any rocks coming our way. We also crossed about a half a dozen streams and waterfalls as we made our way through the lush growth.
The red lichen is the first to colonize. When I first saw the red on the rocks, I thought it might be graffiti of some sort.
Waiting outside the Alpine Guides building looking up at the mountains shrouded with mist.
The sheer rock wall across the valley from the car park.
Jonathan pausing to take a snap of the glacier.
The snow/ice of the glacier is 80 - 100 years old, and picks up debris as it grinds against the walls of the valley.
The river, white with 'glacial flour' or finely ground stone emerges from under the glacier.
One of the streams - with a waterfall visible upstream - crossed to get to the glacier; Jonathan rearmost.
The path lead through lush growth on the sides of the valley.
A plant, the name of which I did not record, showing some flowers or fruiting bodies.
The trail took us up the side of the valley offering some impressive views back down the valley. …
… In the late 1930's, the glacier filled this portion of the valley to the cone shaped peak on the opposite side. There is a hut there near the top, dating from that time, where you could step out onto the glacier at the time.
A view of the side of the glacier - some of the characteristic blue is visible.
The second part of our group following behind us.
For scale, can you find the figure on the ice? He's chopping steps into the ice for the tourists.
Climbing onto the glacier. That gray hill of gravel is actually ice.
Walking single file on the glacier.
The view from the glacier down the valley.
A view of the lower ice falls - starts on the left just below the mist and extends 2/3 across the image.
The guides used picks to hew the steps from the ice of the glacier, and to maintain them as we passed.
Nicky takes a snap for us.
Once we reached the point where we were to stop onto the glacier, the trail descended steeply from the green valley wall to the grey gravel, rocks and boulders alongside the glacier. The guide company staff (about 4 to 6) had been on the ice fields all morning preparing paths and steps through the ice all morning. At our “embarkation point,” the glacier moves about 3 to 4 meters per day, which was one of the key reasons the staff had to get up there early as the jumping on terrain changes daily. The melting at the snout reduces the advances about 2 - 3 cm per day.
After strapping the crampons to our boots, we climbed a stairway of ice that the guides had cut into one of the lateral ice walls. Once up on the ice, the view down the valley was tremendous, while the view up the valley was blocked by low clouds.
The Fox Glacier is currently advancing down the valley, despite global warming, Out of the 3,000 or so glaciers in New Zealand, only it and the Franz Joseph glacier are advancing, all others are receding. The main driver for glacial movement is the pressure created by the snowfalls in the catch basins (the nevé) at the top about 10 years ago - apparently there is a 10 year delay between the cause (heavy snowfall) and effect (glacial movement). The ice in the glacier is about 80 - 100 years old (no prehistoric fossils popping out the front!) as it takes about that long for a snow flake to make the journey from the nevé to the snout.
The guide led us over the trails in single file and we were admonished not to leave it lest some unseen hazard claim us. The light drizzle lifted enough for us to see the upper ice falls (just like a waterfall, only solid). The trail looped back through, between, and over the ridges of ice tinted the blue that is characteristic of glacial ice. There was a fair amount of fine grit and dirt that gave the glacier a dirty look as well as numerous rocks that had been churned up from the bottom of the glacier.
By the time we descended the glacier to remove the crampons, the falling mist had thickened considerably and I had my camera in a Ziploc bag. We made the steep climb up to the trail back to the car park where we were to meet the bus. Going through the section with the chain on the narrow path around the cliff, I went next to last as the trail didn’t trigger my vertigo, although Nicky came after me as a precaution.
We walked back up the hill to our hotel where we had lunch and afterwards, Jonathan and I took about a 1 hour nap before the afternoon walk at 1630.