Franz Josef!
Oh my, Franz Josef! I don’t think I have ever been as cold and as wet as I was in Franz Josef!
We went to Franz Josef to climb the glacier there. There were two types of trips which we could have done there, the half day hike and the full day hike. We opted for the full day hike, as with the half day hike you only would have got an hour to and hour and half on the glacier.
So we left our hostel and headed down to the glacier center. We were kitted up in boots, waterproof jackets, macs, hat, gloves and crampons. It took an age to put the gear on. We then got on a bus for 15 minutes to reach the start of the hike. Before we could start tramping up the glacier we had to walk for an hour! It was already raining at this point, so we were all pretty wet before we even got to the glacier. We had to go up hills, come down them with the aid of ropes and cross flowing streams. I felt like I had done a work out before I had even got to the glacier. We were then grouped according to our ability, me and Anita went in group 4 and the others were in group 3. Our guide was called Nick and then off we went up the glacier after putting on our crampons. We went up some steps which we already carved out, we got up the first set of steps and it was really hard work. I asked how long we were going to be on the ice and he said 6 hours! He said that if I wanted I could go into a half a day group, but I decided to go – I am so glad I did. It rained on and off for the whole day. The guide went in front to find a way for us to go, as he did so he was carving out the way for us. We went up steps, down steps, climbed up really steep ones and the guide had to fix some ropes in the ice for us to hold on to. We couldn’t stop on the glacier for long as it was freezing, we only stopped for about 5 minutes each time. Our bags were soaked through, so we had some wet soggy sandwiches! Urgh! It was one of the best sandwiches ever though, as I was so hungry. In my crampon bag around my waist I put some sweets in to keep me going! Once we got down we still had an hours walk back to the car park, we came another way back which involved walking through rivers. We were absolutely soaked through – I will never complain about being wet again as I don’t know if it is possible to be as wet as I was that day! I did not take my camera with me as I didn’t want to get it wet, I think it was a good job as I put my bag on the floor and it was soaked through. Anita took some good photos though, which I will add later. We got back to the hostel at 7, so a long day was had by all. As soon as we got back I jumped straight into bed and had some soup, while the others were washing and drying our wet clothes! It was an amazing day and I am so glad I went on the full day.