Yesterday, I went on a full-day guided trek through the Franz Josef Glacier, and today I saw two people injured by the same glacier. One was injured quite severely. Luckily, no one was killed!
On other notes, a good night’s rest staved off any hint of a cold. As a bonus, I have no allergy problems here in “glacier country”. I haven’t taken any antihistamines for a few days. I am taking some Vitamin-I for a sore knee – the result of some over-enthusiastic hiking a couple of days before the glacier hike.
Fun
The full-day guided trip into the glacier was fantastic! I highly recommend taking it. Also, take the full-day, rather than the half or three-quarter day, because you get up higher, and do cooler things.
There is a good amount of time spent climbing, but, once that is done, you get into the large seracs, like in this photo. Look at the people in the lower left corner to see the scale of the ice.
We also went through a few “tunnels”, made of translucent blue ice.
This photo shows how far we went up the glacier.
The guide was very good. A few times, we had to wait around for 15 or 20 minutes while he was out of sight carving footholds with a huge ice axe. When we finally saw where he was leading us, a few people made the comment, “I think he is trying to kill us!” We definitely were not doing “beginner” stuff. At times, it felt like we should have been roped up and using ice-climbing gear.
We only had some simple crampons that fit to the bottom of flexible hiking boots. They were more like “ice cleats” than crampons. But, they did the job on all but the rare super-hard ice. The ice and snow on the glacier surface is mostly quite soft and easy to walk on with the cleats.
In the end, even the people who thought they would die many times over were raving about how fantastic the experience was. It was far more exciting and challenging than the dainty (and super-safe) walk through the ice that I was expecting when I first signed up.
One woman had done the heli-hike a few days earlier. She said the full-day hike was much more interesting and challenging than the helicopter trip. But, on the heli-hike, you do get some better views.
Danger
A lot of people want to take photos of the “ice cave” from whence the river appears at the foot of the glacier. It is the main internal drainage of the glacier. They also want their friends to take photos of them standing in front of the cave.
What they don’t seem aware of, even though it happens frequently, is that large blocks of ice routinely fall from the top of the ice cave. Note the pile of ice rubble under the arch! Or that pretty much any piece from the front of the glacier can fall down with no warning. There are plenty of signs warning of the dangers, but lots of people seem to think that it does not apply to them. (Especially the French, as you shall see.)
So, this morning, I head back to the foot of the glacier to take some photos with the 4×5 camera.
I can see cracks around a huge chunk of ice at the top of the cave. I estimate that it will fall within one hour. (How do I know? I’m Canadian, of course. We know these things. It’s in our blood) The photo was shot the day before, and you can see the big blue block of ice at the top of the arch. A piece even larger than that, but in the same position, had some large cracks around it.
I set up my camera at a relatively safe position, and wait to see if I can capture a shot of the big icefall. I am over 80 metres away from the entrance of the ice cave.
In the meantime, lots of stupid, stupid people are getting far too close to the glacier. I watch a small group of seven or eight guys in their late teens or early twenties horse around and take photos of each other very near the cave. They are closer than the people in the photo. Then a Frenchman heads in with his large digi-slr camera to take photos. Finally, and old French guy (around 60) also goes in, and encourages his wife to come over to where he is. She hangs around for a little while, and then retreats to a safer spot.
At one point, a number of small blocks of ice fall down and splash in the river. This sets off the group of boys to whoop and holler.
It is just after 12:00 noon, so the guided half-day groups are coming down off the glacier, and other groups are preparing to go up. The whooping attracts the attention of the guides and a couple of them walk over to “advise” the people of the danger they are in. Since it is in a national park, the guides cannot tell them to leave.
The boys were starting to leave the area, anyway, and continue to a safer spot.
The young Frenchman’s wife is walking, holding their infant child, farther from the entrance, but still too close. One guide advises her to go back a good distance, which she does.
This leaves on the young and old Frenchmen in harm’s way. A minute later, the old Frenchman starts slowly clambering out of the most dangerous area. I cannot see the young guy, but I had seen him earlier climbing up the scree at the side, and think maybe he has climbed out that way.
Then, the huge chunk of ice breaks free! It is the size of at least two cars, maybe three. I snap my shutter as it falls. I hope I got the timing right.
I watch as the ice hits the river, after a 30 metre fall. There is a big splash, and an even bigger shockwave of air and water races away from the impact. I see it knock down the old Frenchman, and it is heading for me!
My only thought is, “Holy crap, this could be bad!” I turn my back to the oncoming spray of water, and hope for the best. Luckily, at my distance, the shockwave has lost its force, and I just get a quick horizontal rain shower. (Checking my camera, afterwards, there is a fine spray of water droplets on the front element of the lens.)
I turn back and see the old Frenchman getting up off of his hands and knees (he was facing away, at the time), and scurrying to get away. The old Frenchman was standing where the young Frenchman’s wife had been holding her baby. If she had remained there, ignoring the guide’s advice, she would also have been knocked down!
The guides come running over, to check for injuries. They see the old Frenchman, and go to him. Then, we hear yelling from somewhere out of sight, near the cave entrance. It is the young Frenchman. He was still close to the entrance when the block fell.
The guides go to carry him out. It is quite possible that another block could fall any time, so they hurry. A couple of guides run to their packs for first aid gear.
They carry the young Frenchman out to a safe spot. He is not screaming continuously, so there are probably no broken bones, but he does scream whenever his left knee is bent, and the knee is bloody. They strip off his pants, and his knee looks pretty bad.
I do not see the large, expensive digi-cam. It was probably knocked from his hand and smashed on the rocks. It may even have been washed away in the splash-water.
The old guy is bleeding from the back of his head. He may have been hit with a flying piece of ice, or a rock. I am not certain what caused his injury.
I left, shortly after this, so I don’t know how they transported the wounded away from the glacier. It is a 2.7 km hike to the carpark. They may have used one of the heli-hike helicopters to carry the young Frenchman out, since it didn’t look like he would be able to walk out anytime soon.
Michael Chmilar's Travels 
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