Our guides for the hike today are from Nepal. We are on the Jostedal glacier. The largest glacier in Europe. The ice is dirty and granular like gravel. In order to walk on this glacier, we needed some special gear. Our lead guide, the fellow in yellow, has participated in more Everest climbs than he can remember. He does remember his four summits, of course.
Crampons over your boots, ice axe in hand and harnesses so we could be roped together are part of the preparation.
This used to be glacier here. Now it is a couple miles away having melted. We have to take a boat to a trailhead and then it is another hour hike to the glacier.
Before we get to the glacier, we cross over the area it has melted back from.
We are just about at the glacier now, looking back at the lake it has created. We are told that the water is murky with particles and not good to drink.
We get geared up and head onto the ice. A quick instruction and safety meeting gets up ready to venture out on the ice. We are roped together in groups of 6. The ice axes serve as hiking stickes. The crampons really grip in the ice.
Years of dust and pollution have settled on the ice, giving it a dirty look. Freshly exposed ice appears blue. Often cracks or crevices form but they do not penetrate too deep due to the lower ice being so dense from the weight above it.
Although I felt secure and safe with the crampons, it was tiring just to move around. We probably spent no more than 20 minutes moving on the ice. Our leaders brought hot coffee and a hazelnut cream liquor for an ice break.
Everyone had their photo taken by the blue hole. It was deep and there was running water somewhere down there. I saw many small holes filled with ice melt and kept thinking I'd step into one.
It was a little precarious walking alongside some of these deep cracks in the ice.
After crunching along on the ice, we removed our gear, then headed back the way we have come. It was at least 2 miles on the scoured rock to get to the boat taking us back the staging area we started at.
No comments:
Post a Comment