Fox Glazier

Now climbing a glazier shouldn't be a comfortable helicopter ride in the sunshine, stepping of directly on the ice, planting your flag, popping the champagne and have your picture taken.    It should be a challenge for Men, wrestling with the elements! And so the Fox Glazier obliged me by putting up the worst weather I have experienced since I arrived, grounding all helicopters for the day! 

But upwards we went, me and my new partner in glazier climbing, Larry from Hong Kong. Approaching the base of the glazier we stopped to mount ice spikes on our boots and grap a walking stick from the stand run by the local alpine parrots, the Kias.

These very intelligent birds have a craving for anything they can tear apart with their strong beaks and they have been known to terrorize carparks leaving peoples tires destroyed. Walking up through the river of ice I experienced deep blue ice walls, caves forming over night as the glazier moves and cracks and finally the icefall separating the upper ice basin where the snowfall accumulates and then travels down towards the valley through the fall and the river.