{"id":4466,"date":"2010-12-19T01:47:26","date_gmt":"2010-12-19T01:47:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/?p=4466"},"modified":"2017-07-22T14:33:30","modified_gmt":"2017-07-22T13:33:30","slug":"day-155-ice-ice-baby","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/expedition-updates\/day-155-ice-ice-baby\/","title":{"rendered":"Day 155 : Ice, ice baby"},"content":{"rendered":"

High point: the climb up Franz Josef Glacier<\/p>\n

Low point : soggy sandwiches<\/p>\n

Small world point : the friend of one of the guys in the Franz Josef Experience Centre was driving Martha, the ambulance the crew met on stage two in Mongolia<\/p>\n

Franz Josef is famous for its glacier which is 12km long, it descends from the Southern Alps to less than 300m above sea level.\u00a0 We decided to do a full day trek to explore what this incredible mass of ice has to offer\u2026\u00a0 when in Rome and all that.\u00a0 The walk promised an \u201cexperience of the most spectacular glacier environment available to the general public anywhere in the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The day\u00a0didn’t\u00a0start off well, it was absolutely bucketing it down but in true FTFE explorer style we were ready for anything, or so we thought.\u00a0 Our guide was called Jonno, a volunteer fire fighter whose great grandfather was one of the first explorers in NZ.\u00a0 As we trudged up to the summit of the glacier with the wind and hail stones against us, Steve reminded us the only activity on stage 1 was a visit to a Concentration Camp.\u00a0 Fair point, we should suck it up.<\/p>\n

When we got onto the ice it was time to test out our crampons (spikes to help us negotiate the ice).\u00a0 A lot of the approaches had been melted by the rain, making things a bit hairy in places.\u00a0 Injury count, Chris – hurt arm, Amy – bruised knees, Kate – bashed side, Steve managed not to hurt himself by sliding and grabbing onto Kate\u2019s, ahem, coat.\u00a0 We can confirm glaciers are as hard as they look.\u00a0 Jonno kept saying \u201cits good to test yourself\u201d.<\/p>\n

Because of the weather conditions it was too cold to stop for lunch, Jonno called us amateurs as we\u2019d brought along bananas and sandwiches in cardboard wrappers.\u00a0 They soaked up the rain water nicely\u2026 mmm soggy sandwiches.<\/p>\n

Beating the climb and weather conditions were definitely worth it, the glacier is beautiful. \u00a0Deep in the heart of the glacier surrounded by ice crevasses and snow steps felt like we were in Superman’s cave, the one where he goes to find the kryptonite. \u00a0We found ourselves in all manner of situations, from squeezing through tight blue crevasses or sliding through ice caves to shuffling, down near vertical walls of ice.<\/p>\n

When we finally got to the bottom there wasn\u2019t an inch of us that was dry and our feet were swimming in our boots.\u00a0 The waterproof jackets and trousers that had been provided turned out to be the complete opposite of waterproof.\u00a0 But we felt like we\u2019d taken on the glacier and everything it had to offer, a sense of achievement combined with relief it was over.<\/p>\n

If you like our blogs, please remember why we\u2019re doing this crazy expedition.\u00a0 You can donate online at http:\/\/uk.virginmoneygiving.com\/FollowThatFireEngine\u00a0.\u00a0 100% of all money raised will make a vital contribution towards:
\n– helping people living with cancer
\n– helping injured fire fighters and other members of the fire community
\n– helping thousands of people affected by lung cancer every year
\n– striving to defeat lung cancer through ground\u2010breaking research<\/p>\n

Thanks<\/p>\n

Amy<\/p>\n

[flickr album=72157625517204185 num=30 size=Square]<\/p>\n

\"Make<\/a><\/p>\n

Read more blogs using”George’s World Blog Map”<\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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High point: the climb up Franz Josef Glacier Low point : soggy sandwiches Small world point : the friend of one of the guys in the Franz Josef Experience Centre was driving Martha, the ambulance the crew met on stage two in Mongolia Franz Josef is famous for its glacier which is 12km long, it […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,32],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4466","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-expedition-updates","category-stage-5-new-zealand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4466"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4470,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4466\/revisions\/4470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4466"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4466"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.followthatfireengine.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4466"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}