Franz Josef Glacier

It's hard to picture someone like me who never exercises would want to go climb a glacier. And climb we did.

But wait! First we had to walk to the bottom of the glacier - for 2.5kms! That was tough enough but we finally made it. Then, we were told we had to climb this hill beside the glacier in order to get to a part of the ice where we could start our climb - for 20 mins on very steep loose rocks and stones. By the time we reached up there, KS was ready to give up and just stay put there. A couple more minutes of rest and we were once again motivated to move on.

Clipping on our "claws", we took our first steps on the glacier on steps created by the guides followed by an extremely steep drop on the other side of 2 feet steps going down vertically. We hung on for dear life in these areas for a slip would have easily caused a bone to snap, especially your spine.

All the way up and we rested halfway up the glacier. At first we were adviced to go for a full day of climb complete with pickaxe but God was kind to us and gave us enough wisdom to select the half day route instead. Again, nice view but we were so exhausted we couldn't really concentrate on anything but catching our breath.

The worst part was, we had to go all the way back from where we came from. I mean, climbing up was hard enough but having to gingerly step on the loose rocks was really trying. THEN the 2.5km walk back.

My recently discovered muscles on my legs protested for 4 straight days with us hobbling and moaning every time we had to sit down or take a step up or down. This is something I would not really recommend to those who do not thrive on such exertive activity.