Treading carefully on Fox Glacier

On Thursday, March 8, I took a full-day trip to Fox Glacier. There were a dozen people in the group, led by an 18-year-old Brit called Sam. To reach the glacier, we had to walk through the rainforest and hop across streams. At first glance, the glacier didn’t look particularly impressive, but then I saw a group of tiny figures on it and realised its scale. When we reached the glacier, we attached crampons to our boots and collected a ski pole to help us walk. We spent four hours on the ice, and saw features including caves. The route that Sam took us was quite difficult in places, especially when going downhill. Sam used his pickaxe to create steps when necessary, but he couldn’t do that all the way. I lost my footing on one occasion. It was a hard and fairly painful landing. Sam said that thanks to the good conditions, we had got higher up the glacier than he’d ever been since starting work as a guide in September. I felt a sense of achievement when I looked back at the terrain we had negotiated. It was a very satisfying day.