Glacier! Dead Ahead!
July 14th, 2016
Today we had another adventure in Norway! We went to Jostedalsbreen, which is the largest glacier in Europe. The glacier has over 50 branches and we headed to Nigardsbreen, just one of those branches. Right when we turned the corner into the parking lot, we were in awe of the massive glacier that sat ahead of us. What we didn’t realize is just how huge it is in person. The entire tour we would become more and more stunned as we went on.
The Jostedalsbreen glacier welcomed us spectacularly.
We found our guides and as soon as we got our crampons and ice axe, we knew it would be a fun day! Another older man in the group said he had done this before and that it was really easy and just a walk, so we felt pretty safe (he clearly lied). We took a boat across the glacier lake and then hiked for about 20 minutes over rocks that were formed from the glacier we were about to climb. During the hike we could spot tiny spots on the glacier and realized they were other hikers and it put the size of it. When we finally made it to the base of the glacier and were ready to strap on our crampons and start hiking! The guide starting giving directions, but all we heard was “Be careful not to…last year two people died doing that.” Umm…what did he say? Apparently the message was don’t try to look too far into the crevices or you could die. Great.
If you see a dot on the glacier, that would be a person.
Next, they hooked our whole group up with a rope, so that if one person fell, the others would either stop the fall or all die together. Then, off we went, with Anna terrified and Chuck snapping away on his camera. We made our way up and hiking a glacier is essentially climbing a mountain made of ice with spikes on your feet.
Somehow we're going up that!
We learned that the ice is blue because of the reflections from the sun and that the further into the ice, the more blue it is. It is also the strongest parts. The parts where there is black, is pollution, dust and dirt. Those parts are also the parts that will melt first because they absorb more heat from the sun.
Now that would be a crevice.
The glacier is also always moving, which was scary to hear as you walked up it. But, we kept coming to parts where the guide would explain that it had completely changed from a couple days before. He pointed out a section that had broken off the glacier just the day before. There was also a crevice that we could see through the other side of that was closed off two days before. We were told that this glacier is currently in it’s retracting phase and is melting off about 30 meters every year!
Turn in any direction to be in awe.
We kept hiking further and further up on the ice, and got to look down into the crevices being made. We could even hear the creaking of the ice in the distance. We even got to stop at one point to drink some of the glacier water that was melting down! At one point we had to cross a crevice and it was terrifying. Also, back to the man who said it was just like walking, it was not at all. It was slightly terrifying the entire time, but also so much fun.
Definitely felt like we were in the glacier at some points, not on it.
We finally made it to the top and got to have lunch and a break before heading back down. The downward trip was even more scary then going up, and included a lot more crevices and opportunities to slip. However, it was so much fun and unlike anything we’ve ever done before! It was a great day, and now we are sore and realizing how out of shape we are.
