Ice climb a glacier

“I tied in, did a safety check, looked up at Marius, who was waiting at the top with a smile, and just went for it. Doing exactly what Tess said to do, I started ascending with surprising ease. 15 feet up in no time. Not too bad. Kick. Kick. One foot in. Kick. Kick. Other foot in. Flick. Fl–. ‘Sh****t!!!’, probably echoed across the valley, just as my left boot slipped off the wall along with a broken piece of ice. Although it caught me by surprised, I was still on the wall hanging by one crampon and both axes. I took a deep breath and continued. And up I went, right boot, left boot, right axe, left axe. Each set of four moves shifted me up the wall by about a foot each time. I was bit more apprehensive now and slower now, wondering with each step whether the crampon will hold until I can make my next move. Halfway up, I had to loosen my grip and relax my forearm as I started to get the pumped feeling when you overuse your forearm muscles.”

“Even though you are tied in and there is very little extra slack on the line, you still have that fear of slipping. And that’s a big part of the fun and what gives you the adrenaline rush. You can clearly see the rope in front of you, but below, it’s just the empty space separating you from the ground. In the moment, you sometimes question whether the anchor is secured or if a part of the ice wall could just break off. For me, that feeling was motivation to execute each move as carefully as possible and not rely on the top rope.”

“On a recent ice-climbing trek, I was in a group of seven women and two men, all first-timers on glacier ice. After a 15-minute hike onto the terminus, our guides ran us through an “ice climbing boot camp.” They chose a small, 15-foot sloping wall of ice and taught us how to use ice axes, balance on our crampons and climb using our legs. The guides worked with each person until everyone was confident.”