Franz Josef

I'm not even sure where to start other than, today was incredible. The thought of climbing on a glacier was an incredible thought in the first place but to actually do it and experience it was even better. I opted for the full day tour/hike which apparently is the only way to go. We started at about 8:30 this morning and started the trail walking through a lush rain forest. All of a sudden it opened up into a valley of rocks and in between the two mountains ahead of us was a glacier. A giant glacier. What seemed to be close turned out to be about 2.5 km away. The glacier is dwarfing when you finally get close to it.
We strapped on our crampons and headed up the ice. We spent about 5 hours on the ice, crawling through ice tunnels, climbing up steps carved into the ice, and squeezing ourselves through tiny crevasses. It was a bit of a surreal experience. Two other Americans were in my group and we kept saying to each other we felt like we were on a ride at disney land and no way could this be real. We ran out of water a refilled it with ice cold pools of delicious glacier water.
It is an experience I can never truly explain or ever forget. I climed a glacier! I still can't believe I did it, not because of the physical part of it but becasue I've only ever associated glaciers with Antartica or the titanic.
All in All, I can only say incredible. For now at least.