At the top of the stairs, we put on our ice talonz -- they reminded me of them strap-on roller skates we used to have when we were kids. Except, of course, rather than wheels, they have little gripper teeth all around them for walking on the ice. I'm kinda pleased to put them on because (1) they have ties that go tightly around the boot, which is helping to tighten my too-big boots, and (2) I don't have to carry them anymore. There is also benefit (3) -- you can actually walk on the ice with these fuckers.
From here, it was much of that whole looking at my feet thing. We climbed over rocky surfaces, through crevasses, across the occasional ladder with a wooden plank over it, and generally along some mysterious path (known only to Kris) over the "rugged face" of the glacier. Along the way, I realized the very interesting fact that I am left-footed, in that every time we had to start on a climb or had a difficult step, I led with my left.
Near the top of our climb, we stopped on the edge of a crevasse. Kris was showing us something very important about the depth of the slush inside and how it would be a bad idea to fall into it ... and I lost my footing and fell. Not into it. In a direction aiming, oh, down the side of the glacier. I landed on my knee and couldn't stand up, because I got my ice talonz of one boot caught into the talonz of the other, so I totally needed some assistance to keep from sliding down the glacier. Kris was wholly clueless about this and went on with his lecture. I hollered something like, "A little help here?" and a nice family from Melbourne helped me detach myself and get to my feet again. Others in our group asked if I was okay. Kris did not.
(We should note, at this point, that I was WAY not the worst off member of our group. That honor goes to a young woman who, earlier on, stopped Kris and told him she "was sick." Kris basically encouraged her to go on, because her "only other choice is to sit here and wait for 30 minutes for us to come back down." She went on. I found out after the walk that her "sickness" was the form that is treated by Kaopectate and the poor thing actually soiled herself and continued the journey with her jacket wrapped around her waist.)
1 comment:
Kris sounds like a real jerk!!! i am so not impressed with his behavior, i don't care if he's been sick for days. tough. he's suppose to make this a wonderful experience for you. he is really p-ing me off!
btw, did i hear the sweet, demure NZ say the word "fucker"? OMG! in shock over here!
Sorry to laugh, but when you fell to your knee and the talonz were mingled, and no one noticed: i burst out with a laugh. I could just see that being ME. LOL!!!
boy am i enjoying this walk down memory lane. i'm learning a whole lot, cause i'll probably never get there. well, actually i would feel safe to say we could erase the word "probably". thanks for taking me along on your journey.
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