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Like a dirty big slush puppie
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Back in 1930 the glacier was about half way up the cliff
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The blue colour is from ground up mica that is suspended in the water
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Falling Rocks and Falling Ice
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Earlier signs indicate that nobody should be past this point without a guide. Despite this many people go and frolic at the "terminal" face and take photos of their kids standing under overhung ice
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In the 1980's the glacier had receeded a long way back up the valley, but has now come back down
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Interesting patterns
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more glacier
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Choppers apparently don't usually come this low, or fly in cloud so it was presumed to be on some sort of mountain rescue mission
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the glacier usually collects alot of rock and dust but the recent heavy rain had given it a nice clean for us
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yup, another shot of the glacier
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our guide richard from tasmania gives another worthy lesson about glaciers
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you can see the other day walkers snaking up through the cut in stairs
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another shot of our balding adventurer
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I really liked these patterns
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a bit of traffic congestion
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The clean glacier higher up shows the lovely blue colour the ice gets
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the stairs are constantly repaired and replaced. You can see two guides to the left cutting a new approach with axes and a chainsaw
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crampon time
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a truly awesome environment to spend time in. Makes you feel pretty powerless
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more interesting shapes and patterns
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the group in front of us receiving some sort of safety briefing
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crampons in action
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a view back down the valley
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I love the scalloping that you get from the melting process
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swiss squinting
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apparently this is a crevass that was packed with ice to make it possible to walk on. Not wide enough to slip through anyway