What is a glacier? Glacier is simply the remaining winter snow that the summer melt has been unable to remove from the cooler heights. Each year another layer of surplus snow is added to the glacier. Time and its own weight soon transforms the residual snow into glacial ice, which then oozes its way down valley to melt away in the warmer temperatures of lower altitudes. The glacier finally terminates where the rate of melt equals the rate of flow.

Why is this glacier named after the Habsburk monarch? This glacier was discovered by an Austrian explorer Julius von Haast in 1863. He named it after the Emperor of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, because the shape of the glacial face reminded him of Franz Josef's beard.

 

What is so unique about this glacier? The Franz Josef glacier reaches the rainforest area. It melts in the altitude of 240 meters above sea level. There are only two more glaciers in the world with these features. The second one is in New Zealand and its called Fox glacier. The third one is in Argentina. Another special feature of this glacier is that it is the world's steepest and fastest flowing commercially guided glacier.

 

When I did this guided tour we could not climb up to the very top for security reasons. But I wish we could. The ice and snow up there would be more white and more blue. Anyway, I spent 6 hours walking on a mass of ice with special equipment and it was something quite special for me.