Ice Hiking in British Columbia 11

The Great Icefall of the Franklin

(Continuing the story of a hike into the British Columbian wilderness, almost 65 years ago…)

This photo was taken from a cliff several hundred feet above the glacier. The Franklin Glacier was almost a mile wide here. Those ice ridges and seracs in the foreground were perhaps 60 to 80 ft high.

It was growing dark when we reached the traditional climbers campsite on Icefall Point. While we set up our little basecamp in the heather and crawled into our tent, there were a few distant whumps, like the slamming of the substantial door of a luxury car. Being of city origin, my mind checked off "car door" and I paid no more attention.

It wasn't until the next morning that I suddenly froze, spoon in hand. Car door? The nearest car was 100 miles away. We were hearing the big seracs falling as the glacier moved inexorably downhill.

Next.