The Franz Josef glacier was fantastic and very scary at times especially when your as clumsy as I am !! We got special hiking boots that we attached spikes to so we didn't slip and our own ice picks. We were really lucky with the weather, it was the first day of sunshine for a long time (couldn't imagine doing it when it was raining, it would be absolutely freezing). Some of the cracks that we had to walk through were very small and some of the gaps we had to step accross were very steep and we had lots of steep steps to climb up and down. On the way back down the guides had to carve new steps as the ones we used to go up had melted so we could get down safely. The views were amazing and well worth going for, even if every muscle in my body ached. Still managed to find the energy to go to the pub when we got back...........