Diary 2003
Summit # 174. I was home alone so I sneaked
out at ten o'clock Friday evening, stole my wife brand new Lowa ski
mountaineering boots, (she has never worn them yet because she is very
pregnant), and took my skis to the car. I could drive up to an altitude of 910
meters on Sléttubjörg, and then I went up the east route to Hnappur, finding
the glacier in a wonderful condition after all the new snow that had fallen there
in July (even though it was very rainy on the lowland).
The snow was good until in 1700 meters, there it became very
deep and heavy, even at midnight. Many people think if they go in the night the
snow up there is always frozen and easy to walk on. That is only true if the
snow is old. The new snow stays deep at all times.
Hvannadalshnúkur itself is getting a little marginal. I
managed to climb up it with my skis, but only barely. I had to step over one
crevasse at the base of the steepest slope, and then there was a narrow bridge
over the crevasse at the top of the steep slope. I was on the top of
Hvannadalshnúkur at 2 in the morning of 19th of July. The climb took me 3 hours
20 minutes.
I skied down at the north side of Hvannadalshnúkur, but
there is one bridge there across big crevasse that I'm not sure if will last
much longer. When I came down to the car I was in a lot of pain, because
although the Lowa boots were excellent to ski in, they were one number too small
for me. But that should teach me; Thou Shall Not Steal!
Summit # 173. The 20th of June I climbed
alone (on my telemark skis) to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. I went up
Hnappaleið, and then up the north face route of Hvannadalshnúkur itself,
because I wanted to see how the crevasses are on that side of the peak. I expect
the south face of Hvannadalshnúkur will be difficult to climb later in the
summer due to crevasses, but the north face was quite O.K. But there has
been a lot of new snow now in June, and the crevasses are still easy to cross on
either face of Hvannadalshnúkur. The trip took me 5 hours 44 minutes from car
back to car. The week old snow covering the glacier was very heavy to ski down
in the late afternoon (I started the trip at 10:15 in the morning) because the
sun was very hot on the glacier. I was wearing shorts and t-shirt most of the
way, although the peak itself covered itself in clouds just as I was approaching
it and on the top I had to put on all my cloths.
Summit # 172. I took 8 Icelandic hikers to the top of
Hvannadalshnúkur on 15th of June. I could drive to the altitude of 800 meters,
and then we had 9.8 km to distance and 1319 meters of elevation to do. We had
the best weather of the year so far, more than half the way it was possible to
wear shorts and t-shirts. The hike took 10 hours and 45 minutes. The snow was
excellent,
and the crevasses from end of May had mostly disappeared due to lot of snowfall
in the bad weather the past two weeks. It looks like Hvannadalshnúkur will be
OK for at least few more weeks.
This picture is from a trip to Hvannadalshnúkur on 8th of
June 2003 (Hvítasunnuhelgin). The weather was very difficult this weekend, and
we turned back in 1800 meters after 4 hours walk without seeing any more than 20
meters. I had 8 people there behind me on the rope, but most of the time I could
only see 2 or 4 of them. We had about 2 hours of rain on the way up, and then in
the higher altitude we had snow and hail, and temperature below zero.
Summit # 171. 30th of May I went with Gísli
and 3 other Icelandic hikers to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. Due to bad weather forecast
for the afternoon we started very early. We met at 4 o'clock at Litla Hof
guesthouse, and then drove up to the altitude of 750 meters. We started the hike
at 5 o'clock and reached the top at 11:45 and the whole trip from the car to the
car took us 10 hours 40 minutes.
The weather was great until we came back down to the car.
Then the wind began to increase and the clouds came rolling in. Good timing.
I worry about the conditions on Hvannadalshnúkur now. The
lower part of the glacier up Hnappaleið was very good, but there are some very
bad crevasses forming in the slopes of Hvannadalshnúkur itself. Hopefully it
will be possible to cross them for few more weeks, but I've never seen them so
bad so early in the season...
Summit # 170. On the 5th of May I stood for
the 170th time of the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. With me I had 2 climbers from
the Philippines, Ian and Rico. I had planned to go Hnappaleið and the day
before I could drive up to 750 meters. But on the night before they came it
snowed a lot here in Öræfi and the road up the mountain was blocked. So we
started more close to sea level, and hiked up the beautiful Kotárjökulleið,
and then down Virkisjökulleið. The hike from the car to the car took us 17
hours. The weather was very beautiful, but it was quite cold for my Philippines
friends. But their sense of humor kept them warm as well as the very good
clothing they had.
There are terrible avalanches below the steep snow slope in
Virkisjökulleið. Also there is very little snow on that slope so it will be
hard to go this route in the summer.
Summit # 169. On 20th of April I climbed
Hvannadalshnúkur with Naomi from Japan, and 3 Italian friends of mine, Franco
Gionco, his son Massimo and their friend Germanio. We went up Hnappaleið, drove
up to 750 meters and had fine weather on the mountain. Great fun to telemark
down. Naomi is the first Japanese woman I've taken to the top, but I had taken
one Japanese man before, in April 1999.
Summit # 168. The 13th of April I went up
Hnappaleið for the first time this year. I could drive up to altitude of 600
meters but had to park the car due to snow in the road about 1 km from my 750 m
parking. The weather was beautiful but I had some trouble climbing the peak with
my skis because the new and wet snow got stuck under the skis, so I had some
5-10 kg of snow hanging under each ski when I walked. On the way back across the
crater this also happened even without the skins. Somehow the little bit wet
snow got frozen under the skis.
Summit # 167. Went up to Hvannadalshnúkur
with Gisli from Norway who was starting his "Europe's highest peaks
challenge". We went up and down Kotárjökulleið. The weather was dull, no
visibility on big parts of the climb, and the GPS was the only thing I saw on
the top. We could telemark down the broad slopes of Öræfajökull, me looking
into my GPS and Gisli looking at me, but apart from that everything was
completely white. When we came down Kotárjökull we had to put the skis on the
rucksacks and rope up for some time because we could not see anything in the
whiteout conditions, and there it is possible to ski off some drops. It was
terrible to carry the skis, because the snow was great for skiing. Luckily the
visibility got better for the lower part, we came down from the clouds and skied
the rest of the way down the glacier.
Summit # 166. On 6th of March 2003 I went up
Kotárjökulleið to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur in very good weather. This is
the first time I've gone up this route, and frankly I don't think anyone has
gone this route to Hvannadalshnúkur before. (Maybe some people has come down
this route by mistake when they been lost on the mountain...)
Kotárjökulleið lies just next to Sandfellsleið (the most
common route to Hvannadalshnúkur) and in 1800 meters these two routes meet and
the upper part is the same. You can drive up a road from a little sand mine
about 1 km east of the road that goes to Sandfell. (This is not Háalda
road, it is not allowed to drive from Háalda anymore because that road was
really destroying the moss field on the way to Slaga.
So, you can drive all the way to the small mountain Slaga,
and then you walk between Slaga and Sandfell up to Kotárjökull. In the spring
you can normally start to use the skis soon after you enter Kotárjökull
glacier. Then you walk up the glacier with the mountain Sandfell on your left,
all the way to 1200 meters altitude. There the mountain disappears into the
glacier, but you turn west and climb up a steep step to get the broad slope of
Öræfajökull above Sandfell. You might need to take off the skis for some 50
meters there to get up this step, but it is no problem to ski down this part.
Then you go straight north 300 meter and then 35° true for 2 km to reach
the edge of the crater of Öræfajökull.
The reason I go this route is that it is more fun and more
beautiful than Sandfellsleið, and this winter there was no snow in the lower
slopes of Sandfell. But if the snow reach all the way down to the main road in
Sandfell I would rather ski down that way. There are great slopes for skiing in the last
part of Sandfell, but it is very boring to walk down these same slopes...
