Diary 2004

    Summit #184. On 27th of September I went again up Hnappaleið and this time I found it in wonderful conditions. The ascent of Hvannadalshnúkur took me 3 hours 46 minutes, and the weather was great. I skied down the same way. The snow was horrible on the upper part, frozen balls of ice covering the surface, but the lower part of the ski route was perfect.

On the glacier moraine about 5 minutes walk from the car.	The glacier in 1200 meters is pretty crevassed after the summer, but it is easy to find good route through the labyrinth.	The view from Hnappur (1851m) over to Eystri Hnappur (1758m) with the Glacier lagoon (Jökulsárlón) below.	Hvannadalshnúkur seen from Hnappur, on the other side of the 4 km wide top crater of Öræfajökull.

    Summit #183. On 27th of August I went alone up Hnappaleið and down Sandfellsleið. Hnappaleið is in very bad conditions in the altitude between 1000 and 1300 meters. The unusually warm weather in August has been bad for the glacier, so cracks that are usually small enough to step over, are now transformed to giant crevasses. I managed to zikk-zakk on my skis through the area though, but was happy not to have a big group with me. The route is also 1 km longer than normally, almost 11 km, due to the zikk-zakking. The upper part of the route was fine, and so was Hvannadalshnúkur. The whole climb up to the top took me 4 hours and 15 minutes, and I could wear shorts on the top in excellent weather.
    Then I skied down Sandfellsleið, and found it in good conditions. But the weather suddenly changed and it was snowing all the way down. When I came down to the altitude of 1200 meters the snow changed to rain.

    Summit #182. After a long stop of going to Hvannadalshnúkur due to pneumonia in middle of June, and then very busy period doing the Coast Tour in July, I finally arrived there the day after my 36th birthday, at July 27th. With me I had my good friends Gísli Sigmarson, and Florian Piper. We went up the east version of Hnappaleið, against quite strong wind from the west (15m/sek), and it took us 4 1/2 hours to get to the top. Then it took us 2 1/2 hours to get back to the car, so the whole trip took a little over 7 hours. The conditions on Hvannadalshnúkur are unusually good for this time of year.

    Summit #181. I went with Palli from www.vatnajokull.com and 3 of his friends up to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. The weather forecast talked about rainy weather the next day so we started at midnight on 12th of June from the guesthouse in Litla Hof, and drove up to the start of the route Hnappaleið. The hike to the peak took us 5 hours and 25 minutes, and the whole trip up and down 9 hours and 25 minutes. We had excellent weather, but few minutes after I arrived at my house at noon, it started to rain cats and dogs. Great timing!

Crossing a crevasse field in the altitude 1400 meters on Hnappaleið.	Coming to the edge of the giant top crater on Öræfafjökull. The shadow of the mountain is on the clouds below.	Half way to Hvannadalshnúkur. The peak Hnappur (1851 m) behind.	Climbing Hvannadalshnúkur.	On the top of Iceland.

    Summit #180. 23rd of May me (Einar) and Bjarki went up to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur with 9 Icelandic people. The snow was very heavy in the lower part of the mountain, but good on the top crater in 1800 meters. Actually most of us walked without snow shoes on the way back across the 4 km wide plateau up there.
     The trip took us 11 1/2 hours, 7 hours up and about 4 hours down. The weather was fine. Some clouds on and off, but we had good views at the top.

Bjarki on the breakfast place in 1400 meters.	The group with the Atlantic ocean behind, altitude 1500 meters.	The same picture on the top as on the last trip, but in different weather.	On the way from the peak, Dyrhamar behind.	Looking back to Hvannadalhnúkur from the top crater. The big avalanche is just right of the middle of the peak.

    But on this trip I had for the first time for ten years avalanche danger on the route to Hvannadalshnúkur. (I've often known of avalanche danger on the route Virkisjökulleið, but never seen avalanche on the route Hnappaleið or the peak itself before). As we were hiking down from the top we heard a huge avalanche fall in the mist below us. When we came down to the base of the peak, where we had left our snowshoes, we realized that this giant avalanche had fallen just about 50 meters northeast of our hiking trail. Actually there were 2 avalanches that fell in the same moment, the bigger was about 60 meter wide, and the smaller, further northeast, was about 20 meter wide. The start of the avalanche was in quite steep (40-50°) slope, but what worries me is that it was too close to the slope where we walk up, (about 35-40° where it gets steepest). There were about 40-50 cm of new snow in the area. When the sun heated the snow in the afternoon, apparently it just got to heavy on the steep slope.

    Summit #179. Me and my friend Bjarki who is training to become an assistant guide on this trip, we took 8 people up to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur on Monday the 17th. of May. There was a lot of new snow so the snowshoes were great help. We actually walked down again on the snowshoes, because even going down was heavy in all this new snow. The hike took us 12 hours 11 minutes up and down Hnappaleið. The weather was great most of the way, although it was snowing on us for a while.

At 850 meters just after leaving the car. Ingólfshöfði behind at the coast. The time is 7:26 in the morning.	On the glacier in altitude about 1200 meters. Time 8:54.	On the top of Hvannadalshnúkur at 15:03. Bjarki the guide is in the front.	My neighbour Kolla with the peak behind.	Getting ready to head back home. The peak Hvannadalshnúkur behind.

    Summit #178. 2nd of May I took a 6 people group of strong Icelandic men to Hvannadalshnúkur. We went up the route Hnappaleið and the ascent took us 5 hours 11 minutes. Then we went down Virkisjökulleið route and actually it took us the same amount of time, so the whole trip took us 10 1/2 hours.

The group on the top crater of Öræfajökull, it is starting to clear up so we can faintly see the top of Hvannadalshnúkur behind.	On the slopes of Hvannadalshnúkur.	On the highest top of Iceland.	On the way down Virkisjökulleið, Dyrhamar behind.

     Summit #177. On the 28th of April I stood on the top of Hvannadalshnúkur for the 177th time. This was a great day, not a cloud to be found on the ski and Mt. Hekla looked like it was only a short hike away. (150 km direct line). I started from the car at 6:20 and it took me 2 hours 41 minutes to reach the top. (This is 42 minutes longer time than the world record from July 1999; 1 hour 59 minutes). Then I skied off the peak in super good conditions, and crossed the 4 km top crater again to ski down from Hnappur (1851m) to the car in 800 meters. The distance between Hnappur and the parking is 5 km and it took me 12 minutes to ski this part. The snow was like silk, the best conditions I've had this year.

     Summit #176. I went to Hvannadalshnúkur on April the 5th. This was the 176th time I climbed to the top of Iceland. I went up Hnappaleið, able to drive to altitude 750m, and then it took me 4 hours to climb to the top. I never took of the skis, and in the steepest part of Hvannadalshnúkur I had to put the ski crampons under the skis. I was alone at the top, in brilliant weather, sun, no wind temp about -5°C and then I skied down another way, Svínafellsjökulleið. That is a marvellous ski route with 4 parts (some quite long) of 35° steep slopes. I had very good time on the way down, but at the very end, before I came down to the glacier Svínafellsjökull, I had trouble. There is very little snow in the last mountain, so I would not recommend this route this year. Takes some scrambling to get off the mountain and onto the glacier. This winter has been very mild, and there is much less snow in the mountains now than usual. The conditions are more like June than April.

         Summit #175. The first trip of 2004 to Hvannadalshnúkur was in the good company of Susan from UK on January 25th. We hiked up Kotárjökulleið, and walked most of the way with snowshoes. The snow was quite deep, and the temperature went down to -18°C. Mostly the weather was excellent but for awhile the wind increased and we had spindrift against us. But we made it to the top in beautiful conditions, and the northern lights escorted us on the way down.

ÖRÆFAFERÐIR ehf    Kt.521203-3310
Phone: +354 8940894    Email: info@hofsnes.com    Mail: Hofsnes, 785 Oraefi, Iceland

 Last edited 04.11.2008