Journal 2006

       Summit # 213 Its been a while since I wrote something in this journal. The last couple of months I've been very busy doing the trip to Ingólfshöfði, it is getting more and more popular every year.
    6th of Septemer I went to Hvannadalshnúkur, just me and my dog. Now the winter season is starting so I had to check out conditions on the mountain. I'm alone home now with my 3 and 4 year old boys (my wife Matta went to Florida for couple of weeks and our oldest son is away in school) so I could not leave my house until 9:30 when I had taken them to kindergarden. I took my siberian husky with me, and the two of us started from the car at 10:30 on Hnappaleið. The glacier up to Hnappur was in unusually good conditions compared to the last few years, but the east face of Hvannadalshnúkur was quite steep now. I could still stay on my skis all the way to the top, but I was happy not to have a group with me this time. It took me 2 hours 15 minutes to get to Hnappur, and 3 hours 45 minutes all the way from the car to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. The weather was great.
    I was happy to see from the top that the north face route of Hvannadalshnúkur was in good shape, so I skied down on that side, and I was back at the car at 16:00 after 5 1/2 hours trip.

    On the 22nd of June I saw several minky whales from Votaberg at Ingólfshöfði. This is the first time I see the whales since beginning of May. (I saw lot of minky whales in March, April and until beginning of May).

    On 21st of June we started to see lot of puffins bringing fish home from the sea. This means their chicks have come out from the eggs. I saw one puffin bring fish at the 12th of June.

    On the 18th of June I did trips to Ingólfshöfði at 11 o'clock with 29 induviduals and at 15:00 with a 10 people group from ASI in Austria with the guide Goggi. We had exellent weather, I was wearing shorts the whole day, and there were plenty of puffins. Finally I have a real camera to make pictures, I've been using Canon Ixus the last few years but last Friday I got Canon EOS 350D with 18-55 and 55-200 lenses. So I hope there will be more professional photographs here on the web site in the future (although the 2.1 million and then 4 million pixel Canon Ixus cameras have served me well so far).

    Summit # 212 On the 13th of June I finished my mountain guide season (starting in September) this summer. The last trip this spring was of course the highest peak of Iceland, and with me I had Alex and Sam from U.K. my dog Rökkvi, and for the first time, my son Aron. Aron is 15 year old.
    Here is a link to photos from the trip, thank to Alex Sands... http://www.sands-online.co.uk/Hvannadalshnukur.htm

    I did an Ice tour on 11th of June with 6 people from Finland. They were in a hurry so we did only the hiking version, without ice climbing. But it was a nice trip, it was raining just before we started, but stayed dry while we did the walk.

    Summit # 211 On the Saturday 10th of June I went with a group of 7 people, including my friend Gísli from Vopnafjörður and Stefán, Harpa, Bárður, Guðmundur, Einar Björn og Ólafur Kristinn all from Vopnafjörður area and of course my dog Rökkvi. We had no visibility most of the way but we made it to the top and had very good time. I must say that these guys were amazing. I don't think I've ever done a white out day like this having such good time. There was never any question of finishing the peak, and everyone stayed strong and happy the whole time. We started from the car at 7:00 and were on the top of Hvannadalhsnúkur at 12:45 and back down at the car in 16:30 so the hike took us just 9 1/2 hour wich is unbelieveble fast in this kind of conditions. (On the other hand, we had nothing to look at in the whiteout so we could as well just strolled forward all the time :-)

    On the Friday 9th of April I did an Snow Tour on Vatnajökull with Kathryn Angell and her familie. We didn't have much view but we had exellent snow and exellent time. Keli from Glacier Jeeps took us 9 km into Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glacier, and we cross country skied back to Jöklasel hut/restaurant. My dog Rökkvi had good time, even though the snow was very deep for him.

    Summit # 210 On Thursday 8th of June I took a 7 people group to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. (In process, more later...)

    The 6th of June I took a group of Brithish people rock climbing and hiking in Hnappavallahamarar and Salthöfði Nature Reserve. Windy but nice.

    Monday the 5th of June. It was raining like the weather forecast said, but I did an trip to Ingólfshöfði at 9:00 with an Explore group and the guide Bergsteinn. I have never seen so many puffins this spring. It looks like my father is right, when he says that the teenagers puffins arrive on the 5th of June. We could have counted tens of thousund puffins I think. I saw an new egg in the nest from Bangsi and Birna west of the light house. The fox stole their first set of eggs I think. I saw the track from the fox the same day as their eggs dissapeared.

    Summit # 209. I went again at 23:00 on the Saturday night. I had a group of 5 girls, Sóla, Hildur, Inga, Guðlaug and Ósk, plus Rósa and Ólafur from Heimskauta ræktun (Siberian Husky breeders), and 3 Siberian Husky dogs, my dog Heimskauta Nætur Rökkvi, his sister Heimskauta Nætur Jörð, and his aunt, Heimskauta ? Sól. We had planned to do the climb on the Monday, but the weather forecast was bad then, so we decided to try on the Sunday morning. It was good that we started this early because the weather changed just about when we came to the peak. But up to the peak we had great day, and we could still see quite a lot from the peak.
    Like on the previous morning we never saw any other climbers this day. (In process, more later...)

    Summit # 208. This weekend is a 3 day weekend (the Monday is a bank holiday) so there are lot of people climbing Hvannadalshnúkur today. I know of about 250 people planning to climb it, only about 80 of them with proffessional mountain guides. So, to avoid the crowds I met my 11 clients at 10:30 at the main road below Hnappaleið, and at 11:45 after driving up the the parking in 800 meters, we started the hike. We had the second most beautiful day of all my summer trips since the first time I stood on the top on the Thursday  3rd of August 1989, but then I had the very best views of all times.
    I think this group must have set an speed record for this large group. We started to walk at 11:45 and we stood on the top of Hvannadalshnúkur at 05:25 or 6 hours and 5 minutes, and we were back at the car at 9:45 or 10 hours after we left. See slide show on MSN.

    2nd of June I took Euan and Stuart on an Ice Tour and then did a trip to Ingólfshöfði.

    On 1st of June I took the 23 10th graders from the school from Kjalarnes rock climing in Salthöfði at Hnappavallahamrar. It was still raining in the morning but as soon as we walked from the bus the sun came out and the weather became better. But we had also increasingly strong wind, but could finish the climb before it became to bad (the wind was starting to blow the sand into our eyes. But because we had quite late start we had to skip the absailing part of the program. Meanwhile my wife did an trip to Ingólfshöfði, and there it became an total sandstorm. Also the puffins cleared out to the sea, so there were very few puffins to see.

    I had planned to take Heiðarskóli at 14:00. There were 44 kids in this 10th grade. Since the wind was so strong we decided to wait until 16:00. But the wind stayed quite strong so I took them to an different place than the other school. We had an sheltered place in Hnappavallahamrar climbing an route called Góð Byrjun (5.5), and almost everyone of the kids tried. But on the other place I had planned to have 2 routes going, but at Góð Byrjun every one had to climb the same route, so this took a lot of time. I had two assistants from UK, Stuart and Euan, so things went as quick as possible, but at 18:30 we just finished the climbing part, so we had to skip the absailing part again due to the change of site. But on the whole everyone were happy, and it was great that we could do a nice program even though the weather was hard these 2 days.

    I took couple of groups of 10th graders to Ingólfshöfði on the 31st of May. First Heiðarskóli from Keflavík and in the afternoon my father took an school from Kjalarnes. The weather was quite wet and bad, but the kids were amazingly happy about the trip. We had plenty of puffins and the great skuas attached the kids a little bit, helping me to keep them in the group.

    Avalanche day. On the morning of 30th of May I took 37 5th graders from Höfn along with several teacher and parents to Ingólfshöfði. We had fine weather and the kids enjoyed themselfs a lot.
    When I came back from this trip I had to rush up to Öræfajökull because 112 (like 911) had called out the rescue teams. A 5 people group had an avalanche on the highest peak of Iceland, Hvannadalshnúkur, and 3 of them were injured, one with a broken ancle. The helicopter was called out, and also the rescue team in Höfn, going with skidoos from Skálafellsjökull, but just in case that neither of these vehicles would make it to Hvannadalshnúkur I went on my skis up Hnappaleið dragging my pulka (sledge) carrying sleeping bag, warm down jackets, hot drink, a fuel stove plus basic first aid kit. I was in Ingólfshöfði when the SMS came to me about the accident, so I was not at my house until 14:10. At 15:15 I left my Land Rover in 800 meters on Hnappaleið and at 17:05 I was coming up to 1700 meters just below Hnappur, when I got turned back since the helicopter had been able to rescue the wounded. I skied down back to the car in less than 15 minutes and I was at my house at 18:20.
    I made and avalanche test in 1420 meters on the way up. It was very bad, the 50 cm new snow from the previous Thursday had become heavy in the warmer days, after Sunday, but the old snow below was still very hard frozen. The TV size pack of snow I dug out with my spade was sliding like Alberto Tomba on the older layer. No wonder these guys had an avalanche when they went up the 35° steep slope on the south side of Hvannadalshnúkur. I hate to say it, but the last few years I've been waiting for something like this to happen with more and more amateur groups going to Hvannadalshnúkur without proffessional mountain guides. They were really lucky that the helicopter could operate (and was operatable), but I think the rescue team in Höfn were the heros of the day. They were up there in no time, and it makes me feel good to know that they are this fast. An minor accident like an broken ancle can turn very serious on a cold day on Hvannadalhnúkur if the people have to wait long time for help. This Tuesday was the warmest day up there for the whole spring so hyperthermia was not a threat this time.

    On the 29th of May I took the first Explore group from GJ Travel this summer to Ingólfshöfði and the guide was Guðný Stefanía. These British groups have been going with us for years and are always very nice clients. We had sunny and nice weather.

    Summit # 207. I took a 5 people group to Hvannadalshnúkur on the Sunday 28th. We had cold weather up to 1400 meters but the weather on top of Öræfajökull was the warmest I had this year. There was a 50 cm layer of new snow covering the glacier and I was a little bit worried about avalanche danger, but this new snow (mostly falling on last Thursday) had not formed a concrete mass yet. It had stayed cold since Thursday. Where I checked it, at the base of the north face of Hvannadalshnúkur, the new soft snow was not slippery on the hard old snow below. We went up Hvannadalshnúkur north face, and I was happy to find that in the steep part of the route the new snow had not stayed, so we had no avalanche danger at all.
    This was the first time that a Siberian Husky dog climbs Hvannadalshnúkur. My dog Rökkvi had good time, and I was really happy to have it on the way back across the 4 1/2 km wide plateau since the dog pulled me mostly on my skis. The snow was quite soft so I pushed with my ski poles also, but the dog helped a lot.
    The weather was rather cold to begin with and the 50 cm of new snow made walking hard, even on snow shoes, so luckily the 5 people, Margrét og Ólafur from Selfoss and Sigurgeir, Jóna Lísa og Finnur from Skaftártunga were really strong hikers. We started from the car at Hnappaleið at 5:00 and we were on the top at 13:10. We came back to the car at 18:30. See slide show on MSN.

    I took Villi from Askja Reisen with a small group to Ingólfshöfði in bad weather on the Saturday 27th May but at least we had plenty of birds. I was supposed to climb Hvannadalshnúkur this day, but we cancelled it until on the Sunday.

    On the 26th of May the weather was beautiful again, but my group had gone back to Reykjavík so they missed the opportunitie to climb Hvannadalshnúkur this time. But I went to Ingólfshöfði instead with the guide Sóla and her French group.

    I was supposed to climb Hvannadalshnúkur on the 25th of May, but the weather was terrible, it snowed a lot all the way down to 400 meters, and instead we went to Ingólfshöfði. I was happy to see that my friend Nora and Norðri, a Great Skua couple that have been nesting just north of the rescue hut, had their first egg this year. Last year they had to make 2 eggs 3 times, because an Arctic Fox took their eggs the first two times. They managed to bring up one chick, and I witnessed his first flight in beginning of September (a month later than normal due to their fox problem).

    On the 24th of May I took three ladys from Switzerland to Ingólfshöfði, and we had again plenty of puffins. It was a little bit windy from the east, and the puffins were flying a lot.
    In the afternoon I took a German couple, Kim and Philip, on the Ice Tour. Rökkvi, my Siberian Husky dog went hiking on the glacier for the first time too. The glacier is getting a lot more dirty now, and is melding fast. But always a beautiful place to be.

    22nd of May I took 26 school kids from Myllubakkaskóli in Keflavík absailing and rock climbing in Hnappavallahamrar. We had the best weather in weeks so it was a very nice day. The following morning on the 23rd, I took them to Ingólfshöfði, and we had plenty of puffins, and many of the great skua have eggs now, so they were quite agressive (very good to keep a large group of 10th graders in the group :-)

    Summit # 206. I climbed Hvannadalshnúkur on Saturday 20th of May, with Hulda, Árni, Benedikt, Halldóra, Ingimundur, Arnbjörg, Dagný, Milla and Helgi from Reykjavík. We had a great day, cold, but very good snow conditions, and visibility almost all the way, I just had to turn on the GPS for couple of km on the top crater, but then it cleared again. We left the cars at 4:45 and had breakfast stop in 1420 two hours later. We were at Hnappur at 1820 meters at 8:30 and at the base of Hvannadalshnúkur at 9:45. We went up the north side of Hvannadalshnúkur and stood on the top at 11:10 so it took us 6 hours and 25 minutes to get to the top wich is a record for me with this large group. We were back at the cars at 15:00.

    Me and my wife Matta went to Reykjavík on Thursday the 18th of May to pick up a car for Matta, but as we were driving toward Reykjavík we got a phonecall from some people in Mosfellsbær asking if we wanted to buy their Siberian Husky dog with a dog sled and all. It has been a dream of both me and my wife for many years to get this kind of dog so we got very excited. So it turned out that both my wife and me got a new ride this day. She drove home in her new Daihatsu Cuore with our little boys, while I drove home in the Land Rover with a new dog and a new dog sled. Heimskauta Nætur Rökkvi (Arctic Night Dusk) will be my assistant in the company in the future, and of course he is now a member of the family too (From Coast To Mountains is a family business).

    I did a trip to Ingólfshöfði on the 17ht of May. Again there were few puffins outside, but we saw plenty of them coming out from the holes while we walked around. I think the puffins have eggs around 10th of May, and that figures, we had lot more puffins outside of their holes where they nest, between 24th of April and 10th of May. But it has also been quite cold days, and the temperature close to zero in the night lately, so I think the puffins don't like sitting outside in the cold wind. They either stay down on the warmer sea, or are inside of the puffins holes in the ground. They nest in these holes, most often they dig about 1 1/2 - 2 meter tunnel into the ground before making the nest. In some cases it takes the young male puffin 3 years to prepare a nest like this, before he can get married. Lucily he only needs to do this once in the lifetime, since the puffins mate for life, and they return back to the same nest every spring.
    Now at this time of the year we only have the adult married puffins in Iceland. The teenagers that are between 3 and 8 year old, and not mating yet, don't come until in June. They are the puffins that most people see in the summer, flying round and round close to their parents nest, while the adult puffins are more busy either laying on the egg (one grayish or white egg the size of a chicken egg) wich they have to do for 40 days before the chick comes out, or going out to the sea, fishing, and of course when the chick gets bigger they need to fish a lot so we only see them briskly in July, coming in with the sand eal in the beak, going straight into the hole where the chick waits for his lunch.

    Summit # 205. On the 16th of May I stood on the top of Hvannadalshnúkur, Iceland's highest peak for the 205th time. With me I had Jeff and Cliff from the Nato Base in Keflavík. We had brilliant weather, quite cold but very beautiful day. We started at 7 o'clock from the car at Sléttubjörg, and like on Sunday I could drive up to the altitude of 800 meters. It was not much visibility the first few minutes, but soon we walked up from the clouds and in the altitude of 1000 meters and above we had great weather.
    At 1020 meters we entered the glacier and put a rope between us, at 7:30. Jeff and Cliff had snowboards so they pulled them behind them and walked on snow shoes, but I was using ski mountaineering equipment so I walked on the skis, with skins underneath. At 8:45 we had a breakfast stop in the altitude of 1420 meters, and after an unusually long stop we continued at 9:15 and walked non stop for almost 2 km up the the edge of the crater of Öræfajökull, about 100 meters west of the peak Hnappur (1851m). We were there at 10:30. Then we crossed the top crater of the volcano Öræfajökull, a 4 km wide caldera. This time we walked 4 and a 1/2 km across because I decided to climb Hvannadalshnúkur on the north side. But even though we had 500 meters longer route over the plateau we had shorter and much easier way up the last peak, so in fact we could save energy. We started from Hnappur at 10:40 and came to the base of Hvannadalshnúkur at 12:10. Then, after putting on crampons and eating lunch we climbed the top in a rope, with ice axe in hand, and we carried the snowboards and skis on our packs. We started at 12:40 and we stood of the top of Iceland at 13:25 so even that one member of the group was in quite bad form we did the whole climb from the car to the top in just 6 hours and 25 minutes. Last Sunday I took a 8 people group that actually did not look half as strong as these two guys, and it took us then less than 6 hours. I have to say, it is hard for me to judge people by the look for the trip to Hvannadalhnúkur. Proper training before the trip can make a whole world of difference. But I should mention that the two snow boarders made the mistake of carrying the ski boots in the sack while hiking to the top. So their rucksack was a lot heavier than needed. In fact it is not so bad walking up in snowboarding boots, especially if we use snow shoes.
    At 14:10 we started the descent of Hvannadalshnúkur, and we could ski all the way from the top down to the car. Of course the snow boarders had to get off the boards and walk about 3 1/2 km across the plateau. They could slide, with a little help by the ski poles, about 1 km to start with. So at 16:00 we started the ski descent from Hnappur in 1820 meters and at 16:35 we were at the car. So the whole trip took us 9 hours 35 minutes. See photos from this trip on http://spaces.msn.com/oraefaferdir/photos/

    On the 15th of May I did a Coast Tour to Ingólfshöfði. This time there were plenty of puffins around. The weather was quite warm compared to the days before.

    I took James and Sarah on a mountaineering trip, the Svinafell's Circle, on the 12th of May. We left my car at the parking of Virkisjökull at 8:30 and we came down to the swimming pool in Svínafell (which was still closed I'm afraid) at 16:30. We had a little stop at the top of Virkisjökull where we put up a top rope and practiced ice climbing in a steep ice wall. In may parts of this route I have the clients on a short rope, but in few places I go ahead and put in anchors and belay the clients while they climb up.
    We had snow in the steepest part of the route, just before reaching the summit of Svínafell (917m). So we had quite interesting day, and James and Sarah who had not done mountain routes like this before had good time beeing introduced to mountaineering, walking on crampons on a glacier the first 2 km, practicing ice climbing on a top rope, scrambeling up some steep rock steps, climing steep snow slopes, and finally walking on a high ridge on the top of Svínafell, with great views on both sides.

    On 11th of May my wife, Matta did the 11 o'clock to Ingólfshöfði, and then I took a 20 people group from Norway at 15:00. We saw only few puffins this time, but we had an interesting trip anyway, the people was interested in the history and there were many things to see.

    I was supposed to do a trip to Hrútsfjallstindar on Monday the 8th of May, but just the day before I found out that the clients had gone with the other company, www.mountainguide.is on Saturday. So I had a day off, almost. I did the trip to Ingólfshöfði this morning, in quite strong wind (12m/sek) and a little sandstorm. There were not many puffins at home, but we could still see some hundreds of them if we wanted to count. I saw a large group of Gannets (Súla, Fou de Bassan, Bass stöpel) diving into the sea next to Ingólfshöfði, and while we were watching them hunt, a minky whale came up to breath, about 200 metes away from us. I found one nest with one egg in it from the Great Blackbacked Gull (Svartbakur, Goeland Marin, Mantel Möwe) and this time I saw several Razor Bills. (Álka, Petite Penguin, Tord Alk). 

    Summit # 203. On Saturday 6th of May I climbed Hvannadalshnúkur with a 8 people group of people working at Keldur. This is the third year in a row the Keldur group tries to climb Hvannadalshnúkur with me. In June 2004 we started up Virkisjökulleið, but when we came to the altitude of 1500 meters the winds got very strong, and visibility very poor so we turned back. Actually we went down a different route, over the Hvannadalshryggur ridge and down into Hvannadalur, and then over Svínafell mountain. 10th of May 2005 me and another mountain guide Jökull Bergmann, took this group up Sandfellsleið, but the weather got very bad again, and even though we struggled all the way to to base of Hvannadalshnúkur we had to turn back, this time because of avalanche danger, see http://www.hofsnes.com/journal2005.htm (only in Icelandic I'm afraid but the photos speak all languages). But now we made it all the way to the top. The top was very crowded this time, I think there were about 6-8 groups there at the same time, some with about 20 people.
    4 people used snow shoes and 4 people + me used cross country skis with climbing skins. I have to say that I was wishing on the way that all the people would have had snow shoes, because we had some icy conditions in about 1500 meters on the glacier and the skis were not working as well as the snow shoes. Some people also had problems with blisters in the ski boots, a problem I almost never have with the snow shoes.
    See http://spaces.msn.com/oraefaferdir/photos/ for Photo Albums...Here is also a slide show made by Hallgrímur Arnarson from this trip! and here are simply the photos if you have problem with the show... http://www.hallgrimur.net/cpg143/thumbnails.php?album=4
    Here is also photos from a friend of mine taking another group up via Sandfellsleið. His name is Sissi, and he made some photos of me on the top. Of course there are lot of other photos from his trip there too, if you are interested to see how it was to go Sandfellsleið the same day. see here and here!

    I took 11 people to Ingólfshöfði in terrible weather on Thursday 4th of May and then I took 6 people on the Ice tour in the afternoon in fine weather. We had plenty of puffins in Ingólfshöfði and plenty of ice in Svínafellsjökull.

    On 1st of May I did and Ice tour with 6 people from Poland. The weather was fine and it was a good group.

    Summit # 202. On 29th of April, just 39 hours after I stood on the top of Iceland for the 201st time, I was standing there again, but this time in much better weather. I had with me 4 strong Icelandic men, Hafsteinn and his son Atli, and 2 joung men, Vilberg and Arnar.
    We were ment to leave on the Saturday morning, but the weather forecast was not very promising, it was supposed to get very cloudy and rainy at noon. So we decided to leave at midnight. At 00:10 we started from the car on the route Hnappaleið, at my parking in 700 meters. Myself, Hafsteinn and Atli were on cross country skis with skins, and high heals under the boots, but Vilberg and Arnar were using snowshoes. I did bring headlights for everyone, but I never needed to use mine, since it did not get that dark, even in the middle of the night. Of course it was good to have some light if we needed to find something in the rucksack, but for walking it was not needed.
    The glacier became quite icy in the altitude of 1600 meters, so we who had the skis had to carry them on the rucksack and put on crampons. The snow shoes worked well though since they have spikes underneath, so Vilberg and Arnar had much easier time than us on the last part up to Hnappur. On the way back we all carried the skis and snow shoes down from Hnappur, and walked on crampons down to 1400 meters.
    We had great weather on the trip, a little windy in the start, but it improved, and the views from the top were excellent, especially over to Kverkfjöll and Snæfell. I was very happy that we did a night trip. When I was going to sleep at noon at my house it started to rain cats and dogs.

At the parking in Sléttubjörg in 700 meters ten minutes after midnight.	At the breakfast place in 1400 meters at 02:20 in the morning. It was quite cold stop there so we did not stop very long.	Hafsteinn and Atli preparing the skis before the 4 km wide plateau on the top of Öræfajökull. The time is 03:50. Hnappur (1851m) behind. While we were removing the skins from the skis, Vilberg and Arnar started to cross on the snow shoes, and that few minutes lead was enough for them to win the race across the plateau.	On the top of Hvannadalshnúkur at 06:00 in the morning. View to the peak Kirkjan (or Tindaborg), and Hrútsfjallstindar, north west of Hvannadalshnúkur. The temperature was -6°C.	On the way down from Hvannadalshnúkur.	A nice place to start a Saturday.
I usually take the people off the rope when we are still in the last slope down from Hvannadalshnúkur. There have never been crevasses there yet. And I don't use the rope when we cross the crater.	Atli coming to Hnappur again. We on the cross country skis managed to beat the snow shoing team on the way back across the plateau, but only by few minutes.	Hnappur (1851m) seen through the new and sharp Uvex snow boarding googles of Atli.	And Hvannadalshnúkur on the other side of the top crater, 4 km away.	In 1400 meters we walked into the clouds and for awhile I had to walk by GPS. This is at 09:10 in the morning.	In 1200 meters we walked down from the clouds again, and at 10:10, exactly 10 hours after we left the car, I came to the 700 meter parking again.

    Summit # 201. On the 27th of April at 3 in the afternoon I almost crawled to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur in whitout conditions, using the GPS to find the very top, and in windgust that knocked us off our feet several times. With me I had very strong German brothers, Lutz and Jörg Winterfeldt. We started from the car in the altitude of 600 meters at 7 o'clock in the morning on the route Hnappaleið. At the beginning we had just perfect weather with just perfect weather forecast. But after the first 2 km the weather changed and the wind increased a lot. I called for new weather forecast but it was still very good, so we decided to continue. The windgust went up to 25-30 meters per second, and the whole day there was a lot of spindrift. The wind was against us also coming from the west and northwest, so crossing the 4 km over the crater on the top of Öræfajökull was quite a struggle. But we made it and we had a little shelter from the wind at the base of Hvannadalshnúkur. When we did the last part up to the top the clouds rolled in so we saw nothing, and navigating in this whiteout conditions was hard. But we were happy to see the clouds roll away just when we were ready to walk down, so I did not need the GPS on the way down. The walk to the top took us 8 hours and 4 hours to get back.

In the perfect weather at the start of the trip. My 750 meter high parking is behind the guys, but we started in 600 meters, 1/2 hour further down the road due to new snow on the road.	There we are in spindrift in 1500 meters.	In 1700 meters close to Hnappur (1851m).	On the top of Hvannadalshnúkur.	On the way back across the 4 km wide plateau. Hvannadalshnúkur behind. We had easier time going back since the wind was pushing us.

    26th of April I did my first Coast Tour this year. We started to do daily trips at 11:00 on the 24/4 and my wife Matta had already done some trips in April but this was the first time I go myself. I was very happy to see lots of puffins out there, as well as seeing fulmars, great skuas, several kind of seagulls, and of course guillemots and razorbills, and one gannet. The picture here at the right was taken with a small Canon Ixus camera showing some of the puffins, and the highest mountain of Iceland, Öræfajökull, behind.

    23-25th of April. Adam Holzknecht, an Italian mountain guide hired me to help him with a group of 12 ski mountaineering clients for 3 days. I met them in Sólheimahjáleiga guesthouse in south Iceland (at the base of Mýrdalsjökull) at 8 o'clock on Sunday morning the 23rd April. The weather was quite boring, windy and rainy. We went sightseeing to Dyrhólaey and Vík and Sólheimajökull and to the waterfall Skógarfoss and the folk museum at Skógar. No skiing this day.
    On Monday we went to Tindfjöll and did a ski tour from the cars in 500 meters, up to the 1050 meter high Stóra Bláfell close to the huts in Tindfjöll. So we made it over 1000 meters this day. But the weather was still quite bad in the higher mountains so we did not go to the top of Tindfjallajökull. On the Monday afternoon we drove east to Öræfi and the group stayed in the guesthouse Litla Hof.
    On the Tuesday morning we planned to do Hvannadalshnúkur, but we found that not all the clients were able to do this big trip. So we went to Vatnajökull instead and did a easy ski route up Skálafellsjökull, some 5 km route up to 1128 meter high Miðfellsegg. We had great weather.
    The next day I was busy doing other things but the Italian group. The strongest members of the group made it to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur, while some of the slower people did easier things. Some of them went to Ingólfshöfði with me actually.

At the first hut in Tindfjöll. Stóra Bláfell is the mountain in the background.	At Jökulsárlón on the Tuesday, on the way over to Vatnajökull.	Coming to the top of Miðfellsegg with Skálafellsjökull behind.	Starting to ski back on the ridge Miðfells-egg. Egg means ridge in Icelandic. Another meaning of egg is egg (like from the birds) and an edge (like razors edge).	Skiing down from Miðfellsegg. Plenty of new snow.	Still skiing, the hut/restaurant Jöklasel is behind. This restaurant is the highest in Iceland, altitude over 800 meters. We could continue on our skis almost to the tip of Skálafellsjökull in the altitude of 450 meters, where we had to leave the cars due to new snow on the road.

    I was supposed to climb Hvannadalshnúkur on the 22nd of April, but the group cancelled so I had time to take two French people on the Ice Tour. The day was very beautiful, would have been perfect on the highest top of Iceland, but instead it was perfect in Svínafellsjökull doing hiking on crampons, and a little ice climb in a toprope. In the afternoon I started to prepare for a three day job of guiding an Italian ski mountaineering group to the top of Tindfjallajökull, Öræfafjökull and one more depending of conditions.

    On the 20th of April I took 3 people from Hotel Skaftafell on a Ice Tour. The weather was nice, but the day before I had to cancel a combined Super Jeep/Snow Tour with 6 Italians on Vatnajökull because of the bad weather. There was a snow storm here in the area. C'est la vie!

    16th of April. On Easter Sunday I drove up to Vatnajökull to do a Snow tour (Cross Country Skiing) with the same American clients I did the kayaking trip with the day before and at the same time as I was helping www.glacierjeeps.is with another group of 11+2 clients from Italy. (The Italian guide of this group, called Franco Gionco, and his wife Laura, see www.gioncocommunication.com are good friends of mine and my family). But this time we had not as fine weather, 18 m/sek and the snow blowing in our face, and visibility very poor, so we only went a short circle on the biggest glacier of Europe, Vatnajökull. Even though we did only short trips we had good time up there and the day was quite interesting. But the best news were that since I was down early I had plenty of time to attend the Sunday service in my church Hvítasunnukirkjan (Pentecostal Church) in Höfn at 4 o'clock.

    15th of April. One of my favorite client and by now a good friend, Terry Wall from USA came with his nephew, Jimmy to do a Kayjaking trip I told him about the last time he was here. (We did a trip to Hvannadalshnúkur on 6th of June 2002, and he had before that come in June 1999 with a group of boy scouts).
    It has been very dry period here in Öræfi the last weeks, so I expected to have troubles with the boats so I walked/ran wearing dry suit, along the stream and made photographs, expecting to have to help out with stranded boats. I only have 3 boats yet, but two of them are short white water boats, that need deeper water than the longer lake boat I want to use in this trip. I have only one that kind of boat, (Jimmy is rowing it on the photos) and that boat only needs 10 - 12 cm deep waters. But everything went fine, even though they hit bottom once in a while. This is a trip I will do more of in the future, an easy Kayjaking trip in nice surrounding. It will probably be called Water Tour or something, i.e. Coast Tour, Ice Tour, Snow Tour, Water Tour etc. Things are just so busy now, I can not add more trips to the program as it is.

We started the trip at the west bondary of my farm Hofsnes, on the small stream called Vöðlaáll next to the main road.	Then this stream gets more waters coming in and the name changes to Landáll. We can see Ingólfshöfði in the horizon.	Going south Landáll, with Ingólfshöfði in the background.	Terry playing in the small boat. Öræfajökull behind.
Terry and Jimmy row row row the boats.	The farm Hofsnes and Öræfajökull in the background.	Jimmy getting fast on the big boat. This is the kind of boat I want to have on this trip. The small boats I have are much to quick to turn over. I know some people think that is fun but that is not what I have in mind for this trip.	End of the trip today after rowing about 4 km, but in rainy period we can do 8 km or even all the way to the sea 16 km.

    14th of April. I did an Ice tour with an older couple from Finland. They were not going to do the Ice Climbing Part of the trip, only the hiking on crampons, but I took with me the climbing equipment anyway. Once I had showed them the place I normally let people climb they decided they would give it a try, and they found it quite fun. I was happy that they did the climb because they turned out to be very good climbers both of them.

    13th of April. I took one Icelandic client, the 60 year old Rúnar Sigurðsson, on an one day Ice Climbing Course. It was very nice day, in the good company of Rúnar. The funny thing is we have almost the same name, my full name is Einar Rúnar Sigurðsson. Rúnar is running the guesthouse Eiríkur Rauði in Reykjavík see www.eric.is
    We sorted out the gear at my place at 6 o'clock in the morning, and then we drove to Sandfell where we parked the car close to the main road. We hiked up the valley between Sandfell and Slaga, and then up the glacier Kotárjökull. The climbing area is in about 1200 meters altitude at the top of Sandfell on the east side. The rocks there are about 50 meter tall. We found the ice more warm from the sun, than I expected, so we just practiced ice climbing techinques in a top rope in a vertical ice route, and then we finished the day by climing a new 35m tall route WI3, with couple of vertical pillars in it, but not very steep for the bigger part. The route we named Rúnaríus e Rúnaríus.
    We climbed the route with our rucksacks on, so we did not need to go back down to Kotárjökull. We hiked down the Sandfell mountain all the way down to our car.

Rúnar Sigurðsson on his way to the ice climing course. Mt. Slaga on the left and Sandfell on the right, and the main road behind.	E. Rúnar Sigurðsson on his way up Kotárjökull. The destination where there are some frozen waterfalls is on the far left corner of the picture.	Rúnar with Kotárjökull behind.	On the upper part of Kotárjökull, the main road below.	Rúnar practicing steep climing. I lead up few meters only in the steep pillar, and we praciced steep climbing, placing and removing ice screws, and making a top belay.
Rúnar at the top belay.	Rúnar starting up the route Rúnaríus e Rúnaríus. He has just finished the steepest part of the route, and is coming to a long 60° part.	Rúnar in the last part of the route where it gets steep again for few meters.	I made quite interesting top belay at the top of the route. Two friends on the right, one sling, and one spectra on the left. I made 4 points instead of usually two points, because I was not perfectly happy with any of the points. But since I used static system between them they would probably hold 2000 kg.	Rúnar at the top of Sandfell after the climb. Ingólfshöfði behind on the coast.

   12th of April. I took the 4 American girls and the French photographer from Salomon on the glacier to do an Ice Tour. They had fun hiking on crampons and climbing up an easy ice route in the glacier. On the picture they are practicing frontpointing up a little bit steep ice.

    Summit #200. On the 11th of April 2006 I had the privilege of stepping on the highest peak of Iceland, Hvannadalshnúkur (2119 m) for the 200th time. We went up Hnappaleið, and I had very good company of skiers from USA (four girls) France (one photographer from the Salomon company) and Egilsstaðir in Iceland (one 65 year old man called Hjálmar Jóelsson) with me. The weather did not look good in the morning, wind and rain from the west. We planned to leave the guesthouse at 7:30, but I cancelled it until 9:30, so we did not leave my car at Sléttubjörg at the start of Hnappaleið, until at 10:30. I had to navigate with the GPS almost all the way from the car to the base of Hvannadalshnúkur, for almost 5 hours before the clouds disappeared, and we had great view on the last part of the peak, and all the way back down to the car.
    Here is a link to a photo album from this trip: http://spaces.msn.com/oraefaferdir/photos/

    5th of April. I had planned a 3 day cross country skiing expedition on Vatnajökull with the newly wed, Scott and Monica, but the weather was very bad the days they were here so we had to cancel. While we were waiting for the weather to get better (that didn't happen though), we went ice cave exploring.

    3rd of April. I left my house on the 23rd of March to prepare and do a week long ski mountaineering expediton in south Iceland with a small group from Switzerland. We skied on Hekla, Katla, Eyjafjallajökull and Tindfjallajökull. I came home on 1st of April and I will put more info and from this trip soon, but things are really busy now, yesterday I was Iceclimbing a 90 meter high route close to Höfn, and I'm right now preparing a 3 day cross country skiing expediton on Vatnajökull.

    Summit #199. 18th of March I climbed Hvannadalshnúkur via Sandfellsleid route with Garðar, Örn, Hafþór, Indriði, Birkir og Sturla. We left the parking in Sandfell at 6:01, at the very first break of day. If we would have started 15 minutes earlier we would have needed lights. It took us 1 hour 26 minutes to get to 700 meters edge on Sandfell. From there we could walk on snow. The snow was slippery so we had to put on crampons around 800 meters, and we came to the pass in the glacier moraine where we enter the glacier after 2 hours 35 minutes. Then we walked in a rope, up the 3.5 km long glacier route from the pass in 1050 meters to the edge of the top crater of Öræfajökull in 1830 meters. We came there after 5 hours and 27 minutes. Then we walked without the rope (by going a big half circle into the crater) the 2.5 km flat route over to the base of Hvannadalshnúkur. The snow was up to the ancle, not too easy but not too bad either. We came there 7 hours after we left the cars. Still wearing the crampons, we did not need to waste much time there, so we continued, again in the rope, up the steep slopes of Hvannadalshnúkur. It was very hot there, and lot of new snow. The snow got stuck under the crampons, and made it heavy to walk. I made an avalanche test in the slope, and found out that even though the new snow was on an icy layer, it was very well glued to that layer, so the avalanche risk was very low. We continued up the first slopes with our walking sticks, but when we came to the steepest part, we left them, and took an ice axe in hand. The steepest part was unusually steep and a little icy, but it went fine. 8 hours and 15 mintues after we left the parking in Sandfell, we stood on the top of Iceland, in the best weather I've had there for couple of years. Total time of the trip, with the descent, was 13 hours and 15 minutes.

In the pass through the glacier moraine in 1050 meters. This was the first place where we had the sun on us, at 8:40 in the morning.	On the edge of the 4 km wide top crater on Oraefajokull. Hvannadalhnúkur behind. This is at 11:49.	On top of Hvannadalshúkur (199th time for me). We see Hnappur and Rótarfjallshnúkur on the south side of the top crater in the background, and on the coast on the right is Ingólfshöfði.	Starting the descend from the peak.	At the base of the peak, looking over the 4 km wide top crater, with Hnappur and Rótarfjallshnúkur on the other side.	Walking down the long glacier route down to Sandfell. Dyrhamar(1911m) and Hvannadalshnúkur (2119m) behind.

    I did an Ice Tour with Wendy and Chris from Holland on the 14th of March, and for the first time this year I could skip the short roping most of the way. The sun is starting to melt the blue ice and turning it into white crusty surface, that is not so slippery. I could safely take a large group on the glacier as it was today.

    On the 4th of March I drove out to Ingólfshöfði, with two of my sons and some friends. The cliffs and the sea below the cape was crowded with guillemots and razorbills, and to my amazement we could see lot of whales in the sea.

    Went to Svínafellsjökull on the 2nd of March with one man from Germany. Beautiful day, but the ice is still quite slippery so short roping was required.

    I had a day off on 28th of February and went with two of my climbing mates Ívar and Eiríkur, to climb a alpine route on Miðfellstindur in Skaftafell National Park. Eiríkur made some pages about this on the web site of the Icelandic Alpine Club. See here...

    25th of February. I did the Express version of the Ice Climbing Course with Jens Berger. We had really excellent day, mainly because Jens was such a good student, and a natural talent in the art of ice climbing. We spent the whole day in the glacier Virkisjökull since the weather has still be too warm for frozen waterfalls to form.
    We had a nice treat when we came to the glacier. One of the small outlet of the glacier river coming out of Virkisjökull was coming up from below the glacier forming a kind of a geyser. See the small video shot below (482 kb).

    On 24th February I took one strong climber, Jens Bergen from USA on a mountaineering trip. We had originally planned to climb Þverártindsegg, but the weather turned out to be bad there, winds from the east and plenty of rain, so at 5 in the morning I changed the destination, and we went to Skaftafell National Park instead, where we planned on climbing the mountain Miðfellstindur (1430 meters). We had fine weather there the whole day.
    There is a long walk in on this route, 9 1/2 km up the flat valley Morsárdalur before we start to climb up the slopes of Miðfell. When we finally reached the snow line after hiking and climbing for several hours, and we prepared to put on the crampons, Jens discoverd that his crampons were missing. So we had to turn back.
    Actually it was myself that at some point put the crampons on his pack because they were dangling free from below the pack. I wanted to do him the favor of putting them more securly on the side of the pack. What you can learn from this? Never trust your guide for putting your crampons on your pack!

    I did an Ice Tour on Svínafellsjökull with a British couple on 23rd of February. The weather was very mild compared to time of year, so the glacier was wet, but still quite blue and beautiful. After we did a short but demanding ice climb (where Helen and Kevin were both climbing like experts) we continued the 2 km circle around the glacier and unfortunately Helen tripped over on a flat part of the glacier and fell on her knee. Since the surface of the glacier is hard like a diamond at this time of year, this was very painful. But she recovered and could walk off the glacier. Come to think of it, this is the worst accident I've had on this trip since I started it in 1994.

    Summit #198. The first time I climbed Hvannadalshnúkur this year (and the 198th time from the beginning since 1989) was on the 14th of February. I went alone up Hnappaleið, could drive my Land Rover Defender up to the altitude of 750 meters before I stepped on the skis just outside the car, and at 6:05 I started the climb. The weather was wonderful, although it got quite cold just before the sun came out later in the morning, temp -9°C. Sunrise was at 9:05 so the first hours I was in the dark, but since it was almost full moon and lot of stars, I did not need to use a light. The snow was good, and I could climb all the way to the top on my skis, although I had to use the edges of the skis up the steepest part.

Approaching Hvannadalshnúkur a little bit before sunrise. The moon is over Dyrhamar.

    It took me 3 hours and 45 minutes to climb to the top of Iceland, I came to the top at 9:50. I was faster down, so at 12:05 I entered my kitchen, where my wife Matta was preparing lunch for me.

I did another Ice Tour the next day, with Nathalie and Franck from France, and on the day after that (9/2) yet again and this time with one young man from France. We found a little ice tunnel where he could crawl through...

    7th of February. I did a Ice Tour on Svínafellsjökull with Markus and Sebastian from Germany. The conditions were nice, a little bit new snow on the glacier so it was not as terrible slippery as usual in February, but I used short rope just in case.

    On the 20th of January I went to Reykjavík to pick up a car for our mountain tours. This is the third jeep/truck we have bought for these tours. In 1994 I had an 1967 model of Mercedes Benz Unimog. Then in the spring 1996 we bought an 1985 model of Ford Econoline for 15 people. Now finally I have got the dream car for these trips, a 2000 model of Land Rover Defender for 9 people.

    11th to 13th of January I had two people from the U.K. Jason and Natasha, coming for the 3 day version of the Ice Climbing Course. The weather was quite warm the weeks before they came so we did not have frozen waterfalls to climb in, but we had good conditions in the glacier Virkisjökull. On the last day we did plan to go up a valley to higher mountains where I knew there were frozen waterfalls, but we had to cancel, because the night before it snowed a lot, and there was quite a lot of avalanche threat.
    Jason and Natasha were used to the outdoor life, so they stayed in a tent during their stay here. (I put up a tent for them on my very basic camping here at Hofsnes, so they did not need to bring a tent with them).

Practicing absailing on a easy spot on Virkisjökull	It is good practice to put ice screws into the ice just 50 cm off the ground, before doing it on the rope higher up.	Looking back to Virkisjökull and Falljökul on the walk home after a day of ice climbing practice in the glacier.	From my camping in Hofsnes. I used the opportunity to sleep one night in this tent after my clients left. The weather forecast was very bad, but to my disappointment the weather stayed very calm and nice the whole night.

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

 Last edited 04.11.2008