Journal 2007
Summit # 228. 5th of August I
climbed the highest peak of Iceland again. This time I had very important
client, the most beautiful woman in Iceland, (and the wife of the best mountain
guide in Iceland J). Her name is Matthildur Unnur
Þorsteinsdóttir. Actually she had been on the top with me exactly 7 years
earlier, the 6th of August 2000.
We went Hnappaleið, left the car at 910 meters at 10:10 in
the morning and came back down to the car at 21:40 after 11 1/2 hours walk, 4
big lunch breaks (my wife likes to eat when she walks) and about 2 GB of picture
taking. We had great weather, lot of beautiful clouds below us, but fine views
from the top. At the first part of the walk we had to strip down to shorts, but
on the upper part we had temp below zero. There has been plenty of new snow
since last week so we had even better conditions with the crevasses, and we
walked on snow shoes so the melding snow was not a problem.
Matta on the way up Hnappaleið route.
Einar at the peak Hnappur 1851m.
Matta on the way to Hvannadalshnúkur across the top crater of Öræfajökull.
On crampons on the way up the last part.
Beautiful new snow and ice.
Matta and Einar on the peak.
Matta coiling the rope after the climb.
On the way back down from Hnappur in the evening light.
Matta on the way up Hnappaleið route.
Summit # 227.
On the 29th of July managed to
climb my mountain. I went alone on skis via Hnappaleið route. I could drive my
Land Rover up to 910 m and I started from the car at 6:40 in the morning. The
weather was perfect, and the snow was great, and the glacier is unusually easy
to travel, there are less crevasses than the last few years. I was on the top of
Hvannadalshnúkur at 10:00 after 3 hours and 20 minutes climb.
I had great skiing conditions all the way down to 900 meters.
I put one picture here I made with my phone on the way back from the peak.
Things are really busy now. I'm sorry about the silence in
June, but hopefully there will be some rainy days soon so I will have some time
to fill in the blanks...
31st of July...no rain this summer so very little info here
I'm afraid.
Summit # 226. On the 16th of
June...I will put info and photos here soon...
The 11th and 12th of June we had a dogsled
course on Vatnajökull with the very good Italian dog sledding expert Ararad
Khatchikian (see www.ararad.net ). Here
are some photos...
Summit # 225. I will put info
here soon. The 9th of June...
28th of May 2007. We had a test run of the
trip Kids In Kayak with friends and family. We
took 6 kayaks with 8 people, (my sons Ísak 5 and Matthías 3 were sitting in
front of Matta my wife, and her sister Lísa). The trip went very well and we
will be putting it on the market within the next few weeks.
The start of the trip is close to the farm Hofsnes on Bæjarlækur. We used tractor and Landrover to get the people and the equipment to the water.
The first part of the trip is on the world longest waterslide.
Aron my oldest son leading the way. He is the mind behind this trip and will be guiding this trip mainly, with help from me or his mother Matta.
Next part of the way is on more gentle canal.
Aron kayaking through Nátthagi.
Stella, Arons cousin, dancing down the stream.
Going downstream on the canal Bæjarlækur.
Lísa my sister in law with my 5 year old son Ísak. Matta my wife is coming with Matthías 3 year old behind.
Ögmundur Lísa's husband with their dog Tara enyoing a kayak ride. I found out at the end of the trip this was Ögmundur's birthday.
There the group has entered Landáll, the bigger stream. It is quite calm and easy to paddle there.
We ended the trip at Bakki, before the stream Landáll gets deeper and faster. We had paddled about 2-3 km.
Aron standing there happy with a nice trip with the largest group of (clients) he had so far. He has only been taking one or two of his cousins and friends at a time before. Matthías my youngest is already helping in the trip by dragging the boat on shore.
End of the trip. Ingólfshöfði some 7 km behind.
The start of the trip is close to the farm Hofsnes on Bæjarlækur. We used tractor and Landrover to get the people and the equipment to the water.
Summit # 224. I started up Sandfell at 1:15 in the night on the 26th of May
with 9 people (including my assistant Valgeir). The weather was great and the
group was great, in fact it included some of the people I took up to
Hvannadalshnúkur on that same Saturday 13 years earlier, when in May 1994 I took
my first group of clients to the top. But things don't always go as planned. One
lady in the group was not feeling good at all, and after 45 minutes hike she
started to be sick. We decided to send Valgeir back down to the car with her.
After some more delays due to bad communication between
myself and my assistant guide, (Valli got exhausted trying to follow up with the
group after taking the lady down) we did continue up the glacier and had fine
weather and good time all the way to the top. We were there at 10:30 after 9
hours and 15 minutes (with about 1 1/2 hours of delays). We had great views from
the top, but within 15 minutes on the way down from the peak we walked into
clouds, and then didn't see a thing until off the mountain. I came to the car at
15:00 and went straight home to prepare for a slides show I had at Skaftafell
National Park at 17:00.
Summit
# 223. Me and my friend Siggi R, took 16 people to the top of
Hvannadalhnúkur on the 19th of May. The weather forecast was good but it was
supposed to be windy in the morning so we started at 6:10 from Sandfell. We had
probably about 100 people hiking in front of us, and another 100 people coming
behind us so for me this was a very strange day. Most of the year it is only me
and my clients alone on the mountain.
We had very good people in our group this day wich was very
good because the trip took extra long time. It took us almost 10 hours to make
it to the top. We came down to the cars at 21:10 in the evening, and I think
that is an record for me but I haven't studied my previous Journals to make
sure. But as I say, we had good fun all the day, although some were quite tired.
The snow conditions were great, very little crevasse danger
due to frozen snow, but still I was unhappy to see several hikers without any ropes
in areas where I know there are lots of crevasses.
On Thursday the 17th of May I was supposed
to take a group of 8 people to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur but since the weather
forecast was 18 meters per second I had to cancel the trip. This is a rule I've
had for many years now, if THE ICELANDIC
METEOROLOGICAL OFFICE says 18 m/sek or more on the day of
the climb I can not risk taking clients to Hvannadalshnúkur. Normally the winds
are much worse in the mountains so when they predict 18 m/sek in the lowland I
expect 30 m/sek in the mountains.
It proved to be a good decicion to stay home this day because
the weather started to become bad at 7 o'clock in the morning and in the
afternoon the wind speed at my house went up to 29 m/sek. Actually there were
some groups that did try to climb Hvannadalshnúkur this day but they just barely
made it down in the crazy winds without reaching the top as far as I know.
On Saturday 12th of May I took a group of 6 individuals on
a trip to Hvannadalshnúkur. We had fine weather, and good snow for walking.
Unfortunately one person in the group had not slept for 48 hours before he came,
so after 1 1/2 hours we had to turn back because the man was so dizzy that he
kept falling down. Then we were in the altitude close to 1600 meters and had
about 1 km to do before reaching Hnappur. This reminds me on the fact that I've
only needed to turn back 4 times since spring 1994 when I started to offer this
trip because of human failure. In two cases Asthma (and no
medicine brought along) was the reason I had to turn back since I can not risk
taking people complaining about bad case of Asthma further on this mountain if
they don't have any treatment with them, but in the 3rd case it was nausea and
sickness early in the trip. 9 months later I found out that the woman had
delivered an healthy baby so I was quite happy that we turned back. She had no
idea that she was pregnant at the time of the trip.
9th of May I did a trip to Ingólfshöfði (we started daily trips there the 24th
of April). The weather this spring has been quite cold so in several trips we
have only seen few puffins, but this day and some other days there have been
plenty of them. Actually my wife and my friend Valli have been doing more than
me since I've been busy in the mountains but I managed to photograph some
puffins on the 9th...
Summit # 222. I came to the top
of Hvannadalshnúkur for the 222nd time on the 10th of May. With me were Snorri
and friends. We had good day on the mountain, and it only took us 6 hours to
make it to the top via Hnappaleið. The whole trip took us 9 1/2 hours.
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We had new snow hiding many crevasses so we had to be careful. But on snow shoes we had excellent hiking conditions. |
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Starting to cross the top crater of Öræfajökull. Hvannadalshnúkur 4 km away on the other side. |
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Coming to the north face of Hvannadalshnúkur where we put on the rope again. |
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Almost to the top. |
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Happy team on top of Iceland. |
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Starting down. |
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Einar Sigurðsson crossing the plateau again, Hvannadalshnúkur behind. |
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Coming back to Hnappur. |
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Hnappur 1851 meters. |
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Starting down from Hnappur. |
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On the way down Hnappaleið. |
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Summit # 221. I climbed to the
top of Hvannadalshnúkur with my good friend
Franco Gionco from Italy and
our group of ski mountaineering clients on Thursday the 3rd of May. We had very
good weather and great snow for skiing. We had previously done the mountains
Snæfellsjökull in west of Iceland and Kaldbakur in north Iceland in our week
long Ski Mountaineering Tour around Iceland.
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Franco Gionco skiing down Snæfellsjökull. |
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The weather was not great on Snæfellsjökull this day but we had good snow and great fun skiing down. Actually from the 16 of us, 5 climbed up to the top again to have another ski run down. |
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In the afternoon we did some sight seeing in the beautiful Snæfellsnes peninsula. |
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The next day we drove to Grenivík. Kaldbakur, or next goal is there in the background. |
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Me, myself and I on the top of Kaldbakur. |
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Lydia skiing down Kaldbakur. The clouds were covering the fjord Eyjafjörður so we didn't see Akureyri. But the weather was great on the mountain. |
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We stayed in basic but very nice accommodation of Grýtubakki. There we are having coffee before heading on to Mývatn. |
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Photo stop at Goðafoss waterfall. |
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Afternoon bath in Jarðböðin in Mývatn. |
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The next morning we did some more sight seeing at Mývatn area, and then moved from north Iceland to southeast Iceland, home of Iceland's highest mountain. |
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The gate between east Iceland and southeast Iceland. Hvalnesskriður. |
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Starting at 4:20 from the parking of Sandfell in the altitude of 119 meters, on our way to Hvannadalshnúkur, Iceland's highest peak 2119 meters. |
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In 1200 meters at 6:45. |
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On the way up mt. Öræfajökull. |
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Hvannadalshnúkur, Iceland's highest peak is on the northwest side of the volcano Öræfajökull. Sandfell route comes up the southwest side of the mountain, so when we come up to 1800 meters we are still more than 2 km away from the peak. |
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We climbed the peak from the north side. There we can see peak Hnappur and Rótarfjallshnúkur on the south side of the 4 km wide top crater on Öræfajökull. We had to do some 2.6 km crossing of this crater on the west side of it. |
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Einar Rúnar Sigurðsson, Iceland's most experienced mountain guide on this mountain, coming to his to for the 221st time. |
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Looking south from the top. Our route is behind the guys. This is at 9:20, just 5 hours after we started from the cars. |
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We had great snow for skiing down. |
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This is a little late in the ski mountaineering season, so we had to carry the skis down from 700 meters. |
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The next day we went to Ingólfshöfði Nature Reserve (see the Coast Tour). |
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In the afternoon we moved to Höfðabrekka at Vík. Hvannadalshnúkur was also very beautiful this day. |
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The last day we did some sightseeing. This is from Skógarfoss in south Iceland. |
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And there is Daniel at Gullfoss. |
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And you can not leave Iceland without visiting Geysir. |
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Summit # 220. 20th of April I
went again to Hvannadalshnúkur, this time with Roger, Andy and Alistair from UK.
We had bad weather forecast, it was supposed to start raining in the morning. We
started at 5:20 from the car in 700 meters altitude at Hnappaleið. We came back
there after 12 1/2 hours hard walk in very deep snow, and for most of the way,
no visibility. From Hnappur in 1830 meters, to Hvannadalshnúkur, and then back
down to 1230 meters on Efstubjörg, I could never take my eyes off the GPS. We
climbed Hvannadalshnúkur on the north side, and for the first time ever I think,
a group climbed all the way to the top wearing snow shoes. I'm quite sure that
has never been done.
I was very blessed that those Brithish guys were strong men,
because the hiking conditons were the worst I remember. Even on snow shoes
things were really hard.
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Einar Sigurðsson on the snow. There we still had some visibility. |
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On the way to Hnappur. |
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Because of all the new snow we fell several times into crevasses. |
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Roger, Andy and Alistair on the top of Iceland. No visibility but great day. |
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Summit # 219. 19th of April I
went to Hvannadalshnúkur via Hnappaleið with two very good skiers, Stefán and
Jón from Akureyri. The conditions were heavy and the ski conditions down (apart
from the slope of Hvannadalshnúkur itself) were terrible. We did the trip in
little bit more that 9 hours. It took us 6 1/2 hours to get to the top of
Hvannadalshnúkur. We had very nice views from the top, but cold weather in the
face and poor visibility on the way to there. We had to wear ski masks or
balaclavas over our faces to avoid frost bite.
Summit # 218. 9th of April 2007 I
took Petra from Germany, Trausti and his wife Herdís, Bjarni and his son
Guðmundur and their friend Björn, and my 19 year old relative Jón Örn and his
class mate Arnar to the top of Hvannadalshnúkur. The weather forecast had
changed on the last moment, and it was supposed to be a cloudy day, but we
started anyway. It was light drizzle in the morning on the car park at 5:00 but
as we started at 5:15 it stopped raining, and as we climbed higher up the
mountain more clear it become. We walked into the sun in 1000 meters and after
that we had good visibility the whole trip. It had snowed the day before, so as
we got higher the snow got more deep, and on the crater plateau where we have to
walk 2 km before coming to the base of the peak we had quite heavy snow to walk
in. But we finally got there, and there I found out that there were some
avalanche conditons in the slopes of the peak so we had to avoid the broad easy
slope where I normally walk up the steepest part of the peak, and climb up a
steeper route on the left, where we could walk in very thin layer of new snow.
So after 8 1/2 hours of walk from the car we made it to the
peak, in good visibility, but very cold conditions. The wind was blowing the new
snow, so we had no tracks to follow when we walked back, so it was just as hard
again. But then we had nice conditions to walk from 1800 meters down to 500
meters, because the snow was good to walk down. We came down to the cars at
18:45 after 13 1/2 hours walk.
I was happy to have this group on the mountain this day.
Those hard conditions in the deep snow, and the cold conditions in the wind
would often be enough to turn a group around without making the peak.
Summit # 217. I took Bjarni
Jónsson (his father is born here in Öræfi) and 6 friends of his to Hvannadalshnúkur on the 5th of April (Skírdagur).
We had planned to go on the day before, but the winds were crazy so we waited.
We left from the car park at Sandfell at 4:25 and we had cold but good weather
and perfect snow to walk on, all the way to the peak. After 7 hours and 15
minutes we were at the top at
11:40, and back down to the car after 12 hours and 20 minutes trip. We had -10°C
on the top, but no wind so it was actually not too bad.
Here is a link to lots of photos from this trip.
Great
photos from Bjarni Jónsson. Here below are three of my own photos...
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There we are on the glacier above Sandfell. The clouds were rolling down in the lowland. |
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Dyrhamar and Hvannadalshnúkur seen from Sandfellsleið route. |
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At the base of Hvannadalshnúkur. From this point it took us about 45 minutes to climb to the top. |
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Summit # 216.
I mangaged to sneak up to the highest peak on the second last day of the month,
30th of March. I went up the route Hnappaleið where I could drive up to 600 meters,
and I had very cold and quite windy day on the mountain. The glacier and the top
was very icy, so in 1400 meters I had to change from skis to crampons for few
hundred meters (I didn't have ski crampons this time). I had -11 °C on the top,
but it felt very cold because the weather was becoming bad, with fog and snow.
No visibility until I was back down to 1200 meters. My dog Rökkvi had very hard
time coming down from the highest peak itself, it was so icy that he was sliding
down, and he was complaning a lot when I had to literally pull him down the
slope. When he did slide, I simply held him on the rope, but he didn't know I
could do that, the poor thing.
I had terrible skiing conditions on the way down, bad
visibility and very icy conditions, but in about 1300 meters it got better.
March 2007 has been quite busy month. I've
done lot of Ice tours, mainly to the ice cave in Virkisjökull, but also I've
been busy preparing for the spring, making a new road to the new parking for
Ingólfshöfði (Coast Tour). I put here some photos from
some of the trips I've been doing in March...
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On the 4th of March I went to Reykjavík to see my siberian husky, Heimskauta Nætur Rökkvi compete in a dog contest. He got first grade, but ended in the second place in his group. Rökkvi is on the left, and the girl who is showing him is called Anna Francesca. |
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5th to 7th of March I did an advanched ice climbing course with Richard Edkins from the UK. We climbed two new routes in Kvísker in Öræfi. In Bæjargil we did a beautiful route we call Richard the Lionheart. On the photo Richard is climbing in the other route we called "Because it is there!". |
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On the 7th of March we went to Stigárdalur where we climbed the first pitch (WI 4) of Sléttubjargafoss. On the photo it is me climbing. |
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I did quite many trips to an ice cave in Virkisjökull. On the photo there is a man from the staff of Kjörís, ice climbing out of the cave. |
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On 22nd and 23rd I took the Swiss photographer Bernd Nicolaisen to the ice caves in Virkisjökull and Breiðamerkurjökull. |
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It was really rainy day, but still Bernd could get great photos in the caves. Even though his camera is dripping with water the photos he got were marvellous. |
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On the 28th of March I did an ski mountaineering trip with Gerald and his son from Germany. We did a nice route up Sandfell leaving the car at Falljökulkvísl and climbing up to the glacier moraine at 1000 meters. |
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There we are in 1000 meters. |
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Myself. We are just few hundred meters west of the pass through the glacier moraine where the hiking trail to Hvannadalshnúkur passes through. |
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Gerald and his son coming down the lowest snow of Sandfell. We had to carry the skis for some 15 minutes down to the car. |
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24-25th February. Ice Climbing Festival in Kaldakinn in northeast Iceland.
I went to the annual ice climbing festival of the Icelandic Alpine Club (
www.isalp.is ). It was a great festival this
time, many climbers showed up, including international champions, Albert
Leichtfried, Markus Bendler, Ines Papert and Audrey Gariepi. They were setting
up very interesting routes there, up to WI 6+ and M9. The weather and the ice
was great for ice climbing.
I was very happy when I teamed up with two young but very
good climbers, Robbi and Siggi on the Saturday morning. We climbed 2 new routes,
Dramb (Pride) WI5, 100 meters, and Græðgi (Greed) WI5, 70 meters. On the Sunday
I was planning to make photos and watch the super climbers at work, but again I
was lucky to meet Helen who needed a climbing partner. She had her eyes on a
single pitch route called Vörtusvínið (The Warthog) WI3, 60m. We did that route,
but climbed it on the right side of the waterfall and there this route was WI4,
50m in the conditions we found it.
The picture is from the route Dramb, and it shows Siggi lead
the first pitch in WI 5.
Summit # 215.
I was on the top of Hvannadalshnúkur for the second time this year but 215th
time since 1989, on the 5th of February 2007. I went the route Sandfellsleid and
it took me 4 hours 58 minutes to get to the top, and the whole walk took me 7
1/2 hours. I could start to use the skis in the altitude of 700 meters after
carrying them for 1 1/2 hours. The snow was good for skiing, apart from the last
few hundred meters to the top, where I had to put on crampons and leave the
skis. Normally I never step off my skis when climbing alone, but this time the
snow was frozen concrete all the way to the peak so it was quite safe.
The weather was beautiful, -15°C and calm, and I had great
view over Iceland. On the first photo you can see Heimskauta Nætur Rökkvi (my
Siberian Husky) at the base of Hvannadalshnúkur about 45 minutes before we stood
on the top. He did pull me on my skis the 2 km on the plateau on the top crater
of Öræfajökull both on the way to the peak and back from the peak. Very handy
peace of ski accessories those Siberian Huskys. The second photo is from the top
itself, looking straight south to the top crater with the peaks Eystri Hnappur, Hnappur and
Rótarfjallshnúkur, and cape Ingólfshöfði down on the coast. When people come up
Sandfellsleid route they would be coming up to the crater a little bit right of
the sun reflection on the photo. Then there are 2 km on the plateau to get to
the base of the peak.
21st of January I did another Ice tour, this time with Thomas and Maria from
Denmark and my Siberian husky Rökkvi. We went to Virkisjökull and they could
practice ice climbing up a 15 m high ice chimney out from the ice cave. They
were excellent climbers actually. The snow had blown off the glacier so it was
blue and slippery again.
On 17th of January I did an Ice tour with four people from Singapore. Since
there was a lot of new snow on the glacier we did an unusual version of the
tour, and instead of walking on the glacier we walked in the glacier, in an ice
cave in Virkisjökull.
6th - 13th of January. I went to Italy with my whole family for a little skiing
vacation. We went with
www.icelandexpress.is to Friedrichshafen in Germany, where we rented a car
from Avis , and drove in 5 hours to Fai della Paganella, (just above Trento). We
stayed for a week at Chalet Laura
www.gioncocommunication.com/chalet.asp , a house that belongs to good friends of us,
Franco and Laura Gionco. We did a lot of skiing in the ski area of Paganella,
and I did one ski mountaineering trip with Franco and more friends to Kleine
Kreuzspitze close to the Brenner Pass.
Summit # 214.Me and my Siberien Husky Rökkvi climbed the highest
peak of Iceland on the 2nd of January. I went Hnappaleið route. After the rain
period around Christmas all snow was gone below 700 meters. I could drive to 750
meters and from there we had about 10 km to the top. I left the car at 8:15 and
was back in the car at 15:20. To start with the weather and visibility was fine,
but when we came to about 1200 meters the wind picked up and I'm sure for a
while it was over 20 m/sek since I had problem staying on my feet. I had to use
ski crampons big part of the way up to Hnappur because of icy condition on the
snow. Just below Hnappur I almost turned back because of the cold and spindrift.
I got all covered with ice, and my hands were getting quite cold. My water tube
froze even though I tried to keep drinking from it, and a coca cola bottle I had
in the pack turned to wet ice. But I did continue and the weather got better as
I came to the base of Hvannadalshnúkur. I went up the north side of the peak. It
had lot of snow on it. Apparantly the rainy weather the last couple of week has
delivered lot of snow on Hvannadalshnúkur, which is a good thing.
1st of January 2007.
Happy new year! The first day of the year was very beautiful here in Öræfi. I
made this picture from just outside of my house in the evening. I'm looking
straight north from my house to Öræfajökull and if you enlarge the picture you
you can see the North Star (or the Polar Star/Pólstjarnan) at the top of the
picture. This is actually the only star I know, and I like it mainly because
this star can always help me to find north (in the unlikely event of me, the
biggest GPS nerd in Iceland, being lost with clear starlit sky above me). The way
to find this star in the sky is easy. You just have to find the constellation of
the Big Dipper (Karlsvagninn). These are seven stars that form a picture of a
chariot, or if you prefer, a saucepan. I use the two stars that form the outer
side of the saucepan to (the highest two stars of these seven stars) to draw a
line and that line always point me to the North Star. The North Star doesn't
move on the sky, but the Big Dipper does so you have to look for it all over the
sky.
