The weather has changed.
Quite a bit.
From +18 Celcius (when lucky) to minus-something-cold last night.
We were in Vestrahorn, planning to climb there. But the weather wasn't really cooperating. It was even too wet, windy and rainy for bouldering.
We thought it would be best to slowly drive to our 'final destination' in Iceland: Seydisfjörður. From where we would take the boat to Denmark again.
We're not really looking forward to the ferry trip. 3 days of nothingness, just hanging on the boat...
So we found we should at least do something to get us tired enough to survive the boat.
Too much wind to go out sailing, windsurfing or whatever possible with 'normal' amounts of wind.
Too cold to lay on the beach in bikini.
Too much snow for steep offroad driving.
Too much rain for bouldering or climbing.
And just too little ice and snow for skiing and iceclimbing.
Too much of bad weather...
So what stays when you take out all our regular stuff (climbing)?
Hiking.
We took some detailed maps and figured there was a walk just long enough to entertain us close to Seydisfjörður.
Perfect.
We packed our bags, decided a bivouac in a deserted house, ruin or something would be fun and set off. (Around 2 'o clock midday because we were lazy and didn't want to go outside in the horrible weather)
The first day our walk passed an old lighthouse, some ruins and had a very very steep slippery path on the side of a high sea cliff.
We arrived in Lóðmunderfjörður around 7-ish and still hadn't found enough shelter for a bivouac.
So we decided to carry on uphill on our way back already.
Around 10 it was really dark, foggy, extremely windy (stormy), snowy, cold and we weren't sure if we were still on the right path.
A big pile of stones we thought would give us just enough shelter for the night.
We build a small shelter, rolled out our bivy's and fell asleep.
Sort of.
At about every hour or more we woke up. The ground trembling, the old telephone mast whistling in the wind and our face hit by tiny knifeblades (generally called snowflakes).
My bivy could be zipped all the way, but Dennis' old amy bivybag always had a little gap around his face...
Around 5 in the morning the path was covered in at least 5cm of snow, the wind still whistling around the old wooden masts, blowing up the snow on small piles in every corner.
We decided it was time to walk on.
Our sleepingbags were frozen, the porridge was frozen, our water was frozen, our shoes were frozen (and yes I kept them inside my sleepingbag), and one centimetre above our small shelter the wind hit like needles in our faces.
Yay, good morning.
As fast as we could we stuffed our gear back inside our bag, pulled on our downjackets, raintrousers, rainjackets, gloves... (I thought it was August right now?)
We walked, as fast as we could. Following the cairns and our GPS down into the valley.
In the morning we arrived back at our 'home' and drove to the swimmingpool as fast as we could.
In the hottubs and sauna we defrosted our hands, feet and face.
Right now we're waiting for the boat in a lovely little bar in Seydisfjörður called Skaftfell. The pie and real coffee was too good and on the couch here I could easily fall asleep.
I think we'd spent enough energy to survive the boat.
Wednesday, August 29, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
Iceland, the last Summer days
Iceland only knows two seasons.
Summer.
and Winter.
The second just arrived this week calling the end of our holiday.
The last week we went from Hnappavellir to our next and maybe favourite Icelandic wall: Fjallastakkanöf.
We decided it was probably easier to walk by the side of the river on the far right side of the wall up to the top of the cliff and the traverse to the top of the Basalt wall.
It turned out to be a good choice.
We wanted to repeat Hangikjöt again. We placed a bolt on the cliff and back-upped the bolt with our second rope around some rocks on the top of the wall.
We placed a big cairn on top of the cliff to point the location of the route.
It was raining (again) today so Dennis drew a topo of the climb whilst I finished my woolen sweater (love/needed it with this cold weather)
So here a description with the topo.
Hangikjöt.
An old AID route 'back in the time' Guðmunder Tómasson (pretty good photographer) and Guðmunder Helgi Christensen (known for his hard iceclimbs, and once been on the cover of Rock and Ice magazine)
Hangi literary means hanging, kjöt is the Icelandic word for meat. So, it's 'hanging-meat'. That's probably what they felt like when they were using the wall as training for 'the real thing' in Yosemite. Gummi told me it was cold, it took them a long time to figure how to be most efficient and it rained when they wanted to top out. They never topped out and the route has been there since then (early 90's)
Hangikjöt is also an Icelandic classic delicacy. To preserve the lamb meat over the winter time they salted, dried and smoked the meat an had it hang for weeks until it was dry, salty and very tasteful.
You can still buy this in every supermarket.
It's worth a try combined with a piece of 'flatbrauð and smjör' (classic Icelandic flat-bread and butter). Or as evening meal with green peas, boiled potatoes in caramel and beciamel suace. In Iceland often served at Christmas time.
Drive from Reykjavík in the direction of Höfn. At about 55km from Hnappavellir and 55km from Höfn, just before the tiny petrol station 'Hestgerði' you find a parking with a sign that tells you to watch birds from here. On the parking there is a small picknick and a couple of info plates that tell you more about the area. When you look up straight you see a small rivere coming down from the cliff, at about 1km left and up you find the columnar Basalt cliff called 'Fjallastakkanöf'.
Easiest is to abseil into the route, so you see where the 'throw-up-birds' are and maybe clean out some more loose stuff (we cleand out loads though).
Those birds, Fulmar, have youngs nested on the cliffs. As defence those fluffy grey things throw up some kind of fish-acid out of their stomach. They really throw it, so even more then 1m away you still catch it... The acid stinks and tends to 'indulge' into your clothes. Even if you wash it out (try to...) it's stays smelly forever.
Best is to climb the first pitch we call the 'dancing pillar' and make your first belay on the stainless orange coloured bolt (and back-up it with a BD .5 cam) on top of the small (1m higher then the first pillar) second pillar.
That fist pitch is definately the hardest.
It starts on where we made a small 'plateau' next to the end of the loose pillar (the last 1,5m is lying underneath the climb...) I climbed up in the right crack, placed some small stuff (smaller then BD .25) and balanced up to the underside of the pillar (fitting a yellow Wild Country Zero, and just some higher a yellow Totem). Then I lay-back to get my fingers 'stuck', and put my right knee on the crack with my right foot backwards to the right. My left foot tensioned on the wall facing to the left and my back logically leaning to the right of the crack. That way I could push myself up for quite some meters.
Then the crack gets wider fitting a purple, green and later even red and yellow cam. But, be careful:
once I placed the cams, I could start a bit of jamming. Once above the cam it all seemed to widen up and suddenly on the place where I had a purple cam it could now fit a green one (and so on).
At the top of the pillar I fitted a big grey cam, but later when Dennis climbed on and stood on top of the pillar he pushed off to get to the next hold. The whole pillar moved getting my foot and the cam stuck inside!
We guess this pitch is around 7a(+), but if you're tall/have tiny fingers it might be easier. (As always...)
Second pitch, starts with yet another loose pillar, but not as long as the first one. You hold the left and right side of the thing, changing to the left side only when you get higher.
You end up on that pillar and then the work actually starts. Following the crack holding again the left and right for a couple moves, turning to the left side again later. Dennis could spread out with his feet to the left and right, I was just too small to reach.
You keep on following the left crack until it breaks up in small cracks and some blocks stuck inside forming small cracks of at about 30-70cm.
There you turn to the right, bit of jamming, bit of lay-back in size purple to red BD 1. up to the belay.
The belay is two solid stainless steel bolts and four aluminums bolts (that used to be there for a portalegde when it was an AID route). The two bolts are connected with a brownish piece of rope and a maillon that we hung there for the abseil.
This pitch is around 6c we guess.
Then you climb out on the right side where you can perfectly fit a purple .5 cam and just some higher you find a rusty Bong.
Step 1m higher and traverse to the left, in the rock there is a thin piton, climb a bit more to the left and then follow the crack up(quite mossy, damp and dirty).
There are some loose blocks which make this pitch quite exposed. But your belayer stands to the right so is safe in case of rockfall. Climb 6-8m and there you find the first of four aluminium AID bolts. They're probably too corroded to hold any fall so it's safer just to place a cam in the crack. You'll need purple, red, yellow and blue (all double) for this crack. Safe one yellow one for the belay under the overhang.
Climbing out of the loose blocks into the fist (or arm) wide crack you can use a perfect kneebar to get higher.
From there you also find some strange horizontal cracks to hold on and step on next to the big hands/fist size crack.
Make your belay just under the small roof. One bolt has a steel hanger because we replaced an aluminium hanger, but it's still just a small 8mm bolt, secured with yet again a piece of brown rope. On the left of the belay you can fit a yellow, size 2 cam as backup.
This pitch is around 6b(+).
Now the last bit not long, but a bit scary at the top.
You climb into and out of the roof following the crack right of the belay. When standing on top of the blocks, traverse to the left for at about 2-3m, clip the piton on the way and place a good cam in the crack on the end of your traverse. Now climb straight up to end at the loose rocks/grass/moss/birds. And find an stainless orange bolt with a maillon, back-upped with an piece of orange rope that disappears under the cairn on the top of the cliff.
This is not really difficult climbing, but you 'must' climb. The small roof is really cool to climb I found :) At about 6a max.
We found this route better even then the classic first line on the wall called 'Orgelpipunar', located on the right side of the wall. It was opened by Doug Scott and some Icelanders showing him around on the island years and years ago.
Quite some people had tried the route but most (all?) bailed in the fist pitch
Orgelpipunar is graded as 5.10, but it's way, way harder then 5.10. Probably more like 5.11d on the first pitch.
The last pitch as a lot of unstable loose rock, more then in Hangikjöt.
Right of the route there is another old AID climb called 'Steinaregn' (stone-rain). We looked at it, but found it still a lot of stone rain.
Please, try this route here. It's just 90m so in a day you can do loads more then just this (if you have the right weather)
When we climbed it the rope was blowing up the cliff instead of falling down and our hands felt like we just climbed a proper ice route in winter time. (Hot eggs!)
The rain in the end didn't make it all easier either...
At the end of the day we bought icecream at the local farm (Brunnholl) and ate it in a hottub when the sun decided to show for the last time.
Now the temperatures have dropped to almost zero and they won't get up again until next Summer...
Summer.
and Winter.
The second just arrived this week calling the end of our holiday.
 |
| Snow arrived in the mountains |
 |
| View from our office |
 |
| Left side of Fjallastakkanöf |
 |
| Note the hexagon shaped block |
We decided it was probably easier to walk by the side of the river on the far right side of the wall up to the top of the cliff and the traverse to the top of the Basalt wall.
It turned out to be a good choice.
We wanted to repeat Hangikjöt again. We placed a bolt on the cliff and back-upped the bolt with our second rope around some rocks on the top of the wall.
We placed a big cairn on top of the cliff to point the location of the route.
It was raining (again) today so Dennis drew a topo of the climb whilst I finished my woolen sweater (love/needed it with this cold weather)
 |
| New sweater :) |
So here a description with the topo.
 |
| Hangikjöt |
Hangikjöt.
An old AID route 'back in the time' Guðmunder Tómasson (pretty good photographer) and Guðmunder Helgi Christensen (known for his hard iceclimbs, and once been on the cover of Rock and Ice magazine)
Hangi literary means hanging, kjöt is the Icelandic word for meat. So, it's 'hanging-meat'. That's probably what they felt like when they were using the wall as training for 'the real thing' in Yosemite. Gummi told me it was cold, it took them a long time to figure how to be most efficient and it rained when they wanted to top out. They never topped out and the route has been there since then (early 90's)
Hangikjöt is also an Icelandic classic delicacy. To preserve the lamb meat over the winter time they salted, dried and smoked the meat an had it hang for weeks until it was dry, salty and very tasteful.
You can still buy this in every supermarket.
 |
| Smoked lamb legs |
It's worth a try combined with a piece of 'flatbrauð and smjör' (classic Icelandic flat-bread and butter). Or as evening meal with green peas, boiled potatoes in caramel and beciamel suace. In Iceland often served at Christmas time.
 |
| On our way down the first time when it was still sunny |
Drive from Reykjavík in the direction of Höfn. At about 55km from Hnappavellir and 55km from Höfn, just before the tiny petrol station 'Hestgerði' you find a parking with a sign that tells you to watch birds from here. On the parking there is a small picknick and a couple of info plates that tell you more about the area. When you look up straight you see a small rivere coming down from the cliff, at about 1km left and up you find the columnar Basalt cliff called 'Fjallastakkanöf'.
Easiest is to abseil into the route, so you see where the 'throw-up-birds' are and maybe clean out some more loose stuff (we cleand out loads though).
Those birds, Fulmar, have youngs nested on the cliffs. As defence those fluffy grey things throw up some kind of fish-acid out of their stomach. They really throw it, so even more then 1m away you still catch it... The acid stinks and tends to 'indulge' into your clothes. Even if you wash it out (try to...) it's stays smelly forever.
 |
| Dennis under the first pitch |
Best is to climb the first pitch we call the 'dancing pillar' and make your first belay on the stainless orange coloured bolt (and back-up it with a BD .5 cam) on top of the small (1m higher then the first pillar) second pillar.
That fist pitch is definately the hardest.
It starts on where we made a small 'plateau' next to the end of the loose pillar (the last 1,5m is lying underneath the climb...) I climbed up in the right crack, placed some small stuff (smaller then BD .25) and balanced up to the underside of the pillar (fitting a yellow Wild Country Zero, and just some higher a yellow Totem). Then I lay-back to get my fingers 'stuck', and put my right knee on the crack with my right foot backwards to the right. My left foot tensioned on the wall facing to the left and my back logically leaning to the right of the crack. That way I could push myself up for quite some meters.
Then the crack gets wider fitting a purple, green and later even red and yellow cam. But, be careful:
once I placed the cams, I could start a bit of jamming. Once above the cam it all seemed to widen up and suddenly on the place where I had a purple cam it could now fit a green one (and so on).
At the top of the pillar I fitted a big grey cam, but later when Dennis climbed on and stood on top of the pillar he pushed off to get to the next hold. The whole pillar moved getting my foot and the cam stuck inside!
We guess this pitch is around 7a(+), but if you're tall/have tiny fingers it might be easier. (As always...)
 |
| The weird kneebar stuff |
 |
| Still weird |
 |
| Dennis seconding the first pitch |
You end up on that pillar and then the work actually starts. Following the crack holding again the left and right for a couple moves, turning to the left side again later. Dennis could spread out with his feet to the left and right, I was just too small to reach.
You keep on following the left crack until it breaks up in small cracks and some blocks stuck inside forming small cracks of at about 30-70cm.
There you turn to the right, bit of jamming, bit of lay-back in size purple to red BD 1. up to the belay.
The belay is two solid stainless steel bolts and four aluminums bolts (that used to be there for a portalegde when it was an AID route). The two bolts are connected with a brownish piece of rope and a maillon that we hung there for the abseil.
This pitch is around 6c we guess.
Then you climb out on the right side where you can perfectly fit a purple .5 cam and just some higher you find a rusty Bong.
Step 1m higher and traverse to the left, in the rock there is a thin piton, climb a bit more to the left and then follow the crack up(quite mossy, damp and dirty).
There are some loose blocks which make this pitch quite exposed. But your belayer stands to the right so is safe in case of rockfall. Climb 6-8m and there you find the first of four aluminium AID bolts. They're probably too corroded to hold any fall so it's safer just to place a cam in the crack. You'll need purple, red, yellow and blue (all double) for this crack. Safe one yellow one for the belay under the overhang.
Climbing out of the loose blocks into the fist (or arm) wide crack you can use a perfect kneebar to get higher.
From there you also find some strange horizontal cracks to hold on and step on next to the big hands/fist size crack.
Make your belay just under the small roof. One bolt has a steel hanger because we replaced an aluminium hanger, but it's still just a small 8mm bolt, secured with yet again a piece of brown rope. On the left of the belay you can fit a yellow, size 2 cam as backup.
This pitch is around 6b(+).
 |
| Dennis seconding the third pitch |
 |
| Almost there |
Now the last bit not long, but a bit scary at the top.
You climb into and out of the roof following the crack right of the belay. When standing on top of the blocks, traverse to the left for at about 2-3m, clip the piton on the way and place a good cam in the crack on the end of your traverse. Now climb straight up to end at the loose rocks/grass/moss/birds. And find an stainless orange bolt with a maillon, back-upped with an piece of orange rope that disappears under the cairn on the top of the cliff.
This is not really difficult climbing, but you 'must' climb. The small roof is really cool to climb I found :) At about 6a max.
We found this route better even then the classic first line on the wall called 'Orgelpipunar', located on the right side of the wall. It was opened by Doug Scott and some Icelanders showing him around on the island years and years ago.
Quite some people had tried the route but most (all?) bailed in the fist pitch
Orgelpipunar is graded as 5.10, but it's way, way harder then 5.10. Probably more like 5.11d on the first pitch.
The last pitch as a lot of unstable loose rock, more then in Hangikjöt.
Right of the route there is another old AID climb called 'Steinaregn' (stone-rain). We looked at it, but found it still a lot of stone rain.
Please, try this route here. It's just 90m so in a day you can do loads more then just this (if you have the right weather)
When we climbed it the rope was blowing up the cliff instead of falling down and our hands felt like we just climbed a proper ice route in winter time. (Hot eggs!)
The rain in the end didn't make it all easier either...
 |
| Yes, it was really cold |
At the end of the day we bought icecream at the local farm (Brunnholl) and ate it in a hottub when the sun decided to show for the last time.
 |
| Moooh, under the cliff |
 |
| The sign at the Brúnhóll farm |
 |
| Icecream & hottub @Hoffell |
Now the temperatures have dropped to almost zero and they won't get up again until next Summer...
 |
| Monkey is cold |
Friday, August 24, 2012
RVK (Reykjavík) - Höfn
RVK is short for writing Reykjavík in Icelandic.
The capital of Iceland.
To be honest...not the most interesting place in Iceland.
But maybe thats because the contrast is so big. (And yes you can find good culture in Reykjavik, the small old Opera house is beautiful, the musea are nice, some good art can be found on the streets...)
It could have been any Danish average town: cinema, coffeehouses, shopping centres, and a blend of Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian, Russian and some tiny amount of Dutch, French, German and other Europeans. In Iceland they're called Icelanders :)
Iceland originally wasn't inhabited, Irish monks were the first to find quietness and piece in the wilderness of the island. Later Scandinavians inhabited the island, with 'Graenland' (later they changed the name to Iceland, and Greenland was actually called Iceland, but they needed more people to live on the ice-land, so they swapped names) being part of Norway and later Denmark.
It's been part of Denmark until just after WW2. And since June 17. 1944 Iceland is an independent republic.
So a lot of Danish influences here and, American...
Iceland was (and I guess still is) a very strategic location for defending the States form Russia (Cold war issues, not to confuse with Cod war) and having a good lookout over the whole of Europe.
So the US Army had a base on Iceland, actually during and after the war they 'occupied' the island brining all kinds of food, cars, machines and habits to Iceland.
This (food)habits are still part of common Icelandic culture.
For example, Icelanders tend to drive enormous jeeps and only use them to shop for groceries, you can buy 'pylsu' (hot dog) on the streets, it's common to go to the cinema, if you do you'll buy a 'popp og kók' (popcorn and cola) and afterwards you drive useless circles in the city center with your car. (The only real trafficjams to be found here are the ones caused by rows of cars driving around in the city center curing the night)
But there are old, classic things left as well.
Knitting for example.
Almost every woman here knows how to knit. Mainly hats and sweaters and the more advanced know to knit socks, gloves, dresses and more.
When I started living in Iceland I noticed the knitting thing. And I asked my mum to teach me the skill.
She learned me to knit socks, hats, sweaters and more. And right now I'm knitting a sweater again and even found it fun!
Maybe I'll find myself a 'prjónaklubb' somewhere in the Netherlands. Chat a bit in Iceland and knit sweaters together with other woman :)
Interesting fact: Icelandic girls will form a 'knitting club' at primary school and for their whole life they often stay part of that same group. They won't just knit together but organise meals, go swimming, hiking or just meet up once a month for a cup of tea.
And oh, yes, jewellery, Reykjavik has quite a lot of Goldsmiths.
As memory of my time in Iceland I wanted to have a piece of Iceland with me. A necklace made by an Iceland with a piece of an Icelandic stone.
In the small shop 'Eureka' I found the one I wanted.
Dennis, how romantic gave it to me.
For the first time a boyfriend gave me jewellery as present. So sweet :)
So. Enough about Icelanders.
You can probably find it all on WIKI.
Time for climbing news :)
It started raining in the Oraefisveit area. (Skaftafell, Hnappavellir...) so we decided to visit a couple of pillars not far from Reykjavik.
In Reykjavik it was raining as well. Great...
We made a small travelling plan for the upcoming week: Reykjavik - Gerduberg - Landmannalaugar - Thorsmork - Skaftafell.
So Gerðuberg (as you write it in Icelandic) is at about 2 hrs driving North-East driving through the Hvalfjordurgong tunnel, pass Borgafjordur and drive the road 54. Just after the tiny vulcano 'Eldborg' you can already see the wall on your right hand.
Turn in at the sign that says 'Gerduberg' and park under the cliff.
There are some topo's of the area. Although not all (possible) routes are in this one, I find it gives the best view on the area. (Credits to Siggi. Use Google Translate to get it into a more understandable language)
More info on where to find the location of the area here.
Note: it's forbidden to bolt the cliffs, as it's a nature area that is visited by loads of tourists because of it's rare basalt formation.
We found Gerduberg a perfect area to start your trad career. The routes vary in difficulty from French 4c/5a up to 7a/b. The cliff isn't too tall so it's easy to get instructions, and at the top there are several bolts to hang in topropes. (Use long slings or static rope to avoid ropedrag and wear of your rope)
You can learn finger, hand, fist and even off-width climbing :)
We spent 2 days in the area, then it started raining again, so we decided to start our inland offroad driving adventure to Landmannalaugar.
I'd love to show you our route on Google Maps, but following Maps, our route doesn't exist :)
We bought a detailed map in Borgafjordur (forgot mine at home...) and went off.
We drove passed a lake and wanted to know if our Syncro was able to drive the smallest Icelandic roads called 'Slóðir'. We passed a driver in a high Gold coloured Toyota Landcruiser on a small road. The man in stopped, tried to explain in sign-language that the road was closed.
I smiled on answered him in Icelandic. You saw the relief on his face.
He explained the road was on his land and he closed it off with fences. It was extremely hard to drive, so he was quite sure we couldn't go on.
I told him the road was marked as ongoing path on my brand new map and that the car was a proper 4x4. He hardly believed me, but after a bit of chatting he gave us permission to try it and drive over his land. As long as we would close the fences again.
We smiled, and he probably expected us to be back on the main road again in less then 15 minutes. But...we made it all the way. We had to lock the tires, drove in the lowest gear, thought the car would go on it's side but we made it perfectly all the way.
Totally proud that our Syncro made it.
We drove on for a bit more, passing signs that said only 'real' 4x4 vehicles were allowed here and stopped on the top of a hill in the dark. Tired of the exciting driving we slept well.
The next morning we would drive over another tiny road, crossing rivers and enormous amounts of lava and black sand. Ending close to the 'Golden Circle' route that tourists with small rental cars drive.
On the other side of the river stood a small Suzuki rental, man hands on his hips, looking at the small river he wasn't sure about how to cross.
I walked over (it was that small) and Dennis crossed with the van. The man was still confused and we told him if he'd just drive sure, steady in the same line as we drove he'd easily make it.
And so he did.
We stopped for lunch at Gullfoss and drove to hit the 'Landmannaleid' in the inlands to Landmannalaugar.
That road was actually worse to drive then the 'hardest and smallest' as it was one long 'waffleboard' bumping us on to Landmannalaugar. You know, in some fitness centres they have this plate that shakes, you have to hold it and they claim it's a perfect way to burn fat. I think it works...
We arrived, tired again, this time because of the bumping around and all the dust.
The next day I'd run my epic run.
Landmannalaugar - Thorsmork
The classic walk to attend in Iceland is the Laugavegur(inn). You walk from Landmannalaugar to Hraftinnusker, Alftavatn, Emstrur and end in Thorsmork (or add another day or 2 and end in Skogar at the sea)
You really walk from no-mans land between the lava, Rhyolite, Obscidian, steaming hot soil, snow and green mosses to the flourishing forestry greenlands of Thorsmork.
It's a beautiful walk.
But I'm a climber not a mountain walker.
The mountains in the area are not really 'climbing mountains'. So I doubted, should I walk it...? I'd done it already, years ago with my parents.
Suddenly, at one of my funny thoughts (sometimes I keep on thinking and thinking) I decided it would be possible to run it.
I Googled the walk and figured theres even a competition in running the Laguavegurinn. 'Ultra Marathon' they call it, following the site it's 55km.
That means it's possible.
At home in the Netherlands I sometimes had 'funny' escapades in my running. I'd run to Gouda (47km or something) and back, to the other side of Rotterdam, or just 5km in the morning to stay fit.
So I sort of was in shape, but running 55km with a small backpack in the mountains and also navigating and stuff is something different.
I decided to just try. If else I'd never know if it was possible.
That morning around 10-ish I left, Dennis took some pictures at the start and I'd text him on the way when I'd arrive at a hut with telephone reception on the way.
Dennis would be my personal back-up team. He had his own adventure. Driving the 'slodir' to the different huts in case I'd fall dead (or just sprain my ankle) as back-up.
The roads were steep, vague and bumpy. Quite something to drive on your own.
He'd meet me at Alftavatn, at about 24km after Landmannalaugar. I was so fast that I already had my break and went on for Emstrur before Dennis reached the hut. We both had no phone reception, so no way to communicate (should have had a radio in the van).
After I crossed another big river (barefoot to spare my runningshoes) I suddenly met 'the man with the iceaxe'...I got passed by a white van. Dennis!
I was happy to meet him.
We were for a couple of k's on the same road so he drove with me for a while, telling the story about his hard core epic offroad driving adventure.
And then I turned into the soft black sands.
Really hard to run that bit although it was all flat.
Emstrur seemed really far away. Sometimes I walked soaking away in the sand with my feet.
Happy to reach the hut I took a long break to eat my pasta meal.
At every stop I wrote my name in the travel book. The book is a safety back up that can be used if people get lost.
Some Dutch travelers noticed my Dutch name. A peeky woman asked me what I was doing. I told her I was running the Laguavegurinn. She felt a bit intimidated by my answer and first didn't believe me.
After a while she wanted to have my picture and asked me when I'd be on the Olympics. (Which made the story even more complicated because I told her Iceclimbing wasn't Olympic yet)
I decided it was time to go on, before I was stuck on that woman for any longer.
The last bit was the longest (as always, the 'man with the hammer' comes at a certain moment...when you don't want it and don't expect it.)
The loose lava stones kept on moving under my feet, making it hard to run fast. I was probably faster walking then running the bit.
The weather started to turn, some fog came in, making it harder to find the poles marking the route.
Too late I turned on my GPS, I'd already missed a left turn. So I hard to run back...
Later the poles were visible again, but I wasn't sure which ones to follow. The whole route was marked with first white, then yellow, then red then blue poles, so I decided to follow the blue ones. It turned out I had to follow the red ones...Running back again, not for too long though, as my GPS told me the right way. I was happy I didn't had to stop and take out my map.
Making the 55km into 60 I was glad to suddenly see the hut in the green grass of Thorsmork. Almost 5000 kcal, 3L of water, at about 7 hours of running (including 2x20min rest), a bit of walking, over 60km later... I made it, I actually made it. All the way.
I sat down for a while, scrolled through all the pictures I took on the way and called my mum and dad.
My dad had his birthday that day. And he just made his epic 'run'. My parents cycled to Rome and arrived. Read here all about their story.
I still had to cross the big river where Dennis was waiting for me.
He texted he'd already cooked dinner.
I almost lost my phone when I changed into my rain jacket and when I walked back I got a hitch by the guards of the hut in a huge jeep over the big river.
Tired but satisfied I was just in time for dinner.
It rained even more and we were done with all the offroad bumping. Dennis had to fix his rear shock absorber (thanks to the bolt he got from a Quad driver he met on the way). We're still not sure if the trembling sound of the whishbones in the front is bad or good-enough-to-drive-on-with.
So we headed for Skaftafell taking some hitch hikers with us on the way and decided we needed two restdays.
In the rain, after 1,5 days we found we should do something.
And as we're sponsored by a brand that says 'for the most extreme conditions' we decided that the rain and wind was just enough to test our rainjackets. Glacier climbing it was.
We were actually looking for big caves with steep overhanging ice. But soloing in the crevasses was fun as well.
The next day we drove to Hnappavellir. To get the musclesoreness our of our bodies we wanted to climb 'Loddudrangur'. A lone standing cliff in the sands at Hnappavallir.
Half way it got a huge old Eagle nest. Just climbing to the nest would be fun already. We wanted to climb the whole route.
Graded as 5.10 (in fact a really classic 5.10, so more like hard 5.11 in real life) and all trad.
No bolts at the top as it is believed that elves live on this cliff (you shouldn't disturb elves, it gives you a bad karma).
It took us a while to climb it actually. But it was fun to reach the top and see we weren't the first. It was full of sheep shit. (Yes we were sure it was sheep shit)
How the F* could a sheep ever end up there?! On the back it was easier to climb up, but still at least 8m of 5.9-5.10 90 degree rockclimbing!
The sheep was gone (carried up and down by Trolls?) and we figured a way to get down: fix a rope on one side of the cliff (or onto the back of your car) and abseil on the other side.
Later we met local Valdi with his dog (and my ex boyfriend). Good to see him again and chat along about the climbing, the area and more.
But it was time to head on.
Fjallastakkanof was still on our list.
We passed all the glaciers in the rain and arrived in the dark again.
Still too cloudy to see any Northernlights...
We wanted to have a re-go at Hangikjöt, the old AID route by Gummi and Gummi (why are all Icelanders called Gummi?! Gudmunder Tomasson and Gudmunder Helgi Christensen)
The first pitch is a hanging pillar.
Hanging.
Yes...
Dennis only wanted to go up if I'd do the first pitch.
I got up, after millions of tries.
The higher I got the wider the crack. It started with a weird chimney, to knee locking whilst chimneying to tight fingers chimney climbing until it was just too big to get your fist in.
The higher I got the stranger it became to place the cams. When I hung under the cam it was hard to get the right size cam in, then above it they suddenly seems to fit perfectly. At the top of the pillar I could finally get a cam in on the more stable right pillar.
I made a belay and Dennis could second it.
He did a really good job climbing it in once straight away! Though it looked hard for him too.
He climbed on. I had a belay sitting on a loose block having one foot inside the crack to keep balance just above it I had a cam size BD4. for Dennis to continue the climb.
Suddenly Dennis moved a bit too much on the pillar. The cam got stuck and so did my foot. The wide crack where I had my foot loosely placed just to keep balance was suddenly so narrow that my foot got stuck!
"Holy shit" or something similar, I said softly not to disturb Dennis' climbing.
Just a bit later I asked him to place a bolt on the more stable non-hnaging pillar.
When hammering the pillar that I'd just climbed bounced softly in the rythm.
Not much later it was time to abseil.
We reckon the climb is around 7a, maybe 7b, 3 pitches, but better to climb it in 4 to avoid rope dragging in the crack.
Oh, yes, Hangikjöt, because it's AID. Literary it means hanging meat. I heard they climbed it with bad weather, had it as a training for real big wall climbing in Yosemite and even hung their portaledge in the second (or third) belay. Hangikjot is typical Icelandic sheep meat, hung to smoke and dry for preservation reasons. A classic way to store meat and still a delicacy.
That evening we took a good bath at Hoffell close to Höfn in a semi-natural hot-tub (drill holes) enjoying the last bit of sunlight and rain clouds above the mountains.
And today we're in Höfn, enjoying the internet :)
The capital of Iceland.
To be honest...not the most interesting place in Iceland.
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| Seltjarnarnes a land tongue at Reykjavik |
It could have been any Danish average town: cinema, coffeehouses, shopping centres, and a blend of Irish, Scottish, Scandinavian, Russian and some tiny amount of Dutch, French, German and other Europeans. In Iceland they're called Icelanders :)
Iceland originally wasn't inhabited, Irish monks were the first to find quietness and piece in the wilderness of the island. Later Scandinavians inhabited the island, with 'Graenland' (later they changed the name to Iceland, and Greenland was actually called Iceland, but they needed more people to live on the ice-land, so they swapped names) being part of Norway and later Denmark.
It's been part of Denmark until just after WW2. And since June 17. 1944 Iceland is an independent republic.
So a lot of Danish influences here and, American...
Iceland was (and I guess still is) a very strategic location for defending the States form Russia (Cold war issues, not to confuse with Cod war) and having a good lookout over the whole of Europe.
So the US Army had a base on Iceland, actually during and after the war they 'occupied' the island brining all kinds of food, cars, machines and habits to Iceland.
This (food)habits are still part of common Icelandic culture.
For example, Icelanders tend to drive enormous jeeps and only use them to shop for groceries, you can buy 'pylsu' (hot dog) on the streets, it's common to go to the cinema, if you do you'll buy a 'popp og kók' (popcorn and cola) and afterwards you drive useless circles in the city center with your car. (The only real trafficjams to be found here are the ones caused by rows of cars driving around in the city center curing the night)
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| Pamela, one of the big jeeps, 'she' even has a Facebook page |
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| Puffins, lovely to see, nice to eat |
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| Another typical Icelandic thing to eat: boiled lab-head |
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| Skyr, an Icelandic diary product |
Knitting for example.
Almost every woman here knows how to knit. Mainly hats and sweaters and the more advanced know to knit socks, gloves, dresses and more.
When I started living in Iceland I noticed the knitting thing. And I asked my mum to teach me the skill.
She learned me to knit socks, hats, sweaters and more. And right now I'm knitting a sweater again and even found it fun!
Maybe I'll find myself a 'prjónaklubb' somewhere in the Netherlands. Chat a bit in Iceland and knit sweaters together with other woman :)
Interesting fact: Icelandic girls will form a 'knitting club' at primary school and for their whole life they often stay part of that same group. They won't just knit together but organise meals, go swimming, hiking or just meet up once a month for a cup of tea.
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| The start of my sweater, 3 weeks later almost finished |
And oh, yes, jewellery, Reykjavik has quite a lot of Goldsmiths.
As memory of my time in Iceland I wanted to have a piece of Iceland with me. A necklace made by an Iceland with a piece of an Icelandic stone.
In the small shop 'Eureka' I found the one I wanted.
Dennis, how romantic gave it to me.
For the first time a boyfriend gave me jewellery as present. So sweet :)
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| At Eureka, feeling like a real tourist... |
So. Enough about Icelanders.
You can probably find it all on WIKI.
Time for climbing news :)
It started raining in the Oraefisveit area. (Skaftafell, Hnappavellir...) so we decided to visit a couple of pillars not far from Reykjavik.
In Reykjavik it was raining as well. Great...
We made a small travelling plan for the upcoming week: Reykjavik - Gerduberg - Landmannalaugar - Thorsmork - Skaftafell.
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| The low stripe on the horizon in front of the mountains is the climbing area Gerduberg |
So Gerðuberg (as you write it in Icelandic) is at about 2 hrs driving North-East driving through the Hvalfjordurgong tunnel, pass Borgafjordur and drive the road 54. Just after the tiny vulcano 'Eldborg' you can already see the wall on your right hand.
Turn in at the sign that says 'Gerduberg' and park under the cliff.
There are some topo's of the area. Although not all (possible) routes are in this one, I find it gives the best view on the area. (Credits to Siggi. Use Google Translate to get it into a more understandable language)
More info on where to find the location of the area here.
Note: it's forbidden to bolt the cliffs, as it's a nature area that is visited by loads of tourists because of it's rare basalt formation.
We found Gerduberg a perfect area to start your trad career. The routes vary in difficulty from French 4c/5a up to 7a/b. The cliff isn't too tall so it's easy to get instructions, and at the top there are several bolts to hang in topropes. (Use long slings or static rope to avoid ropedrag and wear of your rope)
You can learn finger, hand, fist and even off-width climbing :)
We spent 2 days in the area, then it started raining again, so we decided to start our inland offroad driving adventure to Landmannalaugar.
I'd love to show you our route on Google Maps, but following Maps, our route doesn't exist :)
We bought a detailed map in Borgafjordur (forgot mine at home...) and went off.
We drove passed a lake and wanted to know if our Syncro was able to drive the smallest Icelandic roads called 'Slóðir'. We passed a driver in a high Gold coloured Toyota Landcruiser on a small road. The man in stopped, tried to explain in sign-language that the road was closed.
I smiled on answered him in Icelandic. You saw the relief on his face.
He explained the road was on his land and he closed it off with fences. It was extremely hard to drive, so he was quite sure we couldn't go on.
I told him the road was marked as ongoing path on my brand new map and that the car was a proper 4x4. He hardly believed me, but after a bit of chatting he gave us permission to try it and drive over his land. As long as we would close the fences again.
We smiled, and he probably expected us to be back on the main road again in less then 15 minutes. But...we made it all the way. We had to lock the tires, drove in the lowest gear, thought the car would go on it's side but we made it perfectly all the way.
Totally proud that our Syncro made it.
We drove on for a bit more, passing signs that said only 'real' 4x4 vehicles were allowed here and stopped on the top of a hill in the dark. Tired of the exciting driving we slept well.
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| Driving in Africa :) |
The next morning we would drive over another tiny road, crossing rivers and enormous amounts of lava and black sand. Ending close to the 'Golden Circle' route that tourists with small rental cars drive.
On the other side of the river stood a small Suzuki rental, man hands on his hips, looking at the small river he wasn't sure about how to cross.
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| A sign about crossing rivers |
I walked over (it was that small) and Dennis crossed with the van. The man was still confused and we told him if he'd just drive sure, steady in the same line as we drove he'd easily make it.
And so he did.
We stopped for lunch at Gullfoss and drove to hit the 'Landmannaleid' in the inlands to Landmannalaugar.
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| Gullfoss (golden waterfall) |
That road was actually worse to drive then the 'hardest and smallest' as it was one long 'waffleboard' bumping us on to Landmannalaugar. You know, in some fitness centres they have this plate that shakes, you have to hold it and they claim it's a perfect way to burn fat. I think it works...
We arrived, tired again, this time because of the bumping around and all the dust.
The next day I'd run my epic run.
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| Landmannalaugar |
Landmannalaugar - Thorsmork
The classic walk to attend in Iceland is the Laugavegur(inn). You walk from Landmannalaugar to Hraftinnusker, Alftavatn, Emstrur and end in Thorsmork (or add another day or 2 and end in Skogar at the sea)
You really walk from no-mans land between the lava, Rhyolite, Obscidian, steaming hot soil, snow and green mosses to the flourishing forestry greenlands of Thorsmork.
It's a beautiful walk.
But I'm a climber not a mountain walker.
The mountains in the area are not really 'climbing mountains'. So I doubted, should I walk it...? I'd done it already, years ago with my parents.
Suddenly, at one of my funny thoughts (sometimes I keep on thinking and thinking) I decided it would be possible to run it.
I Googled the walk and figured theres even a competition in running the Laguavegurinn. 'Ultra Marathon' they call it, following the site it's 55km.
That means it's possible.
At home in the Netherlands I sometimes had 'funny' escapades in my running. I'd run to Gouda (47km or something) and back, to the other side of Rotterdam, or just 5km in the morning to stay fit.
So I sort of was in shape, but running 55km with a small backpack in the mountains and also navigating and stuff is something different.
I decided to just try. If else I'd never know if it was possible.
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| A roadsign I found on my way to Thorsmork |
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| At the start of my run |
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| The view from the mountains between Hraftinnusker and Alftavatn |
That morning around 10-ish I left, Dennis took some pictures at the start and I'd text him on the way when I'd arrive at a hut with telephone reception on the way.
Dennis would be my personal back-up team. He had his own adventure. Driving the 'slodir' to the different huts in case I'd fall dead (or just sprain my ankle) as back-up.
The roads were steep, vague and bumpy. Quite something to drive on your own.
He'd meet me at Alftavatn, at about 24km after Landmannalaugar. I was so fast that I already had my break and went on for Emstrur before Dennis reached the hut. We both had no phone reception, so no way to communicate (should have had a radio in the van).
After I crossed another big river (barefoot to spare my runningshoes) I suddenly met 'the man with the iceaxe'...I got passed by a white van. Dennis!
I was happy to meet him.
We were for a couple of k's on the same road so he drove with me for a while, telling the story about his hard core epic offroad driving adventure.
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| The white dust dot in the distance is Dennis in his van, this is where the road turn into a sandpath... |
And then I turned into the soft black sands.
Really hard to run that bit although it was all flat.
Emstrur seemed really far away. Sometimes I walked soaking away in the sand with my feet.
Happy to reach the hut I took a long break to eat my pasta meal.
At every stop I wrote my name in the travel book. The book is a safety back up that can be used if people get lost.
Some Dutch travelers noticed my Dutch name. A peeky woman asked me what I was doing. I told her I was running the Laguavegurinn. She felt a bit intimidated by my answer and first didn't believe me.
After a while she wanted to have my picture and asked me when I'd be on the Olympics. (Which made the story even more complicated because I told her Iceclimbing wasn't Olympic yet)
I decided it was time to go on, before I was stuck on that woman for any longer.
The last bit was the longest (as always, the 'man with the hammer' comes at a certain moment...when you don't want it and don't expect it.)
The loose lava stones kept on moving under my feet, making it hard to run fast. I was probably faster walking then running the bit.
The weather started to turn, some fog came in, making it harder to find the poles marking the route.
Too late I turned on my GPS, I'd already missed a left turn. So I hard to run back...
Later the poles were visible again, but I wasn't sure which ones to follow. The whole route was marked with first white, then yellow, then red then blue poles, so I decided to follow the blue ones. It turned out I had to follow the red ones...Running back again, not for too long though, as my GPS told me the right way. I was happy I didn't had to stop and take out my map.
Making the 55km into 60 I was glad to suddenly see the hut in the green grass of Thorsmork. Almost 5000 kcal, 3L of water, at about 7 hours of running (including 2x20min rest), a bit of walking, over 60km later... I made it, I actually made it. All the way.
I sat down for a while, scrolled through all the pictures I took on the way and called my mum and dad.
My dad had his birthday that day. And he just made his epic 'run'. My parents cycled to Rome and arrived. Read here all about their story.
I still had to cross the big river where Dennis was waiting for me.
He texted he'd already cooked dinner.
I almost lost my phone when I changed into my rain jacket and when I walked back I got a hitch by the guards of the hut in a huge jeep over the big river.
Tired but satisfied I was just in time for dinner.
It rained even more and we were done with all the offroad bumping. Dennis had to fix his rear shock absorber (thanks to the bolt he got from a Quad driver he met on the way). We're still not sure if the trembling sound of the whishbones in the front is bad or good-enough-to-drive-on-with.
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| Oops, Dennis lost the bolt of his shockabsober |
So we headed for Skaftafell taking some hitch hikers with us on the way and decided we needed two restdays.
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| At Svinafellsjokull |
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| Japanese tourists on Virkisjokull, they apparently aren't wearing RAB rainjackets |
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| Svinafellsjokull |
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| Virkisjoukull |
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| Cool soling at Virkisjokull |
In the rain, after 1,5 days we found we should do something.
And as we're sponsored by a brand that says 'for the most extreme conditions' we decided that the rain and wind was just enough to test our rainjackets. Glacier climbing it was.
We were actually looking for big caves with steep overhanging ice. But soloing in the crevasses was fun as well.
The next day we drove to Hnappavellir. To get the musclesoreness our of our bodies we wanted to climb 'Loddudrangur'. A lone standing cliff in the sands at Hnappavallir.
Half way it got a huge old Eagle nest. Just climbing to the nest would be fun already. We wanted to climb the whole route.
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| Loddudrangi |
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| The 50 year old Eagle nest, note the horseshoe! |
Graded as 5.10 (in fact a really classic 5.10, so more like hard 5.11 in real life) and all trad.
No bolts at the top as it is believed that elves live on this cliff (you shouldn't disturb elves, it gives you a bad karma).
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| At the Eaglenest |
How the F* could a sheep ever end up there?! On the back it was easier to climb up, but still at least 8m of 5.9-5.10 90 degree rockclimbing!
The sheep was gone (carried up and down by Trolls?) and we figured a way to get down: fix a rope on one side of the cliff (or onto the back of your car) and abseil on the other side.
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| Top! |
Later we met local Valdi with his dog (and my ex boyfriend). Good to see him again and chat along about the climbing, the area and more.
But it was time to head on.
Fjallastakkanof was still on our list.
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| Fjallastakkanof |
We passed all the glaciers in the rain and arrived in the dark again.
Still too cloudy to see any Northernlights...
We wanted to have a re-go at Hangikjöt, the old AID route by Gummi and Gummi (why are all Icelanders called Gummi?! Gudmunder Tomasson and Gudmunder Helgi Christensen)
The first pitch is a hanging pillar.
Hanging.
Yes...
Dennis only wanted to go up if I'd do the first pitch.
I got up, after millions of tries.
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| The first pitch in Hangikjot |
The higher I got the wider the crack. It started with a weird chimney, to knee locking whilst chimneying to tight fingers chimney climbing until it was just too big to get your fist in.
The higher I got the stranger it became to place the cams. When I hung under the cam it was hard to get the right size cam in, then above it they suddenly seems to fit perfectly. At the top of the pillar I could finally get a cam in on the more stable right pillar.
I made a belay and Dennis could second it.
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| Dennis seconding the loose pillar |
He did a really good job climbing it in once straight away! Though it looked hard for him too.
He climbed on. I had a belay sitting on a loose block having one foot inside the crack to keep balance just above it I had a cam size BD4. for Dennis to continue the climb.
Suddenly Dennis moved a bit too much on the pillar. The cam got stuck and so did my foot. The wide crack where I had my foot loosely placed just to keep balance was suddenly so narrow that my foot got stuck!
"Holy shit" or something similar, I said softly not to disturb Dennis' climbing.
Just a bit later I asked him to place a bolt on the more stable non-hnaging pillar.
When hammering the pillar that I'd just climbed bounced softly in the rythm.
Not much later it was time to abseil.
We reckon the climb is around 7a, maybe 7b, 3 pitches, but better to climb it in 4 to avoid rope dragging in the crack.
Oh, yes, Hangikjöt, because it's AID. Literary it means hanging meat. I heard they climbed it with bad weather, had it as a training for real big wall climbing in Yosemite and even hung their portaledge in the second (or third) belay. Hangikjot is typical Icelandic sheep meat, hung to smoke and dry for preservation reasons. A classic way to store meat and still a delicacy.
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| Breakfast! With Crow berries :) |
That evening we took a good bath at Hoffell close to Höfn in a semi-natural hot-tub (drill holes) enjoying the last bit of sunlight and rain clouds above the mountains.
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| The bath at Hoffell |
And today we're in Höfn, enjoying the internet :)
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| My sweater in progress |
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