Yet Another Ski Trip!

The coming of the midnight sun

I was invited by Johan, a great guy and Norwegian turned Icelander on a trip to a cabin about 50km North of Akureyri for a ski trip full of fun and drinking.

Loading up the sleds

Looks like a Grand Canyon cooler (Thanks Bohmer!)

We took a few snowmobiles into the cabin to help get all of our gear, food and beer in and met some of the people who were already there.

Our arrival

The crew on arrival, patiently waiting for us

The plan was to show up, get unloaded and go for a ski in the afternoon, which we did. It was a nice little hike, skied about 900 vertical meters through some nice slushy spring snow.

Looking across the valley before our hike

Sigfreið and Johan on the way up

Johan looking up Trölldalur (valley of trolls)

We had a nice little ski, the three of us and returned to the cabin to start dinner and have a few drinks and play some games. I learned a new dice game, lots of fun, great way to make your friends get silly and do stupid things. the penalty for losing the game was you had to read about some Icelander's travel jounral from South America, written in Icelandic, fortunately I would not lose any games this night so I spared my tounge and my freinds' ears. We had a mexican lasagne that Kiddi and Greta brought for a few of us to share, it was great and filled me up nicely for some more drinking. At this point in the year, the sun was starting to creep its way into the nighttime, and it never really got dark the whole trip.

I took this photo at about midnight

Our home and valley for a couple of nights

We continued our binge well into the morning and went to sleep late. When we woke up the weather was less than pleasant. It was a combination of rain, snow and sleet, not exactly ideal hiking weather, so we hung out laughed and made breakfast and hoped that Johan's prediction of nicer weather in the afternoon would come true. We waited it out and were rewarded handsomely. I joined Alli, Lonni, Oli, and Elli for a nice hike up a ridge to the north of our cabin. We took the sleds to the base and hiked for about an hour to the top.

Our view looking across the valley from the top

Another view to the North from the top, the arctic ocean in the distance

Lonni shredding on his way down

Alli cutting some nice lines

We had sunshine for most of the hike, and it was glorious from the top, it took us very little time to ski down but it was nothing but fun the whole way.

We returned to the cabin and proceeded to put together dinner and continue our weekend binge.
We had Tandoori chicken and the rest of the group put together some very tasty lamb legs, very nice indeed.

The debauchery begins!

And continues!
And even makes the world a little crooked

We spent another night drinking, this time until 430 am or so. All of us having quite a few, there were more drinking games, Icelandic boggle, and a whole lot of fun.

Getting towed out behind the snowmobiles

What a sensible looking group!

Great times were had by all, and truly a great way to finish off an epic ski season here in the north of Iceland. On the way down, we towed to the top of one last peak and skied away. We de-rigged, put the sleds on their trailers and all headed back home to nurse our hang-overs and talk about what a silly good time we had

Weekend Ski Touring

Ski Touring Iceland Style

So, the regular ski/snowboard folks here in Akureyri were busy the weekend of April 25, so they sent me on a mission to meet up with some folks from Reykjavik for some ski touring (ski up a hill then ski down the hill)

Met them at a nice hut in the hills about 45 minutes from home

We drove 15 minutes to hike up a hill next to "the horse" the mountain was called Hafrarhnjukur, (ten points if you can pronounce it! no cheating if you speak Icelandic) and we had some great times going up and coming down

Goli stoked on his skis

On the way up the valley came and went in the snow

Where are we going? I don't know somewhere up there (all in Icelandic)

A stop for some fuel

Getting there

Getting closer

Almost there

And finally on the top!

Skiing down

Nice lines

They got some great video, but I have yet to see it. (helmet cam footage)

Fun stuff

Haulin' ass

After the ski, we drove about an hour to Olafsfjordur for some more skiing.

The approach

We needed to cross a creek, and forgot to do so at a bridge, so huck your skis across and find the driest way over!

This time the destination was Ytrarfjall, by this time the snow had gotten really slushy and sticky so the going up was not so easy. The approach was also a lot steeper than the last mountain.

I bonked about 2/3 of the way up and had to stop and refuel while the rest continued on. ( In my defense these guys were on day 4 of 5 of their non-stop mission, I came off a somewhat late night as usual for a graduate student's weekend).
We got to the top and it was foggy and snowy, but the sun broke as we began our descent.

About to descend with Olafsfjordur in the background

Skiing down

At this point my energy was all but gone, I was starting to ski quite terribly, had one fall, got up and skied another 10 turns to an epic faceplant. On my way down, my telemark ski smacked me in the face, rung my bell and gave me a cool new facial feature for a little while. During my fall, the snow was so wet, I started a small slushy slide that built up below me and carried down into the valley. We all laughed it off and apperently it made for some great video and now I am an international star of telemark skiing carnage!

Stay tuned for more skiing stories!

Touring The East Fjords- Easter Break

Touring The East Fjords

Easter break became the first opportunity for me to get out and explore for a few days as it was to be our only true break for the year aside from Christmas, which is a long time from now. So, I packed up my trusty Toyota Hilux and headed to the East Fjords in search of adventure and beauty, I found both. Most of this post will be pictures, and I hope they speak for themselves.

The east is rugged country, with waterfalls around every bend, and small creeks feeding into the endless fjords.

I hiked up this creek for a little while
Waterfalls, everywhere

Typical scenery along the coast

More waterfalls around every bend

And beautiful river valleys leading to the ocean

Such an nice, relaxing place
And some cool plant life along the way
The landscape is rife with colorful scenery, you just have to look closely

I spent the first night at a neat little guest house that I just happened to stumble upon while taking pictures and enjoying the rivers I found. I did not take any pictures of the place, but it was a nice, quiet restful night, I was the only one in the house with a German elderly couple sleeping outside in their van. I did not even see the care-taker, but it was a nice find in the country.
I woke up and continued on my way down the coast, finding more beautiful things around every bend.

The usual scenery from the Ring Road

I drove as far as a place called Hoffellsjokull, a tongue of the Vatnjokull, the largest glacier in all of Europe it covers 9% of Iceland's landmass. At this point I was at least 500km from my home of Akureyri.

I drove up a dirt road for a while, up a small hill, and was greeted by a glacier!
Clearly stoked to find a glacier out here
The lake at the toe of the glacier was full of ice and melt, an awesome, peaceful place.

I walked out onto the glacier for a little while, it was really neat, and it was very restful and nice to be so in tune with nature, very silent and a quite spiritual place for me.
I stayed for a while and then headed into a small town nearby called Hofn (pronounced like hob). Stocked up on supplies and headed back north on the road in search of a campsite for the night.

Not a bad place to spend the night

A nice valley all to myself

A quite lovely place to be

And a nice waterfall to sing me to sleep all night

The moon even poked out from time to time

I spent that night in the rain, on and off, and the tent I had borrowed was not exactly the driest place I have ever slept in, but a good sleeping bag kept me warm all night. I woke up and it was a little cold, it had even snowed a bit in my little valley of solitude. I packed up my camp and started to make my way back home. I only spent two nights out on this trip, but I feel like I saw a whole lot, and I enjoyed every minute. It was quite an adventure.

I snapped a panorama just to try to capture how expansive it is out here

I made my way back to Akureyri, slowly but surely becoming home to me. It was nice to sleep in a nice warm bed and take a nice hot shower. After this trip, it felt like Iceland was truly home for the next year or so, and it was nice to get out, relax and be alone with nature for a short time.
More to come very soon.
Paulie