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!