Iceland 2012-2013

A snowHead

Yer, I've been stuck there for a while. It wanted a new e-mail address and I fed it one but so far I'm not getting back out. Driving in April should be no problem but it's a long, winding drive! Internal flights are cheap and hiring a car plus fuel is quite expensive so I dunno if it will be the saving you're thinking it will be.

Drove up to Akureyri last night on some pretty hairy roads. Town is under feet of snow and there is a base down to sea level although not much depth anywhere (damn wind). Spent today teaching my girlfriend the basics then skiing around with her getting my legs back. Tomorrow should be more sunny. Good start to the season.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Also landing in Ísafjörður is quite an experience. Very Happy

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Couple of photos taken last weekend.

Skiing under floodlights for most of the day is an interesting experience.

My girlfriend really quickly got to grips with things.

Yours truly.

Winter tyres. Wink

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

geoffers, this will be of interest to you:

Iceland: A Skier's Journey EP3 S3 from ARC'TERYX

http://vimeo.com/54756268

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Local little ski hill is opening on Thursday, yay night skiing after work.

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Yesterday saw the opening of Bláfjöll a little ski area about thirty minutes outside of Reykjavik. Snow cover is complete but there are some rocks to be found. Sadly I found one with my arm (after another stole a ski), carried on skiing until I checked it out in a break and went to hospital to get it stitched up. But hooray for night skiing after work.

This is the main interesting pitch about 30 degrees which was boot deep fresh with some stiff wind affected areas, cut up nicely with a few rocks hiding out for good measure, I actually got caught out much lower down. Skiing in the dark is always interesting.

Showing some more of the ski area off to the left of the main chairlift. It actually opens up even further both right and left.

My boo-boo, worth as many stitches as I've had days on snow so far this season, three.

All in all had an awesome few hours before discovering that gash bombing up and down in the dark and finding things to jump off. Smile

After all it is free

Something a little different. Being injured has given me a bit of time to finish of previous projects:

Laugavegurinn from Charles Palmer

https://vimeo.com/55680888

55k, 12 hours and several GoPro batteries later. Wink

First day back after Christmas and it's snowing balls in Reykjavik:

Really windy up high though so will have to wait for things to calm down.

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Fought off my hangover and went skiing today. Excellent amount of snow on the ground now but the wind did its thing and turned most of it to styrofoam sastrugi. All good fun though until the rest of Reykjavik turned up so I came home early rather than fighting the hordes.

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Pic from New Years day:

snow reports

Gone skiing... in Mordor.

Similar to Scotland we're experiencing a period of thaw, at least in the south of the country. The North has experienced some impressively large slides from a whole bunch of stormy weather followed by rising temps. As such I've not managed any skiing at all until last night. As expected a whole lot of snow nearby Reykjavik has vanished but the ski area we night ski at still has full cover which is pretty amazing. I was expecting to ski in soup since it's been raining solidly up there for the last few days but the weather was actually very cooperative. It yielded a nasty rain crust version of melted sastrugi off-piste (which was nice as the fog made light penetration that far very poor) but a very grippy, firm and icy pisted area. So I spent four hours just working on a mixture of fast turns down the steepest pisted slope which had some nice ice at the top to deter most people from taking a look down it.

I've never been more thankful for the patch of cloth on my gloves as a google wipe and full gortex though. It was somewhat damp. Very Happy

On the way out it was beginning to snow again and the forecast is set to get colder and continue to snow so things are looking up. We're also up to a whopping 5 hours of "daylight" now.

Weather still crap, windy and raining, have a video I found today from some guys skiing around the Troll Peninsula up north last year:

Tröllaskagi 2012 – Skíðaskáli á hjólum from Kári Sævarsson

http://vimeo.com/56190054

You know it makes sense.

What do you do with all your rad new ski mountaineering gear? Go ski mountaineering:

Weather was much nastier than it looks here, pics and video to follow.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Esja is the closest mountain range to Reykjavik. It's visible from pretty much anywhere in the city towering over it across the water. It's also contains probably some of the most accessible steep skiing to a capital city anywhere. The bottom is a mere twenty-five minute drive from downtown and the lines all start at about 400m ASL rising to between 750 and 800m ASL. Sadly it really needs to be in condition to be skiable and that isn't always easy to find. I got some new kit recently and have been itching to try it out so a friend and I took a gamble that we'd be able to ski the easiest line on this set of gullies (marked in red):

The access route heads right up the 'tourist path' and over a bridge where it continues before turning off right through the obvious, easily navigable path. You're then spoilt for choice! I'm not even sure if any of these have actually been skied. Which is a project for spring. Here's a simple map from the carpark heading up the gully we actually skied:

The slope we climbed and skied has an average angle dangling between 35 and 40 degrees with a 10m section at about 45 degrees right at the top. The mild weather and rain meant we had no issues with cornices as they had collapsed days before. Sadly the wind didn't play ball and it was hellish for most of the time on the snow. The top third of the line was neve with the very top being very, very hard due to the wind blasting and subsequent icing it received. Quite nerve racking to climb with only one tool whilst being thrown around by my skis acting as sails. We ended up downclimbing some way before I chucked my skis on and skied the rest of the descent. It was my first time skiing in my new boots and on new skis so it was decidedly interesting to try it on a 40 degree, pretty icy slope, in high winds after walking and climbing 800m with skis on my back! I got to the bottom in one piece but with a decided lack of style.

It's also the first trip I've used the Sony RX100 to shoot video as well as still and I think it worked out okay. Great little camera to take around for this sort of thing. Here's the video:

Breezy Skiizy from Charles Palmer

http://vimeo.com/57796835

A snowHead

A snowHead

Oh yes, that trip is high on my todo list. Very Happy

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

A good 4 inches of fresh on my deck this morning but gales have come in to prevent any fun. Maybe tomorrow.

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Well I shovelled snow and cleared the car twice today so things are looking up. Managed a morning on skis just cruising at the opening of the other ski area near Reykjavik called Skalafell. Was getting used to skiing my CarbonLite Redeemers with my new Dynafit Mercury boots before heading to Japan. Obviously I was doing this by practicing carving them on a piste, the total opposite to what I hope should happen whilst away! It's not too hard, requires a decisive touch but very delicate balancing. Sadly the foot pain of doom that every new boot buyer dreads raised it's ugly head and I gave up just after midday. Hopefully I can get something sorted out because I love the boots and they're so much more positive to ski than the Radiums they replaced.

Had an inch of sleet last night that turned to ice this morning and another few inches in the afternoon downtown. The mountains were pretty plastered again but still need a bit more filling in to be really worthwhile. Up north continue to be completely bonkers and has had snow down to sea level pretty much consistently since October! Should be excellent skiing for absolutely ages right into June hopefully.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Another week and more night skiing, amazingly fresh night (-13C at the tippy top) with very clear skies. The lights in the distance are Reykjavik. Lots of snow from the recent snowfall but it's been Be Nice please!

by the wind off piste. Hopefully some aspects survived and will have good skiing once they stabilise. Am off to Niskeo though so won't have to find out and will get to ski some pow for once then straight back here and up North for more skiing.

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^ That's a cool view Cool

BTW, your weather sounds about as fickle as Scotland's does, meh. Laughing

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meh, Keep up the good work. Iceland is one of the places I'd love to ski snowHead

After all it is free

Thanks guys!

Bummer, get back to find out that whilst I've been enjoying awesome snow in Japan the hair-dryer and rain has been in full effect over here. Snowpack down south is looking very ropey but still plenty up north. Am heading up this weekend to ski ze North so pics incoming.

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A picture a mate of mine took of me surfaced which is pretty darn awesome despite being a bit underexposed. Here we're on a mountain called Kerling (literal translation is "old hag") and I'm looking down the line I'm going to ski:

This is the line I skied with my boots in walk mode! Shocked

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meh, look forward to getting some up to date reports on conditions in Iceland (and some pics of the pistes/off-piste would be great too!)

snow reports

Fraulein Glockenspiel, no probs, currently its very spring like! Hopefully cooling back down though.

I'm off this weekend to ski about in the North with my girlfriend who is pretty new to skiing so will grab a whole bunch of photos of the piste skiing. The off-piste from lifts in the ski area in question is pretty good as well.

It looks like there's some wild weather in store for Iceland next week meh, with an exceptionally brutal easterly quite possible for your mountains. You may see lots and lots of snow coming in horizontally and summit temperatures somewhere between -10C and -20C Shocked

You know it makes sense.

Sounds pretty average. Wink

We definitely need the snow top up though.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Having said that the freezing level has dropped and there was a smattering of fresh above 600m on the mountains down south this morning.

A snowHead

This weekend the company I work for put on a trip up North. I'd normally drive so it was nice to see the country from the air, here are some photos from the trip:

Reykjavik from the air.

Eiríksjökull.

The expanse of nothing that is the Central Highlands.

Hlíðarfjall ski area from the bottom. Lots of great, obvious off-piste terrain which is accessed by a short skin up to the top including another big bowl just over the lookers left shoulder.

Looking up two red runs setup for race training, this is at the top of the chairlift from the bottom. A small cafe is to the right and the drag takes you the rest of the way up.

Swinging round and you can see the great views as well as the drop in to a couple of nice cruisey blues.

Big expansive blues run from the top of the chair down the mountain with a couple of other interesting little trails to keep things interesting and a terrain park.

Súlur an easy and accessible ski tour.

The main drag in Akureyri, puking snow but sadly it didn't last. The streets are heated hence all the water.

The are several awesome restaurants in town, this is Rory about to enjoy a hunk of meat in Rub23

My girlfriend is making some good progress.

The weather over the last two weeks has been seriously warm and wet. The day before we arrived it was 10C, windy and raining on the mountain! The evening before we arrived temps dropped drastically so there was the most epic rain/melt-freeze crust I've ever seen. Blue ice everywhere and very challenging conditions for people less confident on their skis. Skiing anything interesting was a non-starter so I spent the weekend help my girlfriend and another friend improve. It was a bit of a shock to the system to ski boilerplate on trad cambered skis after two weeks of surfing around in pow on my Redeemers. Smile

We're back to cold and stormy now so things are looking up.

A snowHead

Also my ski trousers do weird things to the iPhone camera:
https://vine.co/v/bXYnvZPeeQx

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

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The snow is back in Reykjavik:

Just what we needed!

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Urggh thats a foot deep on the ground and I'm digging us out of a snowdrift down the stairs. Sad

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It's as wild as you'd expect in my office down by the docks:

http://youtube.com/v/1JxZ1L4anOQ

Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

Thanks meh, v interesting!

After all it is free

No probs!

To continue the "my isn't this stormy" set of pictures, car was nearly out of diesel so had to go fill up at lunchtime as this weather is set to continue for a while.

The rest of Reykjavik is in total chaos with people stuck in cars, streets impassable and some of the main artery routes clogged up with crashed and stuck cars. Biggest is a twenty car pile up. Shocked

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Help!!

Iceland 2012-2013

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