Ski Club 2.0 Home
Snow Reports
FAQFAQ

Mail for help.Help!!
Log in to snowHeads to make it MUCH better! Registration's totally free, of course, and makes snowHeads easier to use and to understand, gives better searching, filtering etc. as well as access to 'members only' forums, discounts and deals that U don't even know exist as a 'guest' user. (btw. 50,000+ snowHeads already know all this, making snowHeads the biggest, most active community of snow-heads in the UK, so you'll be in good company)..... When you register, you get our free weekly(-ish) snow report by email. It's rather good and not made up by tourist offices (or people that love the tourist office and want to marry it either)... We don't share your email address with anyone and we never send out any of those cheesy 'message from our partners' emails either. Anyway, snowHeads really is MUCH better when you're logged in - not least because you get to post your own messages complaining about things that annoy you like perhaps this banner which, incidentally, disappears when you log in :-)
Username:-
 Password:
Remember me:
👁 durr, I forgot...
Or: Register
(to be a proper snow-head, all official-like!)

Iceland - spring 2023 - the leg-powered version - day 4 added...
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

Finally getting round to catching up on end of season stuff (never mind organising next winter...!).
In late April/early May I made a return to Iceland with a small team - I had been meaning to get back to the Troll peninsula since a great trip in 2019...

Looking at the webcams a couple of weeks before I was on the verge of pulling the plug on the trip as it looked pretty disastrous in terms of snow cover, but a few messages out to my network reassured me that conditions were still good above 200m - the good thing with the Troll peninsula is that a) there are Scottish-style stream gullies that hold snow even when everything else has melted out low down, and b) there are some high road access points that open up once the lower snow melts. As it turned out we skied to and from the car every day (barring one 50m walk horizontally to hit the snow...).



En route to the Troll peninsula you cross a high pass, and this was our first jumping off point. In a case of "it's a small world isn't it" there was one car in the car park with a French guide out for a recce who turned out to be a good friend of a good friend of mine from Bozel...

First peak - firm to very firm on the way up, but a topping of soft wind-blown snow and some good spring snow meant we double-lapped the upper section, before heading back down to the cars...









A great start to the trip, all that was left was another couple of hours drive to our accommodation for the week up on the northern tip of the peninsula, navigating a bit of traffic along the way:



More to follow...


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 19-07-23 11:42; edited 2 times in total
snow conditions
snow conditions
 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Day 2 - with some overnight precipitation but a cloudy morning, we headed back through the crazy 1-way tunnel to a peak between Olafsfjordur and Dalvik, which I knew from past experience was a safe bet even if visibility was sub-optimal...

Skis on at the roadside to follow a tongue of snow up the stream line:


150m up, onto better snow cover... Cloudbase was variable and the last 200m to the summit was a combination of GPS and arctic fly-fishing...


It took some faith to keep heading up, but as we were stood on the summit the clouds slowly parted - not to a full bluebird day, but at least to the point we would have perfect visibility for skiing...:


5 to 10cms of fresh on a smooth base... nice!


The visibility kept on improving as we skied:


The thin layer of fresh snow gradually gave way to good spring snow and finally névé all the way back to the cars. Time for a hot tub and a local Segull beer.
latest report
latest report
 Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?
Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

offpisteskiing wrote:
Day 2 - with some overnight precipitation but a cloudy morning, we headed back through the crazy 1-way tunnel to a peak between Olafsfjordur and Dalvik, which I knew from past experience was a safe bet even if visibility was sub-optimal...
Skis on at the roadside to follow a tongue of snow up the stream line:

I think I recognize that bowser. Looks like you're outside the Karlsá Lodge. I had lunch there a couple of times in June.
ski holidays
ski holidays
 You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.

phil_w wrote:
I think I recognize that bowser.


Yep! Happy
latest report
latest report
 Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

phil_w wrote:

I think I recognize that bowser. Looks like you're outside the Karlsá Lodge. I had lunch there a couple of times in June.[/quote]

what is a bowser?
snow report
snow report
 You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.

Day 3, and with more good weather we headed way up the 'closed but not closed' road and off into the wilds.





Despite various snowmobile tracks at the start of the ascent, and with a couple of helis buzzing about the other side of the valley we hit the jackpot with primo untracked fresh snow.





So good that we went back up the upper bowl for a second lap, before heading back down to the cars...

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

davidof wrote:
phil_w wrote:

I think I recognize that bowser. Looks like you're outside the Karlsá Lodge. I had lunch there a couple of times in June.


what is a bowser?[/quote]

What the heli 'eco-terrorists' keep their Jet A fuel in... (sorry @phil_w Happy )
ski holidays
ski holidays
 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!

(...and yes we are not squeaky clean either, having flown to Iceland and driven halfway across it just to go skiing for fun... before anyone jumps in!! )
latest report
latest report
 You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.
You'll get to see more forums and be part of the best ski club on the net.

Day 4 - we stayed close to home in Siglufjordur and skied a 'double header' - spring snow in the morning and powder in the afternoon is not the normal way of things, but the normal rules don't always apply in the land of trolls...







ski holidays
ski holidays



Terms and conditions  Privacy Policy