 Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Can't wait to read more. Thanks
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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?
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Like I said in the previous post I managed to get out for the earliest 'first day of the season' I've ever managed. It was also by far the most physically demanding as most of them have been quiet pootles around somewhere local. Since Iceland is glaciated it's not that impressive but it was on fresh snowfall so I think that counts. The trip itself was to wander up and then ski the mountain Snæfell. Standing at 1833m high it's the highest mountain in Iceland that isn't fully glaciated and the fourth highest mountain on the island. It does however have a few small glaciers and rock glaciers in the lower reaches so isn't without difficulty. It's also 750+km from Reykjavik which poses some interesting logistical issues particularly as our attempt was over a weekend.
I was travelling with a group of friends from work who have a varying degree of experience winter walking and was the only guy carrying skis. Finding people to ski-mountaineer with can be hard work! It was still very early in the season so I was only expecting to ski the top three hundred meters or so. As luck would have it though the weather forecast was looking more and more snowy. Weather in Iceland is extremely changeable so anything more than a couple of days ahead tends to be dead wrong. In the week leading up to the trip though the forecast was consistently showing snowfall and relatively light winds. It was on and I felt confident about getting a much better ski descent than the slim pickings I'd previously imagined.
The six of us packed up our hired 110 Defender and set off at around three in the afternoon from Reykjavik around the famous 'Route 1' that circumnavigates Iceland. We wouldn't arrive at the hut sitting at the base of Snæfell for another twelve hours. For some of us this would be relatively comfortable, for others we'd be cramped in amongst my skis and the unlikely low roof of the vehicle. The trip itself was breathtaking, not just for the crazy landscape that makes up Iceland but for the timing of our experiences on the drive. We arrived at Jökulsárlón a glacial lagoon just as the sun was forming one of the most glorious sunsets I've ever seen. Coupled with the blue glacial ice and playful seals swimming a few yards away it was truly captivating. Nature forced us back on the road when the spectacle quickly diminished as the sun set.
Miles and hours later, including a run in with the rudest old people of all time we found ourselves driving out of Höfn on the south-east coast. Ahead lay more hours and many more miles before we could think about a decent nights sleep. We wound through the fjords and the night to a crystal clear sky and twinkling stars. All of a sudden we noticed a greenish glow in the sky and we got treated to a magical display of the Northern Lights. I pulled the Defender over and we all piled out to stare at the sky. As the sky danced for us, Rory, the guy who had organised most of the logistics rang ahead to the hut to say we were slightly behind schedule. The warden gave a dire warning of drifting snow blocking the road and an assessment that the trusty Defender wouldn't make it through without the monster truck-esque tyres that Icelanders love. Pulling back on the road with all eyes still on the sky we decided to push ahead anyway and get as far as possible. We reasoned we could spend a night beside the road and potentially walk in. At least we'd have the Lights for company.
It was one thirty in the morning and we were only twelve kilometres from our destination. Twelve k's of rough track buried in snow with several streams to cross en-route. The strong winds the area had suffered combined with the sunken road meant most of the track was at least six inches deep in snow. Not a problem with chains for the vehicle but we weren't so equipped. Thankfully someone had thoughtfully been through previously so we pulled into their tracks and set off. The Defender coped admirably and some good driving from Rory saw us at the hut in just under an hour! We woke the warden up, unpacked the roof rack and trudged into the hut. Bad news! The outside toilets were frozen and there was no running water. We were all knackered so took the information stoically and dived into sleeping bags.
Three hours later, at six in the morning, we got up. The morning was as fresh and clear as the previous night. We quickly got some water for tea from a steam outside and set about frying bacon and eggs. Luxury accommodation. A leisurely hour later and we were up and off into the morning trudging through a couple of inches of windblown snow. Whilst the cover was patchy thanks to the wind, it extending all the way down to the hut which was great news for the skiing to come. I had my ski boots on from the hut and only 1000m vertical of trudging uphill ahead of me.
The walk in was easy going, with one mildly tricky stream to hop across and some steep but steady slopes to climb. The lack of real base and wind meant that skinning opportunities were few and far between. For the most part on the way up I was cursing the extra weight of my skis and boots but internally feeling elated at having them and scoping descents. Being so early in the season and without a partner I wasn't tempted to ski any of the glaciated faces, despite them being incredibly tempting. Instead I settled on a ridge a little to the side of where we would ascend. It had caught a fair amount of the blown fresh and looked to offer a total descent from the summit of around 700m including a nice looking final steep pitch. I mentally skied the slope a thousand times as we slowly approached it from below. The morning was fantastic but as it wore on clouds started looming ominously around the peak. Finally we reached the bottom of the snow line proper and I got to relax for a bit without the weight of skis on my pack. When you're travelling with other people on skis it's hard to appreciate how much better off you are. When you travel with other people on foot who are climbing a ridgeline of wind battered sastrugi whilst you effortlessly glide up next to them it's hard to suppress a smile. Sadly it wasn't to last and the final 300m vertical was done in crampons with ice-axe in hand. The plateau at the top was wind blasted and 'luckily' for us the wind was coming right from the summit. We trudged into the gale and I cursed my skis some more for acting like sails but we finally made it. The summit photo was an unconventional huddle out of the wind.
Rather than ski off the summit I decided it'd be easier to sort skis, skins and crampons a little more protected from the wind. We walked down to the edge of the plateau, I said good bye to the walkers who went off and were quickly swallowed by the gloom and wind. I've not actually skied totally alone in that sort of environment before and it was somewhat eerie to be completely by myself packing up my skins, crampons and ice-axe only able to see a few metres and unable to hear anything but the wind. After clearing my boots of ice, strapping everything down and putting the boots into ski mode for the first time since May, I clicked into my Dynafits. The first few metres of descent were shallow and gave my legs a brief moment to adjust to the sensation of sliding again. The slope then dropped off to a sustained icy pitch of about thirty degrees. At that point it was on and I was totally concentrated on the descent. I had decided to ski the initial face close to where we walked up and had plotted a course back down via landmarks. The initial pitch followed the icy slope down next to some polystyrene sastrugi which made for some difficult skiing particularly with limited visibility. I quickly caught and overtook the walkers but then had to take a break as the tops of my thighs were cramping up badly. After resting in the guise of making sure they didn't go off course I continued skiing, veering over to the right to link up the next snow face which was at a slightly steeper pitch. The surface continued to be icey but visibility cleared and I was soon putting in longer, faster turns that took me down to the prearranged meeting point via some deeply interesting moments over some invisible sastrugi.
The others caught up and we ate lunch somewhat out of the wind. After everyone was sorted I clicked back into my skis. Now the icey pitches were behind me I was looking forward to some fun skiing on softish snow. It wasn't long before I was motoring down the wind packed surface with the ski's carving nicely through the firm but yielding snow. The lack of cover meant I had to click out of the skis briefly to hop over a rocky outcrop before clicking in for the final portion of the descent. A pitch of about thirty-five to forty degrees that descended a final couple of hundred metres. The surface was pretty wind affected so my skiing slowed down again but it was nice to get onto some steeper terrain. All too soon it was over and I found myself sliding out to within fifty metres of the path the others would be coming down. An hour later and we were all back together trudging the final few hundred metres vertical down to the hut.
We arrived back at the hut to find the situation much the same, there was no toilet, no running water and after hours on the hill no way in hell most of us wanted to hang around. We drank a celebratory beer, slept for an hour then repacked the Defender before repeating our trip out, this time at higher speed in the daylight. Four hours later we were pulling into a hostel in Höfn and all hit the sack pretty much immediately. From there it was only another five or so hours back into Reykjavik.
The total time for the entire trip was 51 hours and we'd covered over 1500km. It was a pretty awesome first day of the season.
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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wow!! Fantastic read, thanks! The first of many days!
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Great account - really nicely written. Thanks meh 
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meh, top effort, sounds like a real adventure,amazing landscape. I would have got first turns in yesterday here in Schladming, if I hadn't hurt my leg last week.
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Magic read and magic pics. Thanks.
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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.
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Thanks. Great read.
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Thanks guys. 
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks for your report meh. I'd love to hear more as you go around this winter.
I’ve been to Iceland walking and camping twice, but only in the south (haven’t been further around route 1 than Hofn). I’ve wondered about the skiing potential, as it looks, as you say, quite Scotland-like – but I had assumed the short day light hours in winter would severely limit this. Do you know how much of the main pisted, lift-served skiing areas are lit for night skiing?
Beautiful country, you’re lucky to be there
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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wigan, there's a 5k cross-country trail that's lit for night skiing at Bláfjöll. No idea if any of the pisted area is but I would think so. The main problem is that it doesn't see that much snowfall anymore so only opens a handful of times a year. The ski area Hlíðarfjall in the north definitely has night skiing as well and is much more snow sure. But yeah there is definitely going to be a period of miserable darkness from Nov through to about the beginning of Feb. Am planning on running away to Revelstoke for a few weeks during that period though.
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meh, great report- when exactly was the trip?
I thought the flicker photos were amazing
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You know it makes sense.
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ed123, we did it a fortnight ago on the weekend of the 10th of September this year. I'll pass on the compliment to the photographer.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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First decent snowfall on the nearby mountains. The top third of which are looking pretty white right now although no where near enough cover to ski. I'll snap a photo soonish. It's been dumping up north though.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Looking promising! Are they open yet?
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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?
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You need to Login to know who's really who.
You need to Login to know who's really who.
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Great story meh. I have driven from Johannesburg to Durban and back in a day for a swim in the sea; you knock the socks of that. I'm ready for the slopes now. Roll on January and our first jaunt to the slopes
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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Well it's puking wet snow in downtown Reykjavik (sea level hooray) at the moment and the forecast is for cold weather, winter might finally be here!
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Yup, there's been snow down to sea level for the last week nearly around Reykjavik. Not quite enough of a base to ski yet and it's windy this evening which will make matters worse but the forecast is for the rest of the week to be relatively light winds and more snow. I am quietly confident of getting out and skiing Esja which is the mountain overlooking Reykjavik after the weekend.
It's also going to be around -15 on Wednesday. Brrr!
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I could have skinned from my front door to the office front door this morning. About 10cm of snow fell overnight and it was still going pretty heavily on my walk in. It's still dark outside and snowing so I can't see what's happened to the nearby mountains.
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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.
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Worth a pre-Christmas trip you think?
Seems like Akureyri's been getting some.
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Mike Pow, sorry just saw your question.
The whole of the country has got some. It's pretty unseasonal cold, snowy weather. Reykjavik itself has been under a blanket of snow for the past two-three weeks. Shame there hasn't been enough snowfall that wasn't wind blasted into the sea to give a decent base. I clomped in ski boots carrying my skis over 10km up and down Esja without finding anything that wasn't either dodgy windslab or full of rocks. I dunno what the conditions are like in Akureyri but the lifts are open up there and it will have had more snow as well as having higher peaks. I won't be getting up north until January to find out though.
The only skiing I've got in since September has been lapping at the local ski area which opened this weekend and that's on snow that's been pushed into place in order to consolidate one slope. Everything else is still a thin rockfest.
The main enemy at the moment is the short daylight hours and weather (windy, cold). Not to put you off though but coming all this way would be much more worthwhile in the spring.
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snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
snowHeads are a friendly bunch.
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Thanks.
Appreciate the feedback.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.
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Yeah there's been snow on the ground in Reykjavik since mid-November which is very, very strange. In between bursts of snow we've also been having annoying rainy, warm patches though which means everything is currently mega icy. I got out last week to the local ski area Blafjoll with my visiting family which now has full cover. Hopefully going out to find some more interesting skiing this weekend but it's forecast to rain in Reykjavik from tomorrow through to Sunday. Also all this snow makes access to the more out of the way mountains really hard. Still if winter continues this way then there should be some awesome conditions for skiing them in spring.
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You know it makes sense.
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It's been bucketing down with snow the last couple of days but it's currently blowing a steady 40mph outside gusting over 60mph in Reykjavik so we'll see what that does to things in the mountains.
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Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
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Was up night skiing at the little resort near Reykjavik yesterday and the mountain is plastered. The west and north of the country seem to be totally blanketed at the moment. We're getting successive periods of thaw followed by snowfall which is creating a great base for the future.
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Poster: A snowHead
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Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
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Last couple of days have seen about 18inches of snowfall at sea level so tonight should be the first proper powder evening and it's still bucketing down!
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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?
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Not strictly powder but still good fun up at Blafjoll last night. Everything was pretty tracked out from the day before with the wind having refilled the tracks making for interesting variable snow. Pockets were easily knee-deep of really nice snow followed by wind affected cut up crud. Visibility was awesome for the first hour and a bit but then clouds closed in round the first half of the hill. Nothing was pisted so the pistes turned from interesting wind-blown snow pillows back into the soft moguls they must have been yesterday. Mostly we skied down the steepest pitch off-piste under the chairlift which isn't flood lit but there is enough gloom early on and bounce from the flood lights to see what you're doing. Later as it got more cut up the sky got darker and cloud came in which made it very good technique practice although skiing quite a bit slower!
I also found it pays off to head up in the middle of a storm in Reykjavik as we pretty much had the entire place to ourselves apart from the kids race training, some hardy snowboarders and other guys in fat skis and touring/tele kit. Drive up the ski area road was super interesting though with very deep drifts and 10m vis through the snowstorm.
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meh, Sounds good! 
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.
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You'll need to Register first of course.
You'll need to Register first of course.
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Well it had to end. The weather has reverted back to wet and windy and the snow is melting fast locally. Bad news for skiing at night, good news as it makes peaks for ski-mountaineering more accessible. I'm also heading up to Akureyri in a little over a week so will post some pictures and video from the resort up there.
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Video of the same day, not terribly steep or interesting and featuring a mate who has not very many days skiing:
http://vimeo.com/37949047
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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.
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Iceland seems to have stolen all of Scotland's snow since it's dumping outside the office right now and forecast to be a nice sunny day tomorrow. Time to go skiing.
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Just arrived in Akureyri for 11 days of ski touring and a music/snowboard festival called AK Extreme. Didn't look like there is much snow low down but hoping its a bit better above 600m!
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