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TR: Sailboat Skitouring – Iceland: W. Fjords
 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

TR from our week’s skitouring, based in the West Fjords (Hornstrandir) area of Iceland…



The tour was run by >Borea Adventures< on the ex:”Clipper Round the World Race” yacht now named Aurora (originally Antiope/City of Liverpool) .



I can understand why Meh is so taken with the place: the people are so friendly; scenery is fascinating; the food is great (including braised puffin & whale kebabs!!) and there is snow down to the seashore!


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Sun 10-08-14 20:59; edited 4 times in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Initially based in the Downtown Youth Hostel in Reykjavik, which is great value and also provides some good discounts in town.

Particularly recommended are the Sea Baron (Saegrafin) restaurant for their lobster soup & seafood kebabs (including whale kebabs) and beers at 2-for-1 prices at the Laundromat Café.

The internal flight to Ísafjörður was later the following day, so we hired a car and did the tourist trip round the "Golden Circle"

These shots taken a few miles out of Reykjavik…




Then on to Geysir…



And the Golfoss falls…



Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Wed 17-04-13 20:02; edited 2 times in total
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Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

The internal flight to Ísafjörður takes about 40mins. with a “seat of the pants” landing on the tiny airstrip

I found this great video taken from the cockpit of the landing

http://youtube.com/v/nm6dQK0ipGk

This view of the approach to Ísafjörður shows very much the sort of terrain we would be skiing over in Hornstrandir...



This is how close they are to the hill on finals !!!...



Our home for the week sitting in the harbour…



We had another day in Ísafjörður, so taxid over to the next valley and ski-toured back to the small ski-area in Isaf. for some lift-served fun.

Ísafjörður has an annual music festival over Easter, which proved to be a fantastic night with some of the top Icelandic bands – everything from Bjork-a-likes to Icelandic Reggae. Brilliant atmosphere, and all for free


Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Wed 17-04-13 20:02; edited 5 times in total
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Looks fun, did you get to do the sailing as well? Have done quite a bit of racing on the bigger descendent of that yacht (Challenge 67s and 72s) and they are great boats!
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Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

davkt, be patient snowHead : the story will unfold....
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geoffers, OK, getting more and more jealous with each post!
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Then you can post your own questions or snow reports...

We were due to sail across to Hornstrandir, but a Mercedes film crew had chartered the boat for the weekend to do some extreme-ski filming with pro-skier Jess McMillan, who had just flown in from a Warren Miller shoot in Akureyri, so one of the Borea launches shipped us over there.

This actually worked out to our advantage, as the day was flat calm so we arrived a lot earlier, and managed a full afternoon skiing on the first day proper.

The crossing took maybe an hour - this could be a small whale in the distance…



This is the derelict whaling station at Stekkeyri Beach – you can see Jess McM. (red jacket-lime trousers) below the chimney…



I tried to get a bit arty here…



Last edited by Then you can post your own questions or snow reports... on Wed 17-04-13 20:02; edited 3 times in total
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!

We shipped all our kit onto Aurora, then ashore and a short walk from the shoreline to the snow.

A transceiver practice session was carried out first with our guide Öervar, before skinning up to the summit of Kagrafell (507m).

The views from here were stunning ..









Most of the peaks in the area are between 500 – 700m but the skiing is literally to sea-level every day, with some excellent steeps to be found.

This video sums up the experience of sailboat-skiing pretty well…
Iceland Sailboat Skiing from geoffers
https://vimeo.com/63844307


Last edited by After all it is free Go on u know u want to! on Wed 17-04-13 20:03; edited 5 times in total
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..... more to come later...... Little Angel
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geoffers, great report so far , keep them coming Cool
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Ace, am regretting not having time to do a sustained trip at home. Weekends away are too weather dependent. Looking forward to more.
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And love to help out and answer questions and of course, read each other's snow reports.

geoffers, another superb arctic trip snowHead
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Looks very cool...yet more amazing photos of frozen northern skiing. Keen to find out how you arranged it, and especially whether your boots ever dried after wading into the dinghy at the end of each day!
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You know it makes sense.

ChrisWo,
Quote:
Keen to find out how you arranged it
Borea Adventures (see hyperlink in the top posting) run these sail/ski trips regularly from March through May, then sail across to Greenland for more adventure; sea-kayaking; walking etc.

Quote:
and especially whether your boots ever dried after wading into the dinghy at the end of each day!
Siggi (our skipper) made sure that we could get in & out of the Zodiac with dry boots : even piggy-backing a few of the team on a couple of occasions without showing any effort - they're hard as nails theses Icelanders!!!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

The following day we moved anchorage to the top end of the Hestayrafjörður…



…skinning from the beach at Bekkir…



…to ski over to the next fjord: Veiðileysufjörður (with a couple of additional descents en-route) …



Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Wed 17-04-13 20:03; edited 2 times in total
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 Poster: A snowHead
Poster: A snowHead

Next was a short ski up to Tafla (402m) before heading over to Lónafjörður, with some superb steepish skiing into the Skálará cirque…



…then continuing on to a short but exciting couloir off Standahlið down to the beach at Rangali

SkalaraStandahlid from geoffers
https://vimeo.com/63976640


Last edited by Poster: A snowHead on Wed 17-04-13 20:04; edited 2 times in total
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

We were now anchored opposite the very tasty looking couloir from the solitary peak called Einbull, which gives about 450m of vertical descent.



Some useful “icebergs” on the beach for kit–sorting…





… then some tricky skinning (with my ageing skins refusing to grip on the steepest section) and a short section booting steps into an icy slope covered only with a few inches of sugary snow – crampons weren’t on the kit list for the tour, but would have been very welcome here.

Spent some time checking out the drop-in…



… looking at the descent…



… trying to persuade ourselves we were up for this …



… but: boy was it fun

EinbullCouloir from geoffers
https://vimeo.com/63976641


Last edited by Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person on Wed 17-04-13 20:04; edited 2 times in total
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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?

The next day’s ski over to Hrafnfjörður was in an arctic storm with winds of 30+, so the camera didn’t come out, and we retired early to the boat.

The decision to forgo a morning ski was made for the same reason on the last day, with winds steady at 25kts, gusting 35 so we sailed back under a no.2 jib (no main) achieving a healthy 8 knots on a broad reach.



A couple of the team were due to fly out to Reykjavik that evening, but the flights were cancelled due to the wind, so they consequently had the prospect of a 6hr drive back instead.

With an afternoon to kill in Keflavick the following day, we just couldn’t leave Iceland without doing the final touristy visit to the Blue Lagoon…



Even a geo-thermal power station looks quite picturesque in the sunset snowHead


Last edited by Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see? on Wed 17-04-13 20:04; edited 3 times in total
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snowHead I love that picture of you all on the boat; well wrapped up! I can envisage myself doing that, all looks very familiar, I can cope with that (especially downwind) - but not that couloir. Skullie
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Stunning photography and some great skiing in the couloir Cool
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pam w,
Quote:

well wrapped up!

yes indeed - the little white flecks above the winches in the pic. are snowflakes, and we started with snow on the deck Cool
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Fabulous. Many thanks for sharing.

Onde day. Very soon.

Great flame topsheet on the skis. What are they please?
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 After all it is free Go on u know u want to!
After all it is free Go on u know u want to!

cool pics
i am thoroughly sold on the mountains and sea thing (although maybe not living on a boat... we'll see)
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awesome stuff. very different looking to the norway TRs...
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Mike Pow,
Quote:
Great flame topsheet on the skis. What are they please?

Mike - they're Hagan "Heats" (Hagan being a niche Austrian touring ski manufacturer http://www.hagan-ski.com/hagan-tourenski/index )

It wasn't 'till I started looking for info on the web that I realised how outdated they probably are...

I picked them up at the end of 2007, but the model was actually superceded in 2007 by the "Green Dragon" (http://global.skipass.com/gearguide/hagan/green-dragon.html with the current development iteration being the "Dragon" or the rockered "Skyraider"
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geoffers, fantastic TR! Thanks so much for posting. It looks really exciting, adventurous (expensive)? I was a bit surprised by all the shouts in one of the videos about the wide turns though!

Thanks again. Are you going back next year? Or will it be Greenland?
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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.

ed123,
Quote:
expensive
it wasn't exactly what you'd call cheap, but worth every penny, as you "can't take it with you"
Quote:

surprised by all the shouts in one of the videos about the wide turns though

Just taking the pi$$, as John had been lecturing us about doing lots of short turns Toofy Grin
Quote:
Or will it be Greenland
Not me, but three of our group were heading off to Greenland after Iceland, hauling pulks to set up a base from which to do day tours ski-mountaineering.
They were seriously worried about Polar Bears, and have rented a gun, as well as a dog to hopefully spook the bears.
Trick with polar bears apparently is to make sure you're not the slowest runner in the group. wink
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 So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much
So if you're just off somewhere snowy come back and post a snow report of your own and we'll all love you very much

doh - my site's bandwidth has been exceeded, so the ISP has suspended the site: hence no piccies Confused
I'll try to repost the pics on another hosting site....
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You know it makes sense.

Quote:

as well as a dog to hopefully spook the bears.

doesn't work with cows - can make it worse!
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 Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:
Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

Pics all back (on flickr now) Toofy Grin


Last edited by Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name: on Wed 17-04-13 22:09; edited 1 time in total
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 Poster: A snowHead
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Arno wrote:
cool pics
i am thoroughly sold on the mountains and sea thing (although maybe not living on a boat... we'll see)


+1, although the boat would be pretty cool
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 Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person
Obviously A snowHead isn't a real person

Were the water always so calm? Or did you only take picture when there's no wave?
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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?

abc,
Winds are predominantly NE - E'ly and the fjords all face S thru W so are pretty well sheltered.
The majority of the week was calm, but the last couple of days the wind got up so it was pretty choppy in the anchorages, but no swell at all.
Even on the sail back in winds approaching F6 - F7 there was little wave action to speak of.
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