Mountaineering, 'Northern Icelandic Venturer', Iceland, Aug 2010, ID 994
Queen Ethelburgas College CCF
An Icelandic proverb: If you don’t like the weather, wait a minute!
After a couple of hours’ kip on the floor of Stansted Airport and an uneventful flight to Keflavik, five cadets and three staff from Queen Ethelburga’s College CCF set up their first camp in Reykjavik at the start of a two-week walking expedition. Our plan was to visit four contrasting areas and undertake walks in each. After a day in Reykjavik buying food and bus tickets, we travelled along the South coast to Skaftafell, a national park close to Vatnajökull, Europe’s largest icecap.
Skaftafell is alpine in character with dramatic mountains scoured by glaciers flowing down from the icecap. Two very different walks gave the cadets a good introduction to the area. At 1126 metres Kristinartindar is not particularly high but it is dramatically located between two glaciers and the ascent passed Svartifoss waterfall with its iconic basalt columns. The second walk stayed low to visit the snout of the Morsárjökull glacier and then up a narrow valley where the cadets were able to bathe in a cold mountain stream and relax in a natural hot pool.
From Skaftafell we headed into the uninhabited interior to Landmannalaugar, a geothermally active area. The big draw is the natural hot pool at the campsite, which has been formed by damming a stream fed by 2 springs emerging from beneath a lava flow, perfect for soaking aching limbs after a day’s walking. Three walks in the area took in vividly coloured rhyolite mountains, fumaroles, hot springs and lava flows and included an ascent of Bláhnúkur (945 metres).
Myvatn is a large, shallow lake in northeast Iceland noted for its birdlife. We based ourselves in Reykjahlið close to a supermarket, restaurant and the village swimming pool. The Dimmuborgir, which literally translates as "dark forts", is an area with amazing lava formations and we spent an hour exploring the area before heading through a natural hole and across country to Hverfell. Hverfell is the archetypal volcanic crater and the ascent was steep, but the extensive views of a wilderness of lava with other volcanoes, craters and steaming vents were just reward. The following day we walked the 15 kilometres to one of those areas to get close and personal with fumaroles and a crater lake.
The fourth area we visited was the Jökulsá á Fjöllum river canyon with its spectacular waterfalls. Two walks visited 3 of these, but the crowning glory was undoubtedly Dettifoss, the most powerful waterfall in Europe; it is 100 metres wide, 44 metres high and 500 cubic metres of water flow over the fall every second.
The journey back to Reykjavik took us once again through the uninhabited interior. The bus passed between the Hofsjökull and Langjökull icecaps and stopped at Hveravellir, Gullfoss and Geysir.
Stunning waterfalls, mountains, glaciers, hot springs, volcanoes and lakes all make Iceland a superb venue for adventurous training. Our thanks go to the Ulysses Trust for supporting the expedition and making it affordable for cadets.
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