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Category: Iceland

19.08.08 Kverkfjoll

by Garik and Lena

When we woke up in the morning, it was very cold. Last night, we asked our bus driver – guide, how cold is it here at night? He told us that last week it was below zero, but for tonight he expects not less than +2C. We ate bread with tomato flavored butter and tea for breakfast. We were supplied with pole sticks for today, so we could leave ours at the tent. The guide told us that those poles are low quality poles, and good for one use only. Actually, they were used much more than once and still looked much better and stronger than those we bought for Lena in Israel via eBay.

After 15 minutes drive from the hut in a bus, we were at the foot of the glacier Kverkfjoll. We got 5 minutes of explanations by our guide, on how to use the poles and off we go!

Glacier is a mountain of ice, so we walked on ICE!!! Ascending on ice is not an easy task, I must say. Specially wearing ordinary boots. While we were moving up, beneath our feet were melted ice flows and huge cracks appears on the way, making the walk much harder. Lena got herself in trouble right at the beginning, when she couldn’t get up on some hill, so the guide had to help her, not me… I was in trouble myself… After hair rising 20 minutes hike on a glacier while holding the poles tight as our lives depend on them, we stopped for a break. This is our first stop and I already have raised an eyebrow. What the hell are we doing?! Short break to take few photos, drink water and we continued to a place where we supposed to have brunch. There, the guide showed us where are we going to. It was very high, the summit is at 1720m and a group of people who walked there, looked so small, like ants!

So after having lite brunch and much more air in our lungs, we started to walk. At first it was kind of amusement cause we no longer walked on ice, but rather on snow. Then after a while, we started to realize that it’s not that easy and very un-amusing. We got tired quickly, the summit is not even close, suddenly snow changes to ice and vice verse. At this point, me and Lena started to understand that we are the weakest link of the group and that the idea to stay withing the head of the group is ridiculous! Every couple of minutes we stopped to take air. We sweat inside clothes, it’s freezing outside clothes, cold wind, sun is dazzling. The group, that we saw earlier was closer now, we spotted that they are wearing some kind of special gear, like blades attached to their boots and they all tighten up together with a rope. Now, we are wearing our standard boots, the Portuguese had jeans and sneakers!!!… Any more questions?

When we reached our next stop, we laid down on the rocks, we couldn’t eat or drink! We breathe heavily… Now we are somewhere around 1500m above sea level, we are really close now! Few sips of water and we are back on our feet!

At some point, when we walked on the summit of a glacier, the walk was much easier, maybe too easy, because the German old couple was so excited that they had gone too much of the path, the rest of the group tried to catch them up. Only me, Lena and some another old couple stayed behind, smiling when the guide had to run with speed of light to catch them up, because they couldn’t hear him shout, that far they go! Well done Fridjon (the name of the guide)! He was behind us when he started to run (on snow) and reached them in a few moments… Next stop was some save guard station on the summit, from where we took a path down the hill toward hot springs. Yep, quite amazing to find hot springs on a summit of a glacier, but hey, it’s Iceland!

Well, hot springs are nice, took some pictures and continued. Then, our guide stopped, took out a banana for himself and told us to continue… At this point we knew we are close to a finish, at least we though so. His theory is that you have to ear lot of bananas cause monkeys eat them and they are smart… :) Well, Fredjon promised us at the beginning of a day, that we will descend not on ice, he only forgot to mention that some basic skiing skills are needed in order to get off the glacier!!! Man, that was terrible! All the group, including the old couples, were at the bottom of the glacier in a few minutes, the German old grandpa skied on his feet, using his sticks like ski poles! Some Polish guy with two bags on him (one is his girlfriend’s) finished before us. Even the Portuguese trio passed us. Feet hurts and we don’t see the end of the “tunnel” just like this morning… I felt very frustrated, that we were the weakest link of the group. The local “big” guys, finished before us too…

The path from the bottom of the glacier, back to the bus and the ice cave lied in a field of sand and stones, so me and Lena felt much comfortable, making our way at last to the head of the group! Now it was the local “big” guy as a leader of the group, me and Lena behind him and behind us the German old couple. They actually were in a competition with us, all the time trying to pass us, but we didn’t let them so easily! Well we couldn’t hold them behind for ever, so they passed us and lead us to a wrong path, just like they did it on the summit. So we stopped, waiting for our guide to appear. He appeared some time after, far away from us, so we had make our way towards him. It’s wasn’t that easy… We had to pass a wide stream, Lena got in trouble yet another time :) We had no choice at the end but sink our feet in to the water for a moment, otherwise we would fall in to the water.

We reached the ice cave at last! It was a big cool natural ice cave created by melted ice flows. We entered inside to take some photos. Then we had to go over some unstable (and I mean unstable) bridge, the bus waited there for us.

When we came back to the tent, we changed our boots, made noodles with shrimps and hot tea. Now, when the glacier behind us, we can say with confident, that we climbed a glacier!

It’s raining now, we had real luck with the weather today, it was superb up there.

P.S – When Lena made noodles in the kitchen, she talked with Fredjon, it turns out that he graduated in the US, not Iceland. And when he asked what are we doing (Lena and her husband) she corrected him that me is her boyfriend… Ow well…