7/1/15

So, some bad news. Iceland apparently had the winter of a century and the interior is still buried in snow. The bus I was depending on to deliver a resupply to a hut is not yet running and won’t be for at least a few weeks.  Also, with all that snow, the melt could be very dangerous. It’s frustrating because I feel like a lot of this could be hype (PCT 2011 all over again), but this is also not a situation to take lightly as a solo hiker in a land prone to drastic weather conditions.  It’s not 75F and sunny every day like in the Sierra. I already experienced frozen blocks of ice for feet during my short hike in Hornstrandir a few days ago, and that was with great weather!

So, I have dramatically changed plans. I’ll be renting a car for a week and doing more traditional tourist sightseeing, climbing Hvannadalshnjukur, the highest peak in Iceland, and doing an 88 mile hike from Rjupnavellir to Skogar via Landmannalaugar. I’m extremely bummed to not be getting out on the “thru hike” I was so itching for, but I’m trying to make the best of it. After all, I’m in Iceland; my life is pretty good.

As for the past few days, Squatch, Wing It and I did a 2 night hike around the Northwest side of the peninsula. It was amazingly beautiful!  However, I’m discovering I’m going through my camera battery much faster than expected with the cold, and transferring photos from my camera to phone to post on the blog eats up that precious battery. And stupid me I didn’t bring a charger with me because it’s heavy and I figured on my hike I wouldn’t have anywhere to plug in anyway.  So what this means is that I’m going to have to wait until I’m home to upload photos and therefore blog entries. But here’s a little preview of Hornstrandir!