Here’s some photos and a description of our trip to Iceland earlier this spring. Our goal was to ski/hike across Iceland from the north coast to the south coast. We started from Akureyri, but we had difficulty finding a place to get up into the highlands. It was simply too little snow or too much snow in the wrong places. After we tried plans A, B and C, we realized that the avalanche risk was too high, and we took a step back.

Our plan D was to try a detour up to the highlands with a super jeep, but even that didn’t work. The progress in the deep powder snow was far too slow. So, we headed back to Akureyri to come up with a new plan.

Our plan E-1 was to take a new route further west, but getting from Akureyri to the new starting point in Blönduós became a challenge itself. The bus we were supposed to take was cancelled due to bad weather. Our schedule didn’t offer many other options, so we bet big and took an (expensive) taxi, which became our plan E-2. But we didn’t make it to Blönduós… They closed the road just in front of us, due to strong wind and poor visibility. So we checked into a roadside hotel in Varmahlíð to wait out the storm.

Plan E-3 was to (after the road opened) get a ride from Varmahlíð to Svínavatn with a guesthouse owner, from where we could start our new skiing attempt to the south. Luckily, he arrived in a super jeep, because even though the road was officially opened, it was still a big adventure to get to our destination in the stormy conditions.

According our plan E-4 we now had 8 days to get from Svínavatn, via Gullfoss, to the south coast. That meant long distances per day, but it wouldn’t be impossible! On the fifth day of skiing, we reached Gullfoss waterfall, where the snow ended. There we packed the stuff from our pulks into backpacks and continued on foot. On the eighth day we hiked through Selfoss and finally reached the south coast at Eyrarbakki! A total of 231 km in 8 days (149 km skiing and 82 km hiking). Lesson learnt from this trip – Don’t give up, despite a rough and challenging start!