Fjallamennska 1 to Skardsheidi 21-23 nov

i getting to slow with my blog now, guess i'm not in greenland anymore where i have a lot of spare time ;0)

this week-end anna and i went with the rescue team to skardsheidi. it's a mountain ara just one hours drive north of reykjavik.
friday evening we walked for a couple of hours with our back-packs. they were around 20 kg so a bit heavy. after finding a suitable flat place to put up our tents we spent quite a time trying to break rocks free so we could put them on our tents, and they had to be big enough. but they were not! so most of the night during a raging storm i had to go out and put more rocks on and fix strings from the tent that broke all the time. not much sleep...
saturday morning we had to post pone the lectures due to a lot of wind, finally we could get our things together, pulled the rods out of the tent and put a lot of wait on them so that they wouldn't fly away.

then we walked in ropes up to a mountain where we spent the rest of the day trying out breaking techniques with ice axe and crampons, building and testing snow anchors and walking up, what i would call a really steep hill and down on the other side ( i'm afraid of hights).
at the end of the day we trained with avalanche beacons. most of the day it was only windy and a great view of the surrounding mountains and the valley. but the last couple of hours it started raining so everything from underwear to boots were soaking in water. not good.
after putting the tent up again and gettig some even bigger rocks we fired up the stove and had a nice freeze dried meal. in my tent anna and 2 other girls were staying.
during the night it was snowing and raining but luckily we didn't have to go out and fix anything.
the next morning the sleeping bags were quite wet and all our clothes were now frozen due to frost during the night. ICELANDIC WEATHER!!!

sunday it was planned Skeissuhorn a huge and to me difficult and steep mountain. on my way up there i really didn't feel comfortable due to the steepness and the altitude...
at the point of no return i decided to trun around and head back to camp. anna joined me!
we arrived at the camp at hours 1415 but the others had some problems so the first ones where back at 2030 and the last ones around 2230. we where back in town around 0030 but then we had to clean the cars and the equippment.
after finding a dirty hamburger with fries and coke i got to bed around 0330...

i put out some more pictures for you to watch.

well well

Anna didn't go to Vifilfell as i told you on my blog. it was decided to go to mount Esja instead. she was back home around 0130 and had to wake up at 0630 to go working, counting cars for 3 hours.
i went to school today to read and write some. then i went to "BECO" with my camera. it needed cleaning after more than 3 years in the greenlandic dust and snow environment...

then we went to a couple of stores to get anna a back-pack. we got a really nice one, 60 litres at a good price, specially designed for women. so now she can carry then tent instad of me ;0)

i'm getting better and it's nice to be able to walk around again :0)
have a nice evening.

sick again...

the last 3 days i have been sick with the influenca. someone in school must have given it to me...

well, now i'm getting better and that is soo good, since i'm really getting tired of being sick. it messes up all my plans in school and everything else.

this evening/night the rescue team was going to mount Vifilsfell just outside reykjavik. it was better for me to stay home and get well than going for a stroll on a mountain in sleeth and rain...the red line is the road and the green is the walking path.

on friday my friend kari from svalbard and her boyfriend is coming to visit my on their way back from new york. the will stay here for the week-end and we will do some icelandic things... riding a horse, visiting the blue lagoon, watching some geysirs, eating mouton head etc...

some really good links to short films of iceland

http://www.pegasus.is/popup.jsp?FileName=http://www.pegasus.is/media/movies/reelwinter06.mov

http://www.pegasus.is/popup.jsp?FileName=http://www.pegasus.is/media/movies/Location_demo_new.mov

http://www.lux.is/lux/english/images/movies/Luxnet.mov

the movies are made by an icelandic company "Pegasus Pan Arctica"

Life saving equipment...

Last night anna and I went to the rescue team (bjørgunarsveit) meeting. this time we had to (re)learn about the use of floating suits, how to put them on and use the. after jumping from a ferrie we had a swim in the harbour and did some exercises. the suit wasn't completely water proof as i got a bit wet on my arms.

after 30 min in the arctic water your fingers start to feel numb, so i guess lying in the big ocean for many hours in bad weather is no joke...

a good course and good fun!

the proud vikings

Here Leif Eriksson stands on a hill overlooking Reykjavik and it's citizens as he has done for such a long time...
the vikings came to this deserted and unhostible island fore more than thousand years ago. the built it up to be a modern and thriveing society of 320 000 inhabitants.

there have been many crisis here before, vulcano eruptions, the black deat (not the liquor ), harsh climate, earthquakes, famine and starvation, but the vikings have always managed to get up and continue going...
THEY WILL RISE AGAIN...

first we took the beautifull women of Britain and now they think we stole their money!
WELL we stole the beautifull women because that's what left here...

new iceland

check out this link...
http://www.newiceland.net/

Here everything is well. i have recovered from my sickness and feel a lot healthier and lighter...
there is a lot to do in school, many articles have to be read and a lot of things to understand...but i will manage with a little help with time...

the wonderful winter weather stopped and we are now in a rainy period, but it doesn't matter when you are sitting in the hot springs reflecting and enjoying life!

i put out some new pictures on my picture page

stay healthy