Last friday I could not resist the beautifull weather and decided to make an old dream come true. Not far from Reykjavík there are three peaks that shine like rusted gold in the afternoon sun. For a few years now I have been meaning to climb these peaks. I have gone up there once before with Suze, but half way up she got tired and wanted to go back. She told me to continue but I could not just leave her and go on by my self. I may be one of those people who are happy doing things alone but there is something fundamentally wrong with leaving your climbing partner and going off to do your own thing. So we went back down and I vowed to come back one day to finish the climb.
These past few days the weather has been amazingly clear, sunny and even sometimes calm. The temp has been rocking upto to +8°C which is quite unusual for this traditionally most ferocious of all Icelandic winter months. February is normally the coldest month with the worst weather of the year. It is usually frought by snow storms and bad weather all round. This year however we have had some very beautifull February days and hardly any snow at all. Last friday was one of those days. Having had enough of my dinghy office I took off from work early to enjoy the sun. As I was driving home I looked up to the Móskarðshnjúkar peaks and saw the sun sparkle on the peaks. Suze was gone to some work event and would not be back till late that night. “This is the day” I decided.
I made some hot chocolate and cheese and ham sandwitches and got my hiking gear together. Once everything was ready I got going. I takes about 40 minutes on a very rough road to get to the root of the mountain so I only got there at about 2pm. Once there I parked the car and started dressing my self in the hiking gear. The wind was heavier than I had expected and the windchill made it very cold. “Good” I thougt, “I wouldnt expect anything less”. Once I had put all my gear on I could hardly feel the cold. I locked up the car, put the keys under the bumper as usual and got going.
In the gym I have notice that the first 15 minutes of cardio excersises are always the hardest. Once I pass a certain threshhold things get easier. The same applies when I go walking mountains, the first 15 minutes are really difficult but after that it gets easier. This time I was getting really exhausted in the beginning thinking that I´d never make it to the top. But lo and behold after the first 15 minutes my body was ready for action and even though I was panting the walk was not that difficult. The wind was cold but despite that I had to take off most of the protective gear as I was too hot. Two layers of thermal tops amazingly enough seemed to do for most of the walk.
After an hour of quite straight forward walking I sat down to drink my chocolate milk and a sandwitch. It was amazing how invigorationg the hot chocolate milk was in the cold wind. I took a short break and then got ready to go again. From this point I was going onto the actual mountain that I was climbing so both the terrain and the steepness became harder. After about 30 minutes of walking in snow and gravel I got to the ridge that connects the two peaks I was climbing and got a splendind view of the valley between them on the oter side. I had never seen that valley before and it was quite beautifull. But the peak I was about to climb was even more beautifull with its snowy slopes and rusty bright rocks shining out in places.
It took me about 15 minutes to get from the ridge to the top of the peak. The top was nice. It is one of those peaks that stands out from the surrounding landscape and above the surrounding mountains. This was definately a “wow” moment for me and made the climb more than worth it. At the top the wind was quite strong and very cold so I had to put on my sweater and hood. I spent some time at the top photographing and just savouring the moment. Just south of the top there was shelter from the wind so I sat down there and enjoyed the view and the quiet.
The downward walk was easier ofcourse but the tiredness in my legs made it no less difficult than going up. Most of the walk was quite straight forward but in parts the peaks had some hard, icy snow that made it quite dangerous. If I would be to loose my grip once on this ice I would not have been able to stop my self from sliding down the steep mountainside. That would have ended in severe injuries. My hinkingboots provided a good grip though and I was never in any danger, I thought. Mountaineering in winter always presents some dangers though and it is best to be carefull.
For more pictures see here
