Fimmvörðuháls Hike (The Skogar Hike)
This is a 25km or so hike from the Basár huts in þórsmörk up 1000m over a mountain pass between 2 glaciers and then back down and out at Skogáfoss, a waterfall found out on the ring road. It crosses over the Eyjafjallajökull Volcano site that erupted in 2010 and promptly put a halt to international air traffic. Cool. We had really really wanted to attemp this hike. However our packs were still filled to near bursting, and we didn't have the hiking muscles we've had in the past. In addition it was still early in the season and there was the minor fact that 14 kilometers of the trek were across a pass in ankle to mid-calf high snow, boo to that. We decided to cut it into two day hikes, hiking in to the snow line from both ends of the trail.
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| Langidalur Hut |
So our 18kish the day before aside, we hiked another 9KM towards Skogár, starting at our camp at the Volcano huts (at Husadalur) and then past the Langidalur huts, over across the river valley to the Basár hut and onto the official trail.
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| On the way to Básar |
We hiked up a beautiful, winding canyon until we crested the top for epic views, then hiked up to the first pass in the snow.
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| just the footsteps of other hikers to follow up top... |
Eventually, the wind was nearly knocking us off, the snow was getting deeper, and the trail ahead looked far too steep for our liking, so we turned around and headed back. Kudos to all the people we meet who'd come all the way from the other side because the wind up top was gale force and the snow a total bummer to walk in, not to mention the lack of trail markers up top that the snow swallowed.
After trying to update and experiencing brutal technical difficulties, we abandoned posting to the blog ands hit the sack. Or rather took the time to dominate at crib, then hit the sack.
Tomorrow: Skogár! Hopefully we can stash our big bags and do the other side of the trail. Then it'll be on to Vik, apparently a cozy, cute little town right on the coast.
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