Onward, To Adventure!

Hehehe, I specifically asked someone to take that picture today so that I could start my blog post with it. That's how much I'm thinking ahead for you guys!

In case there was some lack of clarity as to the purpose of my awesome toque and those crampons, I was doing my glacier hike today. I actually mis-reported yesterday that I'd be climbing Langjökull (Long Glacier) but in fact I was climbing Sólheimajökull (Sliding Glacier) which is along the South coast. If you're looking for it on a map of Iceland you probably won't find it as it's actually an extension of Mýrdalsjökull, which is considerably bigger. I had a choice of activities when I booked this, and half of our group split off when we got dropped of to hike Sólheimajökull and went on to a snowmobile ride on Mýrdalsjökull. I'd thought that sounded like fun, but decided that it would be more enjoyable to hike around rather that bomb along on a noisy snow mobile. That turned out to be an excellent choice, since apparently the snowmobile trip got cut very short due to the extraordinarily high winds we were experiencing today. I thought a few times that I was going to get blown off the face of the glacier! High winds are extremely common in Iceland, a fact that's often attributed to the lack of trees. It's just something you've got to be prepared for. Aside from the small hurricane that we were hiking through it was actually quite warm up there, and all the thermal gear was probably not entirely necessary.

Here's a shot of our approach to the glacier:



Another picture once we got on there:



And another:



You'll notice in the shots above that there are conical piles of black dirt everywhere. Glaciers are always full of debris, and around these parts that debris is likely to be largely from volcanic ash, which stains the glacier black. The reason they form in conical piles is that they settle to the bottom of the holes caused by running water, as evidenced here:

Once the walls of the hole melt out and away the landscape levels off, leaving cones of ice that were protected by the layer of sediment. So those conical "piles" of dirt are actually chunks of ice and probably only have about an inch of sediment on them.

It's a pretty uneven landscape, which makes a guide handy. They always say that you should take a guide with you on glaciers to watch out for holes and cracks. This implies that you need someone to point out the giant holes in the ice to you. Honestly, if you don't see those holes you really need to pay better attention. Either that or you are suffering from a severe visual impairment, and may wish to consider an activity other than glacier hiking.

I actually think that the real reason a guide is handy is that these cracks and holes often join together into an absolute labyrinth, and I imagine that if you weren't familiar with the glacier you'd waste a lot of time hitting dead ends and backtracking.

Not that the danger of the holes should be underestimated, sometimes it's a long fall:

After checking out the glacier we stopped at a couple of neat waterfalls on the way back to Reykjavik. Below is Skogafoss:

And this is Seljalandsfoss:

That was particularly fun since we could walk in behind it:

Tomorrow's rafting adventure doesn't start until 12:30, which gives me a chance to sleep in. I'm pretty happy about that, since I didn't sleep great last night and I'm feeling pretty beat. After that I've got a free day on Wednesday, and then I fly out on Thursday, so my adventure is drawing to a close. I'm still trying to figure out what to do on Wednesday, I've got to prioritize all the activities that I haven't got around to yet!

Those of you who have been reading the comments section probably had a good chuckle at Graydyn's suggestion that I throw out my socks in order to facilitate the transport of Brennivin. What's more funny is how much he and I think alike. I really should have brought a proper suitcase on this trip since I've had the luxury of a single base camp and haven't had to lug all my luggage around the country this time. A suitcase wouldn't have been an inconvenience and would have afforded me a lot more space. As it is my backpack was STUFFED when I set out, and now I want to bring home a ton of souvenirs. I've been eyeing up all my shirts trying to decide which I like the least. It's entirely possible that I'll arrive home without any of the clothes that I left with. Wish me luck in not running up a high clothing bill.