アイスランド縦断ハイキング 575km / 18 days by ホイットニー・ラ・ルッファ #03

Iceland Traverse Part 3

Lake Myvatan to Nyidalur Hut
250 km

This leg started with a zero-day in Lake Myvatan, which became a day trip to the town of Akureyi. Mike needed new rain pants, and we all needed to buy our resupply for the next 250km. After looking at the small gas station grocery store in Lake Myvatan, we decided to go to Akureyri, which is about an hour and a half away. Luckily, we could rent a car in town as there was no bus running that day,

Our visit to Akureyi was great. We bought rain plants from an Icelandic clothing brand with a shop in town. Thankfully, this domestic brand had reasonable prices, as no import duty was applied. We stopped by the large Bonus grocery store for a significant resupply and enjoyed a leisurely lunch at the backpacker’s hostel and cafe.

The highlight of the day for me was visiting the Myvatn Nature Baths back in town, this is one of Iceland’s famous hot spring lagoons. The water has a high amount of silica, giving it a unique blue color, like the famous Blue Lagoon down south. The three of us enjoyed hours soaking in the hot water, enjoying the sauna, and taking a cold plunge to cool off as needed.

We set off on the trail the following day, excited to be heading into Icleand’s interior, a vast volcanic desert landscape. The trail was a road walk for most of the day; there was little to no breeze, and the midges swarmed about us, forcing us each to wear a head net as we hiked. About mid-day, we finally turned off the pavement onto a dirt road and walked in a valley. After a few kilometers, the midges faded away, and we enjoyed a lovely afternoon walking in the sun and enjoying the landscape in front of us. We made camp by a small stream for the night and enjoyed a leisurely evening.

Little did we know that our relaxed and easy days were ending abruptly.

The next day, we awoke to a lovely blue sky, broke camp, and headed along our route with a plan to stop at Botni Hut, the first backcountry hut we would see. The interior of Iceland has some self-service huts and full-service huts that one can utilize. Unlike Japan and the Alps, these are very rustic huts with limited ietms for sale, if any at all.

We walked through a volcanic landscape of sand and then an old lava flow, arriving at Botni Hut. Even though the weather was pleasant, we decided to go inside to have a hot lunch and do some route planning for the coming days. We poured over the maps as we ate, discussing the pros and cons of each option ahead. Then we checked the weather and saw that a storm was coming in a few days. We left the hut and continued crossing an old lava flow until we got onto a series of F-roads (which in Iceland are 4×4 roads that cross the interior).

Around 4 pm, we sat in the sun enjoying a sandwich as a final snack before our last push to our destination for the night, Dyngiufell Hut, which would make for a 42km day. As we snacked, a tall, elven-like woman appeared jogging down this remote road in Iceland. She stopped and chatted with us, and we learned she was a park ranger. Her truck had broken down about 3km away, so she was running while waiting for a ride. We asked her about our route ahead, and she got earnest and said, “You know a hurricane (typhoon) is coming here tomorrow.”

After more discussion, we learned that the storm was to arrive sometime after 3 pm and bring 38-50m/s winds, heavy rain, and potentially even snow. We reviewed the maps, and all the hut locations where we could safely ride out the storm.

We decided it was best to push past Dyngiufell Hut and aim for the emergency shelter KIstifuel, which was high on the side of a volcano. With a plan in place, we carried on. We hiked well into the evening and ended the day atop a high sandy plateau. We had covered 51km that day and needed to sleep fast, as we had an alpine start planned to make the next hut before the storm, which was still 43km away.

We awoke in the dark, broke camp, and started our hike. We had 43km to go before 3 pm, so it would be a head down, hike hard, and short break kind of day. The terrain was nice enough and easy to make good time. We ascended out of one valley and down into another along sandy f-roads. We did come close to the Vatnajӧkul glacier, but we had been warned not to drink water from it as it was contaminated with high levels of sulfur. After a lunch break, we began the long climb up to the hut, which sat high on the steep sides of the volcano. We pushed hard and arrived at 3 pm.

The hut was pretty basic, a front mud room with a stove, some water in jugs that are brought in and some fuel for the heaters, it made the entire place semll like kerosene. The back room or living quarters was a series of bunk beds, nothing remarkable but a good enough space to ride our a storm. 3 pm came and went and no strom, the wind did pick up some but by the time I was dozing off to sleep the wind was strating to finally pickup. A few hours later and were startled awake by the storm. The wind was howling, causing the entire hut to shake violently, I laid in bed wondering inf the entire hut was going to be ripped off its foundation. As the wind continued to howl I tried to sleep, but really I just tossed and turned waiting for the storm to pass and the the sun to rise.

In the morning the wind kept on going, the sun had come out and we decided it was best to try to make the next hut on the map, which was only 20km away. We left before lunch and walked into a blowing wind and sand storm.

For the next 5 hours we would be hit with powerful blast of wind and frigid air. We were wearing all of layers, thankful to have the warmth. Any exposed skin was stinging form the sand that was bellowing up from all the wind. We forded some rivers and eventually after what seemed like an eternity we saw Gasauaynaskali Hut.

This a privately owned hut, however 2 young Swidd hikers had arrived there the day before the storm and were able to get a hold of the owners on their cell phone. The owner agreed to let them stay there to safely ride out the storm. They generously shared the space with us for the night. The hut was amazing, and had comfortable beds, running water, and was a true oasis in the Icelandic Desert. We enjoyed chatting with the two hikers, it was their first backpacking trip and they were not really prepared for the extreme conditions. Their packs were large and very heavy well over 30kg. We helped them with some route planning, introduced them to Gaia GPS and they asked if they could hike out with us the next day, we of course agreed.

When we awoke the next morning the wind was still very strong and steadily blowing around 16m/s, the rain the day before had turned to snow and the landscape was blanked in a light blanket of fresh snow. The goal for the day was Nyidalur Hut which was 39km away, the Swiss boys took off about 20 minutes before us, we could see then out ahead thanks to the big bright yellow pack covers that I had them duct tape to their packs so it wouldn’t blow away.

We took off after them, enjoying our dry socks and shoes for about 3 minutes until we had to ford our first creek of the day. We slowly hiked along but the wind was so strong that it was hard to push forward into it. The three us decided to try a peloton technique like riders in the Tour de France. We lined up 3 in a row wih no space between us and walked single file, every 10 minutes the person in the font would drop back into the 3rd position and the next person would take the lead. This was working, the person in front was a great wind break letting the others hike without getting completely fatigued. We settled into a rhythm and kept making forward progress.

The snow turned to rain, then snow, then rain, then sleet. This shifting precipitation continued on all day. Even with all of our layers and goretex, we eventually started to wet through as we pushed on through the weather. The condsitions were so bad that we only stopped for 2 breaks. The first was behind some boulders, we happened upon them right when the sun cme out for a few minutes around 10am, we ate as many snacks as we could and then pushed on. It was at the end of this break when the Swiss boys caught us, somehow we had gotten ahead.

The asked me about crossing the creeks and streams and asked if I left my shoes on, which I do. They had been stoppoing each time to take off their shoes. I asked if their boots were wet and the said yes, so I said then why bother taking them off, they left them on the rest of the day.

Mike Naomi and I pulled ahead of the boys and kept going determined to get to Nyidalur Hut. the snow was coming down hard and blowing around in the wind making it hard to see. I was coated in a layer of wet heavy snow and the only way to stay warm was to keep moing. My hands were like two ice blocks, completely drenched and frozen. We stopped one more time and stood in a circle shoulder to shoulder facing each other as we each at a bar and passed around a bottle of water. As miserable as we were I began to laugh at the absurdity of the situation. I said to them, “what is wrong with us that we think this a vacation, just think we could all be laying on a sunny beach in Mexico right now instead of being on the edge of hypothermia here in Iceland.” we all had a good chuckle at that observation, fisnhed our snacks and carried on.

An hour of so later off in the distance I spotted Nydialur Hut and the other small buildings around it. Our pace quickened and we pushed as hard as we could to reach the safe warm interior of the hut. We splashed across one last river, climbed the hill and burst through the doors into the welcome safety of a warm hut, WE HAD MADE IT!

The hut warden was a lovely women who greeted us inside, and helped us get out of our wet clothes, and find places to hang them to dry. She provided us with hot beverages to warm up, showed us to our bunk room and then sent each of us to get a hot shower to warm up. In Iceland they have unlimited hot water thanks to the geothermal heat they use, so I stood in the shower letting the hot water pour all over me warming me up to my core.

An hour and half or so after we arrived, the two Swiss boys arrived in a a miserable state of cold. We helped them out of their gear and did the same routine to warm them up.

That evening we sat in the hut chatting with some other guests, sharing our tales of adventure and contemplating the next leg of our trip. The park ranger on site provided us a forecast for the next few days and suggested we shold stay an additional night at the hut to let the worse of the weather pass, I couldn’t argue with that logic so the 3 of us settled in for an extended stay at the hut.

Note:
In my nearly 30 years of long-distance hiking this is by far the hardest and worse condition day I have ever experienced. The combination of extremely cold wet conditions, strong winds and no natural features in the landscape to provide relief, was the ultimate test of my physical strength and mental skills. I am still in awe at times that I was able to hike through this storm series, and I can not thank the Park Rangers and Hut Wardens enough for the generosity intel, and moral support they provided us when we met.