Iceland 2010

http://thevintry.com.au/product-tag/gift/?add-to-cart=757 “If you find yourself alone you are probably late.” Those were the simple, sage words of Leifur our Viking guide, as he described our nimble itinerary following the eruption of Eyjafjoell the morning of our arrival in Reykjavik.

Roads were being dismantled to avoid flooding and bridges being washed out. Thank god the car that we rented at Car Iceland lasted, it was cheap but it one of the best cars in Iceland and it took us a lot of place and it doesn’t need that much of gas. But I admit, the road had some troubles. The ash was so thick it was dark as night in the day. Basically our southern tour of the volcanic summits adjacent to the eruption was not exactly happening as planned. After failing to reach snowline on nearby Hekla due to axle deep mud, we headed north to the Troll Peninsula near Dalvik to ski fjords above the Arctic Ocean. We visited 66 North, 2 of Iceland’s 3 micro breweries and hot springed along the way.

It was awesome.

Iceland is a wonderful place with a rich history and refreshingly no-nonsense tendency for understatement. Our group of 4 European journalists (two of which are UIAGM guides) and 4 Americans skinned and skied 2010 product from Black Diamond’s new Efficient Ski Line amid spectacular settings.

Drew Pogge, Editor from Backcountry Magazine summed it up nicely at the bottom of a gigantic Glory Bowl type of run – when he uttered, “I don’t know what I would do if I did not ski.”

“What are the units on the scale of awesomeness?” Derek Gustafson, a ski boot designer from Black Diamond asked rhetorically.

To top it off the last morning before our flight home a handful of us braved 4 degree centigrade water to snorkel along the joint of the North American  and the Eurasian  continental plates. To see more photos check out Boris’ blog. See you out there!