I went on my first Jeppaferð (Jeep Trip) on the weekend. Steinar from work had bought a Hilux late last year, and finally got around to making it manly.
Time to take it to the Glacier!
We packed a couple of hiluxs with some toys (skis, and a bunch of food basically) and headed up to Langjökull. "Met up" with all the other boys and their toys at the shell station to fuel up, and headed north. Destination, Langjökull.
Met Siggi and his cousing kiteskiing and playing on snowmobiles when we arrived, and had a good "Spjöllu" (stand around chatting) before deciding to head up to a steep bit on the edge of the glacier to have a ski.
Extremely scenic, but not exactly the best skiing conditions. And no warmup run! Just on your skis, and down you go! I'm so out of shape.
But pretty. Still, I swore to keep this short. So we did our run, then hooked up some ropes to do some tow skiing. Siggi and Aadne had a go, then we packed it up. Went cruising instead. I'll have to give that a go next time. Maybe do some actual exercise in between. :)
Cruised off across the glacier, heading for the far side. Saw some kids getting towed along at speed on inner tubes and sleds, dirt bikes, every man and his dog really. Fabulous weather.
But it was getting boring. Time for some ACTION!
We stopped at Þursuborg, a lump of rock sticking up out of the generally very flat Langjökull. So did everyone else. A couple of people dropped in on skis and snowboards while we were there, but they were all dropping in down the melt slope. We took off, and it turned out that while I'd been busy exercising and stuffing my face with food, the lads had been scoping a line to ski. Aadne was the only one hiking up though. You did't really think you'd get Steinar and Gunni out of the drivers seat did you? And surely not me signing up to bomb some unknown ski line, in mixed ice/snow conditions? Don't be foolish!
Steinar and I dropped Aadne off, and went around to take some pics. Aadne took off, ok, and we both took pictures.
Then it went seriously downhill. Aadne stumbled and fell, lost his skiis, and went for a long ride down over a lot of rocks. Both Steinar and I, true amateurs, stopped taking pictures to watch.
Miraculously, Aadne is unharmed. I have no idea how.
His skis were still wayyy up the mountain though, and none of us in street shoes could get enough traction up the snow and ice, so Aadne had to kick steps back up the mountain to get his skis again. And you can bet that if he slipped again, he wouldn't be so lucky.
More cruising, Steinar driving up some hills that Gunni went around, (even though Gunni's jeep is bigger with more toys ;) Then we started looking for the way down. Which was quite scenic, by this time of day, most of the other jeeps had started leaving, and we were nearing the edge again, so you could see mountains and things, not just big white empty.
Eventually found the right way down, and started the arduous journey home. 30kph for 2 hours, over broken up washed out roads, and sheets of ice. Some nice views of sunset light on Hofsjökull and the interior, but playing the ragdoll game for a couple of hours is stretching the friendship.
Fabulous day, fabulous weather. Need to get up there again, maybe with a kite, or for some more tow skiing.
