Cold Summer Nights
I don’t know if it was my memory or just the fact that I’ve recently spent a month fighting heat. But Icelandic summer nights turned out to be colder than I expected. Freezing actually as the air temperature went below zero. The Icelandic summer is a strange thing. It’s short and sweet when the sun is shining. Because we are so far north the sun will shine almost 24/7 during this time of the year. During the daytime temperatures will reach double digits. Sometimes even going above 20 degrees. But when the sun dips below the horizon, you really feel how far north we are. How cool this island can be. You see your own breath condense right in front of you.
I still remember being in a low mountain pass in Hornstrandir in the middle of July and it had started to snow. I can only imagine what it must be like being there during the middle of winter. But cold can be fought. You need to know how to dress. The trick is to have lots of layers and something to keep your head and hands warm. This I had somehow forgotten when getting ready to go to Thorsmork this weekend. So nothing for my hands or head. Which meant that despite being in lots of layers and trying my best to keep warm. It still got cold and because I wasn’t moving that much, it slowly but surely got so cold that I couldn’t stay out any longer. I dove into my trusted sleeping bag. Which will keep me comfortably warm even if it dips to 8 below zero and is rated to be good to 20 below zero. Which I don’t even intend to try out. The sleeping bag and my mattress kept the cold out and me happy.
What surprised me a bit, was how few people where in Thorsmork this weekend. Usually the place is filled with people every weekend during the summer. Thorsmork is one of those places that never fail to amaze me when I go there. Difficult to reach unless you have access to a serious 4 wheel drive or by bus as you need to get across a few rivers. There’s been talk about paving the road so that more people have access. I hope that never becomes reality. Because of the difficulty getting there and the magnificent nature, I’m firmly of the believe that the whole experience of visiting Thorsmork would be damaged if the roads where improved. Now it feels exactly remote enough. Your mobile hardly works there, so you feel like you’ve kind of left all the stress behind. No mobile, means no connectivity either to the Internet. Which is sometimes exactly what you need. At the end of the weekend you feel powered up and relaxed.
I still remember being in a low mountain pass in Hornstrandir in the middle of July and it had started to snow. I can only imagine what it must be like being there during the middle of winter. But cold can be fought. You need to know how to dress. The trick is to have lots of layers and something to keep your head and hands warm. This I had somehow forgotten when getting ready to go to Thorsmork this weekend. So nothing for my hands or head. Which meant that despite being in lots of layers and trying my best to keep warm. It still got cold and because I wasn’t moving that much, it slowly but surely got so cold that I couldn’t stay out any longer. I dove into my trusted sleeping bag. Which will keep me comfortably warm even if it dips to 8 below zero and is rated to be good to 20 below zero. Which I don’t even intend to try out. The sleeping bag and my mattress kept the cold out and me happy.
What surprised me a bit, was how few people where in Thorsmork this weekend. Usually the place is filled with people every weekend during the summer. Thorsmork is one of those places that never fail to amaze me when I go there. Difficult to reach unless you have access to a serious 4 wheel drive or by bus as you need to get across a few rivers. There’s been talk about paving the road so that more people have access. I hope that never becomes reality. Because of the difficulty getting there and the magnificent nature, I’m firmly of the believe that the whole experience of visiting Thorsmork would be damaged if the roads where improved. Now it feels exactly remote enough. Your mobile hardly works there, so you feel like you’ve kind of left all the stress behind. No mobile, means no connectivity either to the Internet. Which is sometimes exactly what you need. At the end of the weekend you feel powered up and relaxed.
Ummæli