After leading the beautiful Green Team for a few weeks, René asked me to lead the short-term volunteers in Skaftafell. The Greens loaded me and my bags on a bus in Landmannalaugar, and after some hours I got to Skaftafell and back to the volunteer house Bölti, filled with 8 guys that were ready for their second week of volunteering. I was happy to have one more day off before we had to get to work, and now the snow had melted, I finally managed to run up to the top of Kristinartindar. As I was literally running, I didn’t wear that many clothes for a cold Icelandic summerday, so I was not quite prepared for the photoshoot I had to do at the top for an American couple that just got engaged there!
Back in the house, I found my co-leader Julie, who had already been leading the short-terms for the whole summer. She had almost finished up fixing the whole trail leading up to and onwards from Bölti, which had been a massive task with all the drains and steps that had to be put in. So as she continued on that job with half of the guys, my team hiked the long hike out to a project they had been working on the week before. They had built some pretty good stone steps followed by a river crossing over there, which looked all pretty sturdy. Both ends needed finishing up though. So where Jonny and Fabien went to fight with the upper last steps, Santi and Matt started finishing up the other side of the river crossing. Loads of enthusiasm from the guys even though it was pretty much storming; they learned quick and the project was coming along nicely pretty quick. But as with every good project, a huge pile of mud and big rocks formed next to the trail and needed cleaning up. Loads of the landscape skills that I learned from Gunnar in the previous week where used here to make the trail bland in nicely with the landscape and to cover up that rock-mess. We ended up with a beautiful river crossing where even the clumsiest tourist could keep their feed dry. Too bad that the trail on both sides still is so flooded that gumboots might be a better option for footwear than actual hiking boots.. Maybe a good project for next year?
After a couple of days on that job, Julie and I still had some days left to make use of the fact we had 8 strong guys in our team. I took my half over the heath to finish the rockwork that the Red and Green Teams had been working on in their intro week. Not the easiest task, to make those 2 stretches of steps fit together exactly in an area that was completely depleted of all usefull rocks. Those guys definitely proved themselves there though, and the result was great.
During the week, Julie and I did get away from the group on some occasions for some last-minute shopping whilst the boys were cooking, or for game of throne nights with the head ranger Habba. That’s also where we met Siggi, who now is my Skaftafell climbing-buddy. We went out climbing that weekend before me and Julie had to pick up our new load of volunteers – so good to be back on real rock!
In our second round of volunteers, we finally got some girls to join us. It was a pretty fun group we had there, and luckily some of them were eager to follow me up onto the heath again for some more rockwork in that area. The whole trail leading from the visitors centre up to the Sjónarnípa viewpoint is just such a mess, so this week we started out with defining a stretch of the trail that started at the viewpoint. I got Josh working on some rock lining, whilst Helen, Charlie and Deremyre started paving the trail with all the big rocks that were sticking up from it. Even more rocklining the next day, because that day we got about a 100 scouts from some big international scout moot to help us out even further up the mountain. The trail there is moving more and more towards the West every year, causing more and more moss to die off as people walk over it. So yes, I actually asked both the team and all those scouts to move this entire 200 meter stretch of trail about 2 meters to the East.. I am happy that at least the volunteers understood why we were doing this, and they started out smoothing the trail nicely – the scouts gave me a few funny looks but then started with some high-speed rock lining. It did seem that we got the good half of the scouts – Julie got a group that gave themselves a round of applause after stomping on some Lupin for a whole half minute.. We got some more scouts the next day, but eventually it was my team that after hours of work managed to create a whole new trail just 2 meters next to the now invisible old trail - let’s hope that it stays there this time and that we have saved the remaining moss! I had so much fun with this great team of volunteers – I definitely rolled over laughing more than once a day whilst working with them.
That Friday, all the guides and rangers living down the hill had organized some sort of championships, where we showed up to as a “orange is the new black” team with our beautiful waterproof pants. One of my main discoveries of the evening was that when you place a plank half on a deck and half suspended in the air and let Helen try and drink a beer at the far end of that plank, I am definitely not heavy enough to hold that all in balance. Also, it turned out that our volunteers (and leaders) definitely are the best at charging at glacier guides in a cardboard-made “boat”. It was definitely one of the best parties of the season. The hangover was also one of the worst, but at least Siggi was happy to drag me out onto the glacier for a nice refreshing hike on the ice the following day. That afternoon, my next trailteam arrived to Bölti – ready to head out to the East!
The guys after their first project
So happy with this result
Jökulsárlón evening trip with Julie and the boys
Loved having these muscles to work with!
Evening/storm climb with Siggi
Just some casual trailbuildin’
Think the trail will stay here this time?
Thanks for the good week guys!
Hiking and climbing on a glacier with this guy - the best cure for a hangover!
