Two years on from my first Bedstone College Arctic Club expedition my second expedition (and thirteenth school expedition to northern climes) concentrated on the Tröllaskagi Mountains of North Iceland. This is an area that I know extremely well having led groups into the glacial wilderness of the mountains twice before. The settlement of Hólar in Hjaltadalur nestles under these peaks and provides an excellent base from which to set out from, together with acting as a vital point of contact within the safety net that must be provided for any youth expedition. That we did not need to activate any of these safety backup systems in not the point – they were in place should they be required.

Our final group numbered three leaders and ten led. This provided a healthy ratio given the nature of the terrain that we would be working in. Unfortunately I had lost a leader immediately prior to departure due to personal reasons and this influenced our plans quite considerably. Four leaders allows an even split whilst having only three meant that one group would have but one leader and whatever the experience of that leader it is not a valid scenario. If that leader is injured then the situation is not a workable one. I thus decided that there would not be any situations in which I would split the group – this reduced our flexibility but also provided one major bonus, all team members had to take part in virtually every day!

My thanks go to Pat Hornsey who gave up three weeks of his summer holiday to lead in the Icelandic mountains without even the reward of a few days in Reykjavik. On reaching Reykjavik at the end of the expedition phase he had to fly off immediately to Copenhagen to be with his partner who was expecting their first child. Luckily I was able to rely on my wife Karen who was prepared to fly out for the final few days to help me look after the group in Reykjavik. This was of enormous benefit to me personally considering the fact that I was fairly tired by the time we reached the Icelandic capital after the stresses and strains of leading a group of twelve in the glacial mountain environment of North Iceland for fifteen days.

The other leader was Emma Cooling who had taken part (whilst a pupil) in the Bedstone College expedition to East Greenland for four weeks in 2003. Immediately after this earlier trip Emma had spent a year working as an assistant at the North Yorkshire Outdoor Education Centre at East Barnby near Whitby. At the end of this year she had spent four weeks in Iceland exploring the country on her own and thus, for her age, had managed to accrue a good deal of experience. She acquitted herself superbly during our time in Iceland in 2005 and now looks set to become involved in a variety of other such projects.

A great deal of activity had followed on from our expedition to East Greenland in 2003 and consequently, not surprisingly, interest in like ventures at the College had blossomed. It was no surprise therefore that we set out with ten expedition members in 2005. It would have been twelve but for two sporting injuries (one occurring a mere two weeks prior to departure) reducing the party by two. This compared most favourably with the group size of six for the expedition to Greenland two years earlier. This actually represents a fair group size for a small school and it is gratifying to see the level of interest in a pastime that requires a great deal of fortitude, commitment, resolve and excellent fitness levels.

The weather throughout the mountain phase was supportive of our aims. Virtually all of the rain fell at night and, although there were one or two sessions of thrashing rain driven by katabatic winds hurtling down from the glaciers above, we were invariably tucked up in our tents and thus impervious to its effects. Likewise the strongest winds were experienced whilst we were staying in the mountain hut perched on a rocky rib above the Tungnahrggsjökull glacier. Since this hut is anchored by steel hawser cables we listened to the rushing wind confident that, although it battered with terrific force against the side of the hut, it would not be moving.

The quality of the sunlight was variable with a good deal of cloud cover at times but we were blessed with one piece of luck. We had struggled for days to backpack along the long Kolbeinsdalur valley to ascend Tungnahrggsjökull to reach the hut only to awake on the first morning to complete whiteout. There was no point in attempting to traverse the snow, ice and rock in such visibility and thus we were forced to remain hut-bound or, as many of the group turned it into, bed-bound! Looking back this was a perfect antidote to the general tiredness of the group and allowed recuperation prior to the perfect days that followed.

The next three days on the ice cap were absolute perfection itself. Progressively high clouds dominated the sky and by the third day had disappeared entirely. Consequently we were able to complete ascents of four rocky nunatak peaks rising above the ice and snow. Eventually we descended from this abode of ice and snow to the verdant valleys below to be greeted with the opportunity to bathe in the snow-fed streams that tumbled down the mountainsides safe in the knowledge that the intense arctic sunlight would make drying off pleasurable rather than hypothermic!

Our return to Hólar was not characterised by such good weather but we had by then accomplished a great deal and perhaps our desire to ascend had dimmed somewhat and we were content to backpack out from the mountains. Perversely our time in Reykjavík involved Mediterranean temperatures – well to us they felt like that. Suffice to say that, for Iceland, Reykjavík experienced a heat wave.

In planning the expedition I developed a number of objectives and these are outlined below:
THE OBJECTIVES
1. To climb Hólabyrða (1245m).
2. To backpack from Hólar to Tungnahrggsjökull and back.
3. To ascend Staðargangnafjall (1296m).
4. To ascend Péturshnjúkur/Hólamannahnjúkur (1406m).
5. To ascend Eiríkshnjúkur (1305m).
6. To ascend Tungnahrggsjökull to the watershed of Tröllaskagi and to use the mountain hut as a base.
7. To ascend Eidur (1278m) above Tungnahrggsjökull.
8. To ascend Steingrímur (1316m) above Tungnahrggsjökull.
9. To produce a record of the expedition both written and visual.

On the first full day after arriving at Hólar we successfully completed the ascent of Hólabyrða (1245m) – the mountain that rises steeply above the ancient Episcopal seat and from which the pinkish rock of the Church was quarried in times gone by. It was a long day, especially for the first active day of the trip and by the end of the eleven and a half hours we were firmly broken in to the demands of Icelandic ascents. The initial climb up to the ridge at Gvenderskal was reasonably steep but easy. Once we moved above this we entered the realms of difficult route finding and massively unstable rock. Given our ascent team size of thirteen then we were forced to proceed slowly, painfully so at times. One gully took 47 minutes to negotiate the 100 metres of ascent. However most of the ridge was better going than this although we were forced to descend prior to finding a new route to re-ascend on a number of occasions. The major reason for our slow progress was the need to climb singly for fear of dislodging loose rocks on the unwary following behind.

The summit ridge itself had one hairy section where not only had the rock frost- shattered but it had reflexed apart to provide an improbable (and impossible) angle of rock with a deep chasm in the middle. Luckily we were able to descend to a snow slope, work our way along and reclimb by kicking steps to regain a more accessible section of the ridge along which progress was more realistic. Once the summit itself was reached the going was considerably easier although two lads needed quick lessons in cornice recognition and the stupidity of running down slopes covered with a concealing layer of soft snow under which lurked a fractured, tessellated boulder field waiting to snap the limbs of the unwary! All in all this first day was probably the most demanding of the entire trip for many. It certainly set the tone for what was to follow.

The second objective was an easy one and was completed merely by completing the expedition itself. We attempted Staðargangnafjall (1296m) on our return from the ice and it proved to be far too difficult and dangerous. Admittedly our hearts were probably not totally in it given that we attempted the peak immediately after returning from a taxing and successful four days on the ice. Funnily enough I had actually climbed this peak previously but this climb was favoured by the fact that the snow extended two thirds of the way down the slopes. Indeed there was so much snow that we managed to descend using a controlled glissade for over 500 metres. This summer however due to the winter temperatures being effectively too cold to encourage a great deal of snowfall all we could see was exposed, fractured crags dominated by loose rockfall. Clearly last time we had been able to kick steps through these obstructions and gain the summit above.

During our time spent up on the small ice cap with its attendant glaciers we managed to complete ascents of Péturshnjúkur/Hólamannahnjúkur (1406m), Eiríkshnjúkur (1305m), Eidur (1278m) and Steingrímur (1316m) in a hectic three day period. The reasons for our success were really two-fold. Firstly we set out with the objective of ascending Tungnahrggsjökull to the watershed of Tröllaskagi and using the mountain hut above the glacier as a base. This would then allow us to contemplate ascents of the mountains rising above the ice as stately nunataks from a starting point that was already at about 700m altitude. This effectively converted eleven hour days into six hour ones! The consequence of this was that we were able to successfully complete a greater number of ascents than otherwise seemed likely. However to accomplish this it was necessary for us to stagger along Kolbeinsdalur with rucksacks containing enough food to support the required time in the mountains and this really was the key to the successful completion of the entire sequence of objectives.

In 1994 I had stood on the ridge at Hédinsskard looking across the Barkárdalsjökull to the impressive bulk of a mountain listed on the map as Péturshnjúkur (1406m). We had trudged up the Hédinsdalur valley and across the snow fields at the top hoping to descend from the ridge at Hédinsskard down to Barkárdalsjökull which would allow us to make an attempt on Péturshnjúkur. However the 1:50000 map proved to be somewhat misleading or perhaps we just over-estimated our capabilities, anyway the steep rocky descent was far too difficult and dangerous. We thus retreated planning to return to stay at the hut (nestling on a rocky rib below the north-west ridge of Péturshnjúkur) that we had espied from the ridge. In 1999 we did just that to find that although we reached the hut a combination of poor weather and rapidly declining food reserves effectively ended any attempt on the summit. We did however discover that the only viable angle of ascent was from the south-west and that this necessitated circumnavigating a good deal of the peak from the hut to attain the south-west approach.

To return in 2005 and successfully climb the mountain was, on a personal level, deeply satisfying. To cap this we also managed to complete a successful ascent of its near neighbour Eiríkshnjúkur – a much more difficult climb as it turned out. On the third day we also ascended Eidur (1278m) and Steingrímur (1316m) across the Tungnahrggsjökull glacier. We were lucky to experience three days of excellent weather at just the right time.

The new map published in 2005 renames Péturshnjúkur as Hólamannahnjúkur and relegates the “old” Péturshnjúkur to Eiríkshnjúkur’s smaller south-eastern neighbour but having spent eleven years trying to climb it - to me it will always be Péturshnjúkur!

On returning from the expedition we produced not only an expedition report but an expedition website together with an audio-visual presentation thus completing the final objective. The final tally of successfully completing eight of the nine objectives was satisfying and we had enjoyed some fun in the process. Judged on these fairly narrow criteria then the expedition was undoubtedly a success. However I hope that everyone now looks back on their time in Iceland with fond memories of physical hardship, achievement, camaraderie, superb views and the simplicity of living self-sufficiently in a glacial, mountain environment far from the complexity, pressures and comforts of the modern world.

For many this will undoubtedly be a “once in a lifetime experience” in that they will definitely not subject themselves to such a challenge again. However they can reflect on the fact that they have done it once and have the memories and images to prove it. For one or two of the group I suspect that, like for Emma and indeed myself in the past, this experience will form a defining moment in their life signalling perhaps the start of a lifelong passion. I hope so.

Nigel Bidgood FRGS – Leader Bedstone College North Iceland Expedition 2005.

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