Børge Ousland

A successful journey comes to an end

We have left the glacier and are now in the village of Egilsstadir. The three of us started our day at 06.00. It has been colder than yesterday, when it was almost zero and rather sticky snow. Today has been nice and cool and partly cloudy; the sun has come and gone. We have been enjoying a beautiful light, especially on features near the horizon.

It feels great to have such a nice ending to this great trip. All is well. An hour after we came down at Ayjabakkajökull at noon, we were picked by car as agree. Haraldur took care of those logistics. The drive to Egilsstadir took almost four hours, and that’s where we are now. It has been quite an experience to ski across Europe’s largest glacier!

The only way to drive Icelandic “roads” is with powerful vehicles equipped with oversized winter tyres.

Erling fixes the pulk – while Haraldur relaxes in the tent.

A 33-kilometre march, despite white-out

We have called it a day and have pitched our camp on Vatnajökull. The day before yesterday we were at 1800 metres altitude; we have now descended to about 1300 m and are approaching the western side of this huge glacier.

All is well! Today we have been cruising along at a rate of 4–5 km pr hour. That’s great considering that we have suffered a complete “white-out”. The term means that everything is completely white – we see neither the horizon nor anything else worth mentioning in front of us, nor in any other direction for that matter. Under such conditions it can extremely difficult and very exhausting to navigate, but we are managing surprisingly well. Fortunately, there has been a constant wind. Our solution has been to tie ribbons to our ski poles and use these as directional guides, carefully skiing at the same angle relative to the wind. This is one of the tricks I have learned through a long life of expeditions in the Arctic and Antarctica.

We are likely to come off the glacier tomorrow. Tomorrow, incidentally, there is supposed to be better weather, and … (rest of report inaudible)

Halfway

We are in the tent again after a great day. It snowed a bit early in the day, but then it clear up. At the end of the day there was incredibly beautiful light; it looked a little like Patagonia in this blue-grey light.

We have progressed another 35 km today, which is a good pace. Our camp is situated almost exactly in the middle of Vatnajökull, in an area surrounded by mountains. We expect to reach the eastern edge of the glacier within two days. And we’re having a great time. It is wonderful to walk in good company and think about something completely different from the things that fill your mind when you spend days at the office. It’s almost like meditation to get out here and do something like this. I’ll give you a new report tomorrow.

The sauna in the middle of Vatnajökull!

We have now reached Grímsvötn, the cabin that I told you about yesterday. It is incredibly nicely situated, 1700 metres above sea level. We had temperatures of three to four degrees below zero today, 23 km of great skiing conditions and excellent glide, and lots of sunshine from a blue sky.

This cabin belongs to the Icelandic Glaciological Society. Here is a sauna with steam coming directly from the ground, and everything inside the cabin is heated by steam. It’s almost unreal to come here. There are even heaps of hot stones – in the midst of the glacier!

The cabin is situated right next to Grímsvötn, where there was a week-long volcanic eruption during Christmas 1998, and another outbreak in 2004. So this is a real geothermal area. Grímsvötn is a very beautiful and special place, and it’s a delight to enjoy the lodgings here. We have bathed, relaxed and enjoyed ourselves. As tempted as we may be to extend our stay, we need to carry on tomorrow – we still have four days of skiing to go before reaching the northwestern edge of the glacier.

First day on the glacier

Our expedition started from Jökuheimar, at the western extremity of Vatnajökull. The expedition’s final destination is Eyjabakkajokull, 132 km away, on the eastern side of the huge glaceir. The first two days promise an almost continuous uphill battle, but after 45 km the trio should reach Grímsvötn, high up on the glacier. We’ll tell you more of the rewards waiting there later!

Børge, Erling and Haraldur are off to an early start.
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Evening report: It’s evening and we are nicely sheltered in the tent up here on the glacier. We’ve gone 20 km today and are right on schedule. Yesterday we drove to an old camp, took a last check of the equipment and enjoyed a good, relaxed dinner.

Today we were up at 07.00 and continued in a special vehicle equipped with very large tires. Those are very much needed, because we’re really driving on a thick layer of snow lying on top of the road. Tomorrow we plan to cover another 23 km in order to reach a cabin called Grimsvötn. We look forward to staying indoors again, especially since that cabin is heated and there are hot springs nearby – the heat source coming from beneath the glacial ice. Haraldur tells us it’s a really nice place. The rest of our trip, which is intended to take six days, we will be sleeping in our tents.

The weather forecast is varied, but today has been absolutely beautiful! Light clouds, not too windy or cold, and excellent glide for our skis. This is a great start to our trip. It is exciting to be out here, skiing on a huge glacier in the middle of the North Atlantic.

Crossing Europe’s largest glacier

Børge Ousland has just kicked off a new expedition. Together with Erling Kagge and Haraldur Ørn Olafsson, he is crossing Vatnajökull, the largest glacier in Iceland.

“This is really recreation, a relaxing little trip. It has been 20 years since Erling and I were at the North Pole, with Geir Randby, so this is a nice reunion. Haraldur is Iceland’s most famous explorer, he has previously been to both the North Pole and South Pole,” says Børge.

Vatnajökull is Europe’s largest glacier, measured in volume, although Austfonna on Svalbard covers a larger area. The Icelandic glacier holds 3100 cubic kilometres of ice and covers 8100 square kilometres of southeastern Iceland. Average thickness is almost 400 meters, but parts of the glacier are up to a kilometre thick. English sailors claim to have seen Vatnajökull from the Faeroe Islands, 550 km away, under special atmospheric conditions when light is bent.

The crossing will take the trio to altitudes of 1500–1800 metres. Many glacier arms extend toward the coast and down into the surrounding valleys.

“We’ve been keeping an eye on the weather forecast. So far it looks good, but wind and rain can quickly create real challenges on Vatnajökull. We hope to reach our destination on the other side after about a week,” says Børge.

He may not mention it, but they also hope the volcanoes under glaciers will remain restful; it would hardly be nice if the glacier suddenly evaporated under them!

The three are ‘travelling light’ pulling sleds that have a mere 30 kg of supplies and equipment. That’s nothing compared to what is required for long expeditions to the North or South Pole.

“We’re on our way up the mountain. Talk to you later!”