Mellufær á Glerá WI5 40m

We parked the car at the Motor Cross Area close to the Glerá canyon. GPS 65.667876, -18.161273

Head directly towards the canyon, about a 5-minute walk.

Rappel into the canyon on bolted anchors. There is one by the edge of the canyon on a big boulder, another anchor about 30m down.
It is possible to rappel to the floor of the canyon on a 70m rope. It’s recommended to attach the rope to the middle anchor. There are some loose rocks.

We climbed it in one 40m pitch. The climb starts out fairly wide but narrows at the top of the pillar to just the width of one person or so.
Very exposed climbing. Pumpy. Then after the pillar, some mixed climbing follows.
Mostly on thin ice that didn’t take screws, at least not in the condition it was in during the first ascent.
2 bolts protect the mixed sections in the upper part of the pitch. Finish and belay at the midway anchor.

From here it is possible to walk/scramble out on the ledge system trending leftward but it is exposed and a fall could be deadly. To minimize the risk of the exit you can just leave your rappel lines fixed and use them to belay yourself out.

FA: Cass Bindrup and Ásgeir Már
23rd of January 2022

Line number 2, on the right side of 44

Same approach as line 3. The route is a bit wandering as to avoid some sections of more difficult ice.

22m WI4

FA: Mike Reid and Ásgeir Már Arnarsson 17.12.17

Line nr 3, right side of #44

The approach to this route goes in the same canyon as the route Hrynjandi(in grindagil) but turns left up a steep hill with some small sections of ice. Crampons and ice axes recommended for the approach as it is quite steep(40° – 50°). Takes around 30 minutes to get to the routes from the car. You can park by the side of the road or follow a 4wd track down to the river. Crossing the river on foot should be possible if the river is well frozen and there are some ice bridges.

The route starts up a steep, near vertical ice slab leading into the crux move which is getting up through a small chimney-like feature. Some fun stemming moves there and after that there is a short rest under some massive icicles. Use extreme caution if breaking any of those. The next part is completely vertical until easing off a little at the top. We didn’t top out, instead we made a v-thread and went back down the same way.

The name of the route comes from the fact that the line a little to the right of the route is VERY wet and was attempted first but after getting drenched after placing 2 screws in it we traversed over to this one.

22m WI4+

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