Icelandic

[LouPhi]

Hi,
A bit more info. I’ve been interested and had this concept of crossing Iceland in the Winter since 2009. I started doing my research by then. I’m 100% confident I have covered the expeditions done by „English“ speaking people. So what’s left is Icelandic/Scandinavian. (The chance someone from Africa, South America or Asia came to Iceland to cross it in the winter is zero. It’s arrogant to say it this way but we all know rather „poorer“ countries on the planet have less adventurers and „cold/polar/ski-type expeditions are expensive.
I have an Icelandic friend, ex-president of ISALP. He told me in 2010 when I came to Iceland for the summer crossing he was confident no one did it (see above again for requirements of the „record“)

My opinion why no one did it is simple:
* The big adventurer countries like the UK, France, Poland, USA, Canada, Norway ==> focus on polar expeditions to the classic: Arctic, Antarctica, Greenland. Iceland is „so“ small they don’t think about crossing it and believe it is easy to cross, so it must have been done before.
* Icelanders: You are in your backyard and most of you find the pleasure, like Scandinavians, in going outdoors and ski trips for the fun. If someone wants something very hard, you go to the SP, NP or the Himalayas…
* The definitions: You and I and all of Icelanders know that Iceland has been crossed many times. But from coast to coast, then it’s perhaps 5-10% of the crossings or less. Why, because the ring road is rather a little inland several kms away from the coast (logistics) and of course it’s not interesting to finish skiing and then walk several kms on the ash or beach. Rather pointless as we all know you can do it.

Since the 80ties arrived the more sportive expeditions (especially in climbing) with the new parameter of beating records: new harder ascents, more technically difficult, free solo, and all speed records… and especially after 2000, the records starts everywhere in other disciplines: faster to row an Ocean, faster to climb on the Everest,… as you know there are so many „invented“ records done every year on the Everest: 1st from each country, 1st with a disease, first in couple, father and son, twins…it has it all.

In +8000m mountaineering, only a few of the 14 summits have been reached during the winter time. This means the adventurers are looking for „the hardest“ challenge possible. The challenge must have some meaning of course and be widely „accepted“ by the public/press/other adventurers.
Example of stupid hard challenge : climbing Everest in Tennis shoes. (Yes someone tried this)

So What would be „the“ hardest challenge possible in Iceland that would be perceived as „the hardest“ and with a meaning.
A meaning for me and other adventurers (like the 4 Brits) is a full crossing, coast to coast when the start and end are VERY WELL defined. There are millions of ways to cross Iceland coast to coast.

* AKUREYI to HUSAVIK is of course a coast to coast by not a major meaningful crossing. Why? It’s possible to find way longer and harder.
==> This is why the concept of doing the longest possible crossing (flying distance between start and end) adds to the challenge.
If I take Italy, well I can cycle across Italy in 1 day…if done East-West…but if done North-South it’s another story. If done between the furthest point North in the Alps, to the furthest points South, then we have la longest crossing of Italy.

For Iceland, I see 3 MAJOR MEANINGFUL crossings (and the Brits too)
1) Between the extreme latitudes (N-S), 2) between the longitudes (done by Brits in 1994 with support, not winter even if they claim so as they did it in March-April), and 3) the diagonal, which in the case of Iceland is the same as (2) // For Belgium, my home country, well we have a possibility to have 3 crossings depending on there geographical border-to-border crossings.

To REPLY to your question of winter.
Indeed, there are many different definitions on what is winter on the planet. Even the year start is different (Chinese new year not the same as the Western world).
The question is: What definition (dates) of the WINTER would „qualify“ to most people (the public) on the planet, the press and the general adventure community to be considered the hardest ?

I had the debate by email with Charlie (Brit team leader) in May 2015 (he had not announced the FULL N-S crossing at that time, he mentioned a start from Akureyi).
What I learnt from school was winter = 21 dec to 21 March.
He told me the Brits Alpinism consider winter 1 dec to 1 March. And I agreed it was a better definition as „harder“ especially more darkness in December.

==> I had NO CLUE the 4 Brits would then attempt what I still believe (99,99% confident) is a world first. The full crossing, in the winter. And on top of that unsupported and of course by human power only (no kites, no cars).

WilL I made an attempt one day? I hope so. Solo ? I’ve done a lot solo when it’s hard and it’s the way I do things.
Why didn’t I do it yet ? Like the Brits, I could just buy skis and find a few sponsors to get gear and make an attempt.
But I was made aware in 2010 of the 2 big problems of the Icelandic weather conditions in the winter : a) storms frequent = destroy the tent + b) warm weather = precipitations =rain, not snow.

Of course it is possible to succeed the way the 4 Brits started, but preparations and training won’t replace the LUCK to have NO STORMS and SUPER EASY and NICE snow and weather conditions.
So, I’m still not ready as I have an idea to stay safe when I have problem a and b. But it costs money as the idea is to build a liveable sled (named Is-Snigill) that would resist 250km/h winds and perhaps several hundreds of kg of snow. My way would be a SLOW but SAFE crossing attempt. Perhaps it would take 45-60 days.
It is a complete different approach. And this prototype will need testing. So I’m not there yet 🙂

PS: And I need also to test crossing Jokulsa a Fjollum swimming! as I don’t want to use bridges to make the purest/hardest crossing of Iceland, with a simple purpose: LEARN how long it is possible to stay in there while progressing. Using huts = fail = start again. FAIL is OK if I stay alive and do not need to ask for a rescue.
I failed already a few mountain climbs or a desert crossing. I just like the challenge and want to learn.

And of course, I do not need to mention I ready to take the risks, adventurers and the Navigators 500 years ago and the polar explorers 125 years ago took deadly risks with no back-up and non-existing rescue. The modern days has me one advantage, rescue is usually possible and depends on money/insurance and decreasing the risk of the rescuers.

[LouPhi]

Hi, First of all, if anyone wants the locations of the SPOT of TCC, email me. I have taken screenshots of their route.

Many thanks to the author to have put sound knowledge and provide all this information.
I will not discuss the expedition. Most of Icelanders (and myself) would agree they were badly prepared. An Icelander friend told me even before they started they would fail. I was more optimistic on their progress as they mentioned they had experience. Perhaps in ski or mountaineering but Iceland is something unique in the world and it seems the people who try and fail still do the same mistakes.

I want to discuss the CROSSING of ICELAND.
I completely agree the country has been crossed many times over the past 200 years and more adventurously during the past 60 years.

What I want to know is if someone (team, solo -certainly not yet-) has crossed Iceland in what I would call:
WINTER + FULL CROSSING + FULLY UNSUPPORTED?

1) What is winter?
==================
I had this debate with the Brits in May 2015 when I found out about their idea and shorter route.
Winter for me (Belgium) = 21 dec to 21 March
Winter for the UK & Alpinism = 1 dec to 1 March ==> I agreed this is the most suitable definition and the hardest (coldest, darkest)
To satisfy all definitions: Winter would be 21 dec to 1 March.

2) FULL CROSSING
=================
We all agree, a crossing would be from COAST TO COAST. It’s the same for rowing crossing an Ocean, start on land finish on land rowing.
What is FULL then ?
To me, for any geographical location there are 3 FULL CROSSINGS possible:
a) longest distance possible or diagonal between 2 points
b) between extreme longitudes (far east to far west or reverse)
c) between extreme longitudes (top north to bottom south or reverse): Full North-South = Rifstangi +-66°32’15.90″N, 16°11’47.61″W to +- 63°23’38.28″N, 18°44’5.13″W
In the case of Iceland a) = b)

A route North-South can be like the one I did in 2010:
http://iceland-trek.blogspot.be/p/map.html
Route b) has been done in 1994(?) led by S. Chapple: http://www.seanchapple.co.uk/NOT.htm
(They claim First winter crossing but to me: Not in winter as started in March, ended April. They also had resupplies, used huts, encounters by film crew and other curious Icelanders)

2) UNSUPPORTED
=================
This word is being used by many adventurers, explorers and starting adventurers and each have (sadly) different definitions. But let’s put it simple to define and explain the fact/rules of my definition: Un-supported means NO support at all.

Fully Unsupported=
* no use of huts (even entering it or going let’s say 25m from it would be support even if you don’t sleep, cook or rearrange your stuff in it)
* no kite/sail or wind assistance = all travel by human power
* no food resupplies (all with you), no pre-placed food caches
* in one shot= means that if you stop for a few days and re-start at the same point after an injury or disease and had to enter hospital or rest=
support ==> So the unsupported status must be ALL THE WAY DURING the ENTIRE EXPEDITION.

To give an idea, let’s say that you are 2000 years ago, Iceland is empty of humanity and human constructions, and you have to cross it asif no one can help you. Like the early explorers. That is unsupported. You rely only on yourself, what you find on the land etc… This means hunting, finding water (in a desert) is OK.

Remarks
* If you are let’s say 2 people in the expedition, one has to leave and the last remaining finishes the expeditions = consider as the solo person has had the help of the second person during a certain amount of time (they shared weight of tent, gas …) = support ==> unsupported = the team starts with 2, 3, 4 or more and end together with no one exiting and coming back later and fresh during the expedition.
* GPS, Satphone, beacons = allowed. (some consider it is support, to me it is a modern tool like skis have evolved, pulkas are plastic/fiber/carbon and not wood anymore)
* In Iceland there are sealed roads and 4WD tracks: using them is making the expedition easier, so the use of any roads = support. But of course sometimes it is hard to avoid roads. In a narrow canyon between 2 cliffs for example, you might have to walk on the existing road. Also you might have to go around private land and then you are perhaps on a road around the property for a bit. The idea is that the adventurers don’t do a longer distance to make use of a faster/easier road. The idea of adventure and the outdoor is to by nature to avoid easy, to take risks and be „remote“ or away enough from civilization. Other reason is ecology and respect. If you must follow a route by law, regulation, rule or if outside of the route you might harm a fragile protected ecosystem, stay on the road.
* What about the use of communications to ask for weather reports ? To me, I never required this. If I have to face a storm, I’ll see it or I’ll have to face it anyway. My Satphone is for emergency. But in the case of Iceland, I’d be OK to receive an SMS to tell me: ESCAPE WEST, VOLCANO ABC ERUPTED, LAVA, LANDSLIDE coming your way, helicopter on standby if needed. So receiving weather info to me = support
* What about other „human constructions“ like bridges ? Well if I wanna be pure: bridge = support. But I could say it is part of „nature“ as it is there. People climbing Everest do the approach walk to base camp and use bridges. They don’t start from Kathmandu anymore.
To be pure, the unsupported crossing of Iceland should be done without using bridges and rivers must be crossed swimming or wading. What about the Jokulsa a Fjollum? Well. It’s possible to avoid it by going around it or swimming across it where it is the least dangerous.

In 2010, I did the first full crossing of iceland completely unsupported. With the fact I used bridges so if a super purist, you could tell no one has crossed yet iceland unsupported. Not in the winter, nor in the summer. PS: For the summer I believe no one has done it, and if so, of course the expedition has used the bridge over the Jokulsa.

So now, the question is: has someone done a FULL N-S or E-W crossing, completely unsupported inside the dates of the winter time?
I believe the answer is NO. I believe in the next 10 years or earlier someone will do it. Then people will go solo, then people will try to go as fast as possible and people will die, like on the Everest. It’s part of the „EGO“ and challenges people set themselves into.
I want to be the first N-S solo in the winter. Why? I like the fear of the elements thrown at me. I like sometimes to have nature reminding me how small I am, I am the challenge of the world first as I need to think, to prepare and find the solutions to all the problems possible and then with a bit of luck (You provoke luck by preparation) it is rewarding to be able to pass and succeed doing something (very) hard. And then you learn so much that your experience can benefit to the others.
That’s part of what adventurers and explorers do when achieving human propelled (no oil-fuelled) expeditions. It’s just a limit to push a bit further. Just like an athlete who wants to run the fastest or jump the highest. We believe it is possible and we want to work hard to succeed. And YES there is some EGO behind it. Acknowledgement of it is the first step of success. I do it for myself but I’m somehow proud when someone congratulates me on a successful expedition.

I’d like to end with this sentence that the ambassador of Iceland in Brussels told me back in 2011:
„If you do this winter expedition, be prepared to have 80% of the population of Iceland against you. If you succeed with no drama, you’ll have 100% of the poulation with you“. My best reward is to be proud of this: Can I go in this extreme place, extreme weather and find all solutions to all problems (some unexpected) and make a successful crossing. For sure I’m not ready yet.

[Höfundur]

Svör