VOLCANO MADNESS: [Geology2] The Volcano Revisited

19/07/2010 | 12:26

The Volcano Revisited (Photos)

If you have some of the spirit of explorers, and who doesn't, you want to go where no man has ever been before. That is what explorers do. Now you have the rare chance of achieving that ambition by visiting the lava and craters at Fimmvörduháls. The landscape you see, was not there last year, not even four months ago. True, the experience lacks the splendor of glowing lava, the thunderous craters and rocks flying into the air. But you get the chance of climbing a mountain that did not exist in the beginning of the year. It is a bit like being at the Garden of Eden before Adam and Eve arrived. Maybe that is not a good metaphor; it really looks more like you are arriving at the gates of Hell.

Last year I got the chance to take the famous walk from Skógar in Southern Iceland to Thórsmörk, a magical place hidden between glaciers and muddy rivers. It is something every Icelander wants to do, but most people don't. The first half is like a gallery of waterfalls, one magnificent natural beauty after another. After that you walk through a wasteland between two big glaciers, Eyjafjallajökull and Mýrdalsjökull. The walk itself takes between seven and ten hours and you end up in beautiful Thórsmörk, an oasis that is worth a visit in itself. The walk was such a great experience that I was determined to take it again, only in reverse order.

It never crossed my mind, that within six months the path would be destroyed by an eruption. Eyjafjallajökull is a known volcano, but the last eruption there had been in 1821. Only four eruptions are known in the region in the last one thousand years, so I did not expect to see one in my lifetime. On Fimmvörduháls I had never heard of eruptions. Maybe, if I were a geologist I would have thought about it, but I'm not, and I didn't.

The eruption in March-April 2010 changed all. It was a beautiful phenomenon and it was well worth the two trips that I made. I did get close in a helicopter (a two passenger micro model, designed for suicidal maniacs) and we flew over thousands of people who braved the freezing wind (-20 degrees on the Celsius scale) and walked the 20 kilometers up (and the same distance down) to get to the craters.

Now, the lava has cooled off for three months. Not many people go there. The first people who came into Thórsmörk in May described the area as an inferno, covered in ash and mud. They came on television with tears in their eyes, describing how terrible it was to see this sanctuary destroyed by the forces of nature. After this horror tale not many Icelanders dared come.

I was there two weeks ago, after my walk from Landmannalaugar (maybe a later column) and realized that they couldn't have been more wrong. Thórsmörk has some ash, but it still looks very much the same as always. My guess is that these people had never been to Thórsmörk in May before. Summer comes late in Iceland, and even later to the Highlands.

The drive from my house to Básar in the Thórsmörk area took about two and a half hours. Some rivers looked dangerous, but we made it safely. Rivers are never to be taken lightly. Never go into one in a small car, and preferably watch someone else cross it first.

When we came close to Thórsmörk, we noticed the ugly Krossá, the biggest obstacle if you are going to Langidalur or Húsadalur, two popular and beautiful retreats. It was bigger than usually, and was getting eerily close to the road. Luckily, we did not need to cross it and the drive to the footpath towards Skógar was relatively easy (it is a bumpy gravel road where you should not go faster than 10 km/hour).

The weather was sunny. In fact, the weather in Southern and Western Iceland has been excellent most of the summer, despite what you might believe. Like a true hiker I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. I did put some tanning lotion on my face, but unfortunately not on my arms. I now have red arms.

First, we go up a fairly steep mountain trail, a path that you do not want to fall off, because it is narrow and the fall down is a few hundred meters. That did not worry me, but it did worry my younger brother, whom I had to constantly reassure that the track was almost like an avenue. When he was skeptical, I did point out that some guy had gone on a line between the Twin towers in New York, and our footpath was much wider. Somehow he bought that, and I got him through. Took my mind off any vertigo that I might have had (it is not really that terrible, though).

We did meet a number of people. I have been trying to guess how many. Maybe 40, at most 50. The first one was an Icelander who said something, so we started talking to him. He told us that he had gone up to the lava in two hours and come down again in one hour. "I decided to go slowly." We had been told by a normal person that the trip would take three hours each way, so we just smiled.

Who else was there? An English mother and daughter, two middle aged Icelanders, four Icelanders in their early twenties, who didn't like to say hello when we passed them (or they passed us, since we seemed to be going at about the same rate). A group of foreign nationals who did greet us, and a couple of women who smiled and said: "We don't speak your beautiful language," when we said "Gódan dag." You may guess what it means (what do people say to each other when the meet?).

(Double click on gallery to enlarge)

After a while we got out of the green, green Thórsmörk and up to a plateau, so we could easily walk through the barren wasteland for little over an hour. Then it was time for some climbing again, hanging in the mountainside in chains. It is not as terrible as it sounds and it is much easier holding the chains than not having them. I looked down the sleep rough slope and saw that is someone had fallen down, he had already been cleared away, so I told me brother everything was safe.

Some of the cliffs look like a Mount Rushmore of trolls or berserks from the Icelandic Sagas, at least is you have the imagination.

Just before this hill we had a great view of the lava that had fallen last winter. You may remember the beautifully curved glowing river going down the slopes. The shape is retained, but they no longer glow. The lava seems to have forced a glacial creek to the side of a narrow valley, ending in a brown waterfall.

Now we saw the two new mountains not so far away. The do not stand out, look more like hills from the distance, two craters about a eighty to a hundred meters up in the air. We stayed on the trail until suddenly it disappeared under the new lava.

The magma is rough and even though you probably could walk straight through, it does not make much sense, now that a new trail has been made past the two craters. When we came up to the lava we could feel the heat coming up. In some places it was completely flat and one could feel that it was hollow below. In many places the floor had broken. After one winter of wind, snow and ice it will take a different shape.

The first crater is formed like a horseshoe. It is easy to see how the lava flowed to the west and disappeared into a canyon. On the inside the crater is grayish green and red. From afar the grey part looks a bit like moss.

Our destination was the top of the other mountain, a ridge, gray on the sides but yellow, green and red at the top. As we got closer to the top we could feel the heat rise. A smell of sulfur got stronger by each step and at the top it we clear that gases were leaking out of the ground. Being fond of my lungs, I did not get as close to the very top as I wanted to. I must also confess that I was afraid that if I stepped in the wrong place there might not be much left of my foot. The newly formed mountain can only be climbed on this side, go over the edge and you fall down all the way to the bottom.

The slope below the top seemed like a perfect place to eat the rest of my cheese sandwich. The surface was warm and after a minute you felt that it was rather hot. But we did eat what we had left, and looked over the lava streams from the two mountains. They almost touched, but not quite. So there will not be any doubt which lava originated where.

Now our bottoms were beginning to feel uncomfortable and we stood up. A group was coming our way, and the mountain no longer belonged to only us.

Again we took a trail between the new craters and walked a half-circle around the bigger one. We stopped one final time and I emptied my shoes of sand and small lava rocks. My brother put his walking stick aside and looked over the lava field. Suddenly, I felt that I had to take my shoe off the lava wall; my feet could not take the heat. At the same time my brother said: "Look, my cane has started to melt."

The plastic at the bottom had indeed started to lose form and he quickly pulled back his stick.

In the vicinity, some people were boiling hot dogs on the rocks and someone tried toasting his bread. Some people said they saw some glowing lava in the cracks, but we didn't.

It was time to head back the same way. The weather was perfect for walking. We met some more people. A woman, who had been training us before we climbed Hvannadalshnjúkur four years ago. I was a bit proud when she asked me if this was my private hiking group, and I could tell her: "No, this is not it, just my wife and my brother." Every Tuesday I do indeed walk with my private group, of which I am General Secretary (but not Chairman).

Then we met an interior decorator with her husband. She has helped us on occasion. Finally, the president's wife was there. The president was not. I don't know why, he is not very popular these days, and might not risk meeting the public, maybe he is just getting too old (he is 67 now). Anyway, Mrs. Dorrit was there, impeccably dressed and seemed to be in good form.

The way down was much the same as the way up. I entertained my brother by telling him that soon we would be on those narrow trails again, and that the view down was much greater than on the way up. Which is true, but that did not please him much. Finally, we did make it down, in one piece and safely. But even though I joke about this (if you cannot pick on your younger brother, then who can you pick on?) the trail can be dangerous. The weather can change suddenly and in 1970 three people died close to the eruption site. They had started out is good weather that suddenly changed, and were not dressed for the occasion. A plaque on a rock reminds us of this sad story. So do bring extra clothes with you, even if you start out in the sun.

If you are the outdoors person, please use this unique occasion to take the walk over Fimmvörduháls, either from Skógar or Thórsmörk. Take is as soon as you can. The craters stay warm this summer. After a cold winter it will be different.

If you are not an outdoors person, do it anyway.