Day 1: Landmannalaugar to Hrafntinnusker (12km)
When I woke up at 7.30am it was raining hard, so we decided to wait a bit for the rain to stop. This trek was one of my main reasons coming to Iceland. It is known as the Laugavegur hike, a 55km route from Landmannalaugar to Þórsmörk. The trail offers a great variety of landscapes, mountains in almost every color of the rainbow, great glaciers, roaring hot springs, big rivers (to cross) and lakes. It is recognized by National Geographic as one of the world’s most beautiful trails. It usually takes four days to complete. The rain finally stopped around 11.00am and together with Gilbert and Florence, the French couple I met the day before, we were soon on our way. That day we had to walk 12km, all uphill with 470m ascent, our destination was the Hrafntinnusker hut.
We started going up towards the beautiful rhyolite mountains and soon we had left Landmannalaugar behind us. The weather was cloudy and the wind was blowing strong. We are hiking with our big backpacks which have clothes, tent, sleeping bag and mattress and food for 4 days.
Climbing we go through colorful mountains with little patches of ice. Then through the Laugahraun lava field with Lord of the Rings scenery. We keep on climbing, from around the 600 meters altitude where we started we reach almost 1100 meters high. The landscape was stunning and everything around me seemed so unreal! The moss on the ground, the endless steam vents, the rough lava fields, the hot spring lakes…
We got some rain but everything seemed to be going well.
Then we crossed even more rhyolite mountains with all their different colors and snow patches. I was in such awe of the natural beauty I was experiencing. It could easily be a painting or some movie in a fantasy land.
Every now and then you would spot water, like a little lake close to a steam vent. Turned out these were hot springs!!
And then came the hailstorm! Combined with the really strong wind, the hail was hitting your face from all directions causing quite a lot of pain. It was time to tighten our hoods, cover as much of our faces as possible and walk with our heads down. Temperature had dropped down to freezing point and suddenly my backpack started to feel very heavy. My hands were so frozen they had gone numb (stupid me I had accidentally placed my gloves at the bottom of my backpack, impossible to retrieve at that moment) and I had a runny nose like a river. I sometimes slip but fortunately the boots are doing a good job. So does my jacket, I have it pretty tight with all the airlocks closed so it can keep the warm air in for my body. Spent quite some money on gear for this trip and it proved it wasn’t wasted (much of this gear I still have and use today, 19 years later!). We pushed hard and kept on going, fortunately the hail stopped after a while but it would start falling again every now and then. We did two five-minute stops to rest and eat some power sweets. After the hailstorm most of the trail was covered with snow.
And then the fog came. Thick fog, you couldn’t see further than 20-30 meters so we had to be careful to stay on the trail and not get lost. Just two years before (in 2004, my visit was in 2006), a 25 years old Israeli guy had left his last breath very close to our destination hut. He must have been lost due to this kind of fog we were experiencing but in his case it was worse because he was also trapped in a vicious storm. Eventually he passed away and died of exposure to the fierce elements… a small memorial was built at the place of his death.
We kept on crossing snowy mountaintops but when we reached the one that seemed to be the highest we saw a little structure. Finally, Hrafntinnusker hut was on sight! The last five minutes of walk to the hut felt like an eternity. It took us four hours to cover these 12km. I was supposed to camp but after being beaten up by hail and exposure to freezing cold I was praying to have space inside the hut, as I didn’t have a reservation. Fortunately there was space even without a reservation, not that many tourists back then (in contrast to now that you need to book this hut months in advance).
The hut was very warm and the warden was a sweet Icelandic girl with two ponytails. Hrafntinnusker hut is situated just above 1000 meters, it was built in 1977, back then it could accommodate 36 people and had geothermal heating. From what I read, it has now been upgraded and can accommodate up to 52 people. We put all our stuff on the heater to dry and had some nice food. Gilbert and Florence offered me some hot coffee, drinking it felt like heaven. Chatting I find out Gilbert was working in an IT company in a high position but decided to quit to travel the world, Florence was working in a bank. They had two sons on their 20s. Outside the snow keeps on falling heavy. I check tomorrows route, we will have to cross our first river. Then I eat my dinner, canned stuffed vine leaves with bread. I had to ration my food as I hadn’t brought much, to save the weight while hiking.
A few more people arrived after us, two Germans who had a short break in the hut and then headed back (!) because they had left their car in Landmannalaugar, guess they were doing a day hike. Three Icelandic girls who had some rest and then went on to hike another 12km to the next hut! Icelandic people are so tough! The latrine toilet was an interesting experience as it was of course outside, I ran through the snow, you had to be fast otherwise you (or parts of you haha) would freeze!
Before I go to sleep I went out to admire the view and see our starting point for the next day. The hut had a thermometer outside so the temperature could be monitored. When we arrived at 15.00 the temperature was 0°C , at 19.30 it had dropped down to -3 °C and who knows how further it would drop after midnight. Snow kept on falling as I went to sleep, everything was really beautiful….
*All photos taken with a Canon Powershot S1 IS, 3.2 megapixels, my 1st digital camera.
Additional information
GPS coordinates for places in this post, click on them to be redirected to the exact point in google maps. Click on the names to be redirected to their official websites (if applicable).
Landmannalaugar Camping & Hut : 63°59’26.3″N 19°03’38.6″W
Hrafntinnusker hut (2006 page), Hrafntinnusker hut current page : 63°56’01.1″N 19°10’06.8″W
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