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Day 3 of our week in Iceland. This was something of an improvised day: we had intended to do Kerling in Skíðadalur, but we couldn't see enough of the route (due to low cloud) to make us confident of attempting it. Instead we drove to the end of the neighbouring Svarfaðardalur and followed the track up to the mountain hut of Stóravarða. The surroundings are stunning, but unfortunately the route follows a bulldozed track, and there are decaying telegraph poles higher up towards the hut. Although the summit was visible from the approach, the cloud had come down by the time we reached the hut: a very basic box shelter. From here the summit is less than a mile away, but the going was very rough and bouldery, and we were glad of the odd snow patch to walk on.
The summit is a tabletop of rock about 4m high, which isn't so easy to climb: we had to go round the back and carefully go up a pile of stacked blocks. Again no view, sad to say, though maddeningly we could see the sun and blue sky just above us.
Nothing for it but to go back down the same way....
Route:
Online map:
http://ja.is/kort/?type=map&x=504516&y=593975&z=6
Starting out on the track
Vörðufjall summit on the right
Northern Green Orchid
The summit
By the evening the weather had cleared, with the promise of a fine day to come...
Eyjafjörður and Kaldbackur from our cabin at Ytri-vik
Sun going down over the hills behing Dalvik
