Blahnukur (Iceland)

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DATE 17.07.2015 | DISTANCE APPROX 6 KM | HIGHEST POINT 945M

Posted by Matt | Filed under OTHER LOCATIONS

 

After a late night arrival to Reykjavik we woke early and set off on the bus to landmannalaugar. 4 hours of humps, bumps and river crossings later and we arrived in glorious sunshine. first job was to set up the tent and it wasn't easy. The camp ground is very rocky and this made driving in tent pegs particularly difficult. fortunately though the site wardens have boxes of large rocks laid out around the site to help secure the tents.

Once erecting our accommodation was complete we chose to set off on a short walk exploring the area. I figured after a long bus ride it wouldn't be ideal to crack straight on with the Laugavegur Trail so we picked one of the amazing peaks looming over us.

We chose to climb Blahnukur which is a volcano with a blue peak. The ascent was steep and dusty but they views i saw on this walk are easily the best views i have seen in my life!! It's hard to explain what these mountains look like. Everything looked soft with no hard edges almost like an wax painting. sounds out but that's the only way i can explain it. i thought the colours of Blahnukur were strange and then i saw brennisteinsalda (another volcano) in the distance. Check the photos and see for yourself!

 

This is the bus that picked us up from reykjavik. you can see that it has a high ground clearance and once you take the road that lead around mount hekla you will understand why it's needed. also good for the river crossings too.

tent pitched with help from several large rocks to keep our pegs in position. huge lava field and blahnukur at the back

blahnukur translated means blue peak and we certainly noticed it's unusual colour as we approached. you can see the track leading up the ridge

The Barmur Ridge. looks like a large sand dune but over 700m high

so here you can see a dramatic colour difference between the barmur ridge and the ridge we are on

zooming in on brennisteinsalda and the smouldering crater

it look like a big lava field but in comparision to others in iceland this is tiny

another shot of the barmur ridge because i simply couldn't stop taking photos :)

this portrait shot shows the graenagil (green gorge) below which we were to follow back to camp

pushing on up the dusty ridge. i had to be very careful with my camera as it didn't take long for it to start looking dusty too

alan

you see a little peak like this, you just have to stand on it and smile for the camera. You can just see the campsite behind me

in this photo it looks like we are climbing a sleeping elephant. that's actually a pretty cool name for a volcano

on the final push to the summit

oh look! something else to stand on and look at that view behind. i wonder what it looks like without the snow stripes

a view from the summit looking down the other side. wow!!!!!

look at those shapes and pastel colours. you just don't see this anywhere else

just below the face of brennisteinsalda you can see the steaming crater and the path which is part of the laugavegur trail

we cut right shortly after this slope and it got incredibly steep and loose. honestly it was like walking down the side of a sand castle

after a bare foot river crossing we walk amongst the lava flow we dropped down in to graenagil

following graenagil

still wollowing the stream but it's now moving under the snow bridge

back at the campsite beside the mountain mall. it had a pretty nifty shop and also hot chocolate and soup for sale

down by the geothermal pools and the cabin accomodation behind. The end of a long day with a truly spectacular short walk. day one has blown my mind