Borea Adventures - Adventure blog from Iceland, Greenland and Jan Mayen

Great winter in �safj�r�ur

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 21:24:00 +0000

There has been great winter in Ísafjörður lately. Here are some shots taken by Sigurjón J. Sigurðsson from the local newspaper bb.is after the biggest snowstorm in years. Skiing has been good as you can imagine. Looking forward to a great season in Glacier Fjords starting in mid March.

Gearing up for the winter season

Tue, 30 Aug 2011 10:13:00 +0000

Now the summer is coming to an end. Despite the great calm weather here in Ísafjörður, your mind starts dreaming of fresh snow and sweet turns that are waiting behind the corner. I´m positive that next winter in Iceland is going to be a good one. All trip dates for the Sailboat Skiing trips in Glacier Fjords are already on the website. To help you dreaming, I´ve made a short video from the first ski trip we did in March 2011. Had great snow and good crew. Hope you´ll enjoy. Book your next next adventure with us!

Sweet summer

Wed, 03 Aug 2011 12:07:00 +0000

The wether in July was exceptionally good with blue sky and calm afternoon breeze. We have done some great kayaking; both day trips and multi-day expeditions with people from all over the world.

Here are some photos.

Great weather in Jan Mayen / Gott ve�ur � Jan Mayen

Mon, 27 Jun 2011 11:05:00 +0000

English
Siggi is in Jan Mayen on the Aurora with Norwegian climbers and the weather has been very good up there. Calm and bright. They have climbed Beerenberg in good style and will head home soon. The crew was offered to a summer solstice festival at the Norwegian meteorology base, with a giant bonfire and barbecued lamb. The office at the station decided to put 200 liters of diesel on top of the bonfire and blew it up with a 44 Magnum when the oil had heated extensively. Quite a display...!
Siggi thought he had a great idea when he decided to take his mountain bike with him on the boat to be able to meet the climbers the night before the ascent. He soon found out why there are no bikes on the island. The sand makes it impossible to bike. And on the only good stretch of road he found, the tire blew. Spare parts were on board! The left on Friday morning for the climb. The weather was still perfect and camp was set up at 1300 meters above sea level. The plan was to sleep for the night on the glacier, but the weather was so good they decided to take a short nap and head for the peak. They reached the top around midnight via the normal route. Siggi then slept in a snow hole in high camp and went back down in the afternoon. The plan is to set sail back to Iceland tonight. Another trip to Jan Mayen starts on Monday with a group of radio amateurs.

Íslenska
Jan Mayen ætlar að sýna okkur allar sínar góðu hliðar í þetta sinn... sennileg til að bæta fyrir illa meðferð og akkerismissi í apríl síðastliðnum. Per Erik stöðvarstjóri í Olonkin stöðinni bauð okkur Jóni í Jónsmessufagnað (Skt Hans) sl fimmtudagskvöld með grilli og brennu. Allt fór þetta vel og skemmtilega fram, grillað lamb og hrefnukjöt fyrst og síðan brenndur stærðar köstur af rekavið. Efst á honum trónaði síðan tunna með 200 lítrum af dísilolíu sem stöðvarstjórinn skaut nokkur göt á með 44 Magnum þegar hitnað hafði nokkuð undir henni. Við fórum þó tiltölulega snemma úr samkvæminu þar sem ég stefndi á fjallgöngu snemma morguninn eftir. Ég hafði fengið þá snilldar hugmynd að taka með mér reiðhjól og hugsaði mér að hjóla á því frá Rostungsvík yfir í gömlu veðurstöðina (Gamle Metten) þar sem hópurinn okkar svaf. Í loftlínu eru þetta einhverjir 10 km en sjálfsagt í kringum 12 eftir vegaslóðum. Ég velti því að sjálfsögðu ekkert fyrir mér að engin reiðhjól eru í eyjunni en það kom semsagt fljótt í ljós að ástæða var fyrir því. Víðast hvar á slóðanum var ökkla djúpur sandur og ómögulegt að hjóla, inn á milli voru harðari kaflar lagðir eggjagrjóti. Niðurstaðan varð auðvitað sú að ég leiddi hjólið mest alla leið þar til sprakk á því á einum "góða" kaflanum - og að sjálfsögðu hafði ég skilið bæturnar og pumpuna eftir um borð (!) Það var því ansi langt labb og kom ég yfir til Gamle Metten um miðja nóttina. Um morguninn var vaknað og haldið á Beerenberg. Hópurinn var vel klyfjaður þar sem þau ætluðu að setja upp búðir á jöklinum og hafast þar við í nokkrum lúxus. Veður var með besta móti, blanka logn og sólskin, og voru búðirnar settar upp í u.þ.b. 1300 metra hæð. Hugmyndin hafði verið að eyða þar heilli nótt en fara á tindinn daginn eftir en þar sem veðrið var svo frábært var ákveðið a taka góða kríu og halda svo af stað um kvöldið. Fljótlega var komið í Bratthenget skriðjökulinn og fór þá mannskapurinn í línur. Farið var upp tiltölulega hefðbundna leið og komið á gígbarminn um miðnættið í glampandi sól. Lág ský huldu hafið en mest öll eyjan var auð og útsýnið frábært. Gengið var eftir gígbarminum og fór allur hópurinn á tindinn í 2277 metra hæð. Eftir það var haldið til baka í tjaldbúðirnar og gisti ég í holu sem ég gróf í snjóinn og svaf eins og steinn fram á morgun. Ég skildi þá við hópinn og arkaði sem leið lá niður í Gamle Metten og þaðan alla leið yfir í Rostungsvík og um borð í AURORU. Hópurinn ætlar að vera eitthvað lengur á jöklinum. Stýrimaðurinn hafði litið vel eftir skipinu og unnið ýmiskonar verkefni um borð.

Jan Mayen Video Teaser

Mon, 13 Jun 2011 11:14:00 +0000

The Swedes we sailed with to Jan Mayen in early April are putting together a film about the trip. Here is a short teaser. Looks adventurous...!

Speed Sailing and Powder Skiing

Sun, 22 May 2011 17:34:00 +0000

Last week has been quite eventful here at Borea Adventures. After having prayed for more snow all winter, finally it arrived. A month after the official 'first day of summer' winter decided it wasn't time to leave yet. As a result, our last group of sailing-skiing guests, instead of getting a week of sunny spring skiing they got a real winter kind of trip with high winds and all sorts of snow! Being based on a sailboat has the advantages of being flexible, being able to move around and make new plans if the others don't work. After two days in bad weather and not expecting any improvement in the weather we decided to make a plan-B and head back to Isafjordur. On the way from the Glacier Fjords to town we got great sailing with strong wind in our back, reaching speed of up to 16 nautical miles! The remaining days we spent around Isafjordur exploring the local mountains and, last but not least, the hot pools around. The weather continued the 'adventurous kind' throughout the trip and we got great powder snow, the best powder we've got the whole year!

Still one more trip to go and looks like the weather is improving...and fresh snow....

On our way over to the Glacier Fjords we passed the summer's first cruise ship that was coming to town. This happy humpback decided to say hello.

Group preparing to go out and play in the snow!

Skinning up Seljalandsdalur. Þjófatindar peaks in the back.

Captain Siggi crushing some powder turns.

...and Runar also.

Francois.

Alfonso.

One more tele turn from the good old captain....

Teton Gravity Forum Blog

Thu, 19 May 2011 12:06:00 +0000

We had a bunch Italians and few Americans on a ski trip in early May. Here is a great article on Teton Gravity Research website that one of the Italians wrote. Check out the photos.

Jan Mayen with a bang!

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 15:07:00 +0000

We did a private trip to Jan Mayen 1-10 April with Swedish skiers looking for winter conditions and steep skiing down Mt. Beerenberg (2277m). On the trip was Fredrik Schenholm, a great ski photographer who is working on a book about skiing in the Nordic countries, and his skiing friends. We departed from Dalvik in North Iceland in good weather but had some winds and cold weather on the way to Jan Mayen. We made it there on April 3rd in the afternoon. The sails got frozen due to icing which made it difficult to pull the sails down before anchoring. The landing on the sand beach below the old meteorological station was a bit hectic in the waves. We almost capsized once, but it was OK because everyone was prepared for the weather wearing their survival suits. After putting up camp and cooking dinner, everybody fell asleep on firm ground.

Our camp on the island

The next day, the weather was a bit cranky with snow and wind. We spent the day skiing some smaller stuff, but sea legs made things a little more difficult for us. The next day would be our summit day. If weather allowed.

Skinning up in "Lord of the Rings" landscape

On the 5th we woke up early to use the daylight for the summit push. The weather was quite miserable with strong winds, and -10°C temperature that made a heavy icing that caused everything to freeze together. The ski goggles got plastered with thick ice in just few minutes. When we got higher on the mountain, we began to be more optimistic that we would make it through the clouds. Our positive thinking paid off and at around 1.400 meters we were in the sun and oddly enough the winds began to die down as we got higher.

Finally out of the clouds

Self portrait. Getting to the steeper slopes of Beerenberg

The light was magical and cameras were all over the place. Getting to the summit ridge was a big relief and part of the group decided not to go all the way to to the top which was only few meters higher. Fredrik was afraid that he would loose the light and wanted to get good photos. I continued with those that had the summit fever and we reached the top 12 hours after starting from camp.

Almost up!

The crater rim bathed in afternoon sun

Beautiful snow formations on the ridge

The top

The top team, Oscar, Pelle, Gustav and Martin

We didn´t spend much time on the top since light was fading and we had a long ski descent ahead of us. About 15 km all the way to camp.

Gustav skiing down

The snow conditions were very good and everybody enjoyed the descent the best they could. We were in camp just before darkness fell on us. After eating dinner, the northern lights put on a show for us before we fell fast asleep.

The last two days on the island we just relaxed and did some ski runs close by. There was a jump competition down by the water and Fredrik got some cool shots.

We left the island around 5 in the afternoon on April 7th for the sail back to Isafjordur. Captain Siggi wanted to wait for few hours to let a low pressure system pass that was to the South of us. We moved to Walrus Bay and anchored there to wait out the storm. The bay was not a sufficient shelter, but the Island doesn't offer much shelter anyway. The next morning the wind started to pick up and the waves got bigger. We let out all 90 meters of heavy chain to keep us anchored, but the chain rattled and tugged as the waves continued to hit us. Finally there was a big bang and the lock attached to the anchor broke. Our only choice was to start sailing back to Iceland.

Heading out through the surf

The first 48 hours went quite well but the forecast was for a strong Southerly gale all over Iceland. We decided to pull into harbour in Husavik on the North coast which is few hours shorter sail than to Isafjordur. We pushed Aurora as hard as we could to make it to harbour before the storm hit us. Both engine and sails up and running. At 6 in the evening on the 10th the gale started. The wind was up to 70 knots and we´re not making much progress, maybe half a knot at most, and we only had 20 miles to go. It would take us 40 hours to go the last 20 miles with no other option of save harbors near by. Siggi decided to call our friends from North Sailing whale watching company in Husavik and check if they could pull us in. They were more than willing to help and were on their way towards us on one of their boats. There was no emergency on board, the Swedes just didn´t have time to wait out the weather because they had to catch their flight back home. We got a long rope between the boats and all went well to the harbour in Husavik. We were there in total darkness and howling wind which made communication extremely difficult, even with the handheld radios. I let go off the rope and Siggi continued into the harbour as quick as we could. All we wanted to do was to tie Aurora up somewhere, but she is hard to steer in strong winds. All of a sudden the engine died and we were drifting to shore. I managed to bull up the storm jib and Siggi tried to turn starboard towards the harbour. Aurora didn´t turn and we hit the rocks...!
The whale watching boat arrived shortly and pulled us out of the rocks. Luckily, Aurora only suffered minimal damage from the rocks. We learned later that the towline got tangled in the propeller causing us to hit the rocks. While the rope was getting tangled in the propeller the whale watching crew was pulling it in at the same time. One of their crew members was standing in the coil of rope when the propeller pulled it in the opposite direction. The rope wrapped so tightly around him it and it ended up breaking one of his legs. One of the other crew members decided to jump into the water to avoid the rope from wrapping around his leg...!
Of course we are extremely sorry about all of this and are very grateful for the help they gave us. The crew member with the broken leg is healing well and Aurora is in good shape now after spending some time in the slip yard in Husavik.

I want to thanks the Swedish crew that were great company and very relaxed through the bad storm. I hope to see you again sometime.

Now the skiing trips are running smoothly in the fjords here in Iceland and everything is back on track.

Season started!

Sun, 27 Mar 2011 23:37:00 +0000

Just came back from a great ski trip with a full boat of Americans, Canadians and Frenchmen. The trip started with a heavy dump of fresh powder that offered perfect skiing in little visibility. Good times!
Then we had a bit of wind and also great sunny days. The crew returned home happy with sunburned noses and good memories.

Thanks for joining

Nice article in Montagne Magazine

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 23:01:00 +0000

Colin Samuels, an american skier living in La Grave, France came for a visit last spring and snapped a lot of photos on three separates ski trips with us and wrote articles for European ski magazines. Here is the version that appeared in the French Montagne Mag. My poor french tells me it´s pretty good. At least the photos are great.