Wow, it was an awesome trip. Iceland has huge endless terrain and even has 2 heliski operations on the Troll Peninsula where we skied. Then there is great skiing to be had apparently in the West Fiords!
We put in a lotta' work on short notice to pull this trip off. Of course, I bring a laptop on these trips nowadays as I am getting heavily into the electronic mapping tools - CalTopo, GAIA, Avenzza. I use them to plan routes/days and we instruct them in our avalanche courses (at both Colorado Mtn School and Acadia) and it's fun to kick back and use them to "dream" as well as record tracks. CalTopo really helped me shine in our Guides Training day in Colorado (I got some great feedback). This all paid off in Iceland with huge corn harvests and even 2 powder days. With the latter, following weather obs, looking at terrain and being from Massachusetts I understand what "ocean effect snow" is which all paid off.
We ate incredibly well. One night of pasta and the rest was fresh caught fish - Atlantic Salmon, Cod, Arctic Char and others. The beer rocks, too! At the Dalvik bar outside, an outstanding Black IPA was the ticket Black IPA
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Black IPA
Bruggsmiðjan
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and this was a winner http://www.borgbrugghus.is/thebeer/product/NR_67_ULFEY that is competitive with any NEIPA I could get in the naybah-hood at home.
On the flight home I got a window seat on the right side and whaddya' know we passed by southern Greenland - WOW! That place has TERRAIN that is off the charts. I knew it would be spectacular but seeing it for real even from a distance showed how awesome it could be. Expedition anyone?
Oh, and it looks like we will be doing trips to Iceland next year - 1 or 2 weeks will be run by Acadia and in another, Al will be leading a Backcountry Babes week. Contact me if you are interested.
Mark P. Renson
On Tuesday, May 4, 2021, 02:39:40 PM EDT, Mark P. Renson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
Monster corn day the other day. Today was a powder day. Yup, some well preserved powder to the tune of 10cm/4" was had on NW aspects. Covid testing and other logistic crap has hindered us but then again just being able to get here was a blessing hence no whining. We are operating very well as a team as we should. One more day here and I am psyched for next season already - it can't come soon enough.
Mark P. Renson
On Saturday, May 1, 2021, 09:17:18 PM GMT, Mark P. Renson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
The fresh caught Arctic Char was just shoved into the oven. Al and I put together a plan this morning that we thought mighta' sorta' kinda' work if we got lucky. We got lucky to the tune of 10cm of hi-density/hi-SWE Arctic Maritime powder just above the Arctic Circle. The best possible outcome happened even though it was a long shot as weather and avalanche classes that Al and I have taken paid off not to mention learning from the right mentors and taking countless pages of notes.
May is a ski month ...... PERIOD!
Mark P. Renson
On Thursday, April 29, 2021, 08:28:58 PM GMT, Mark P. Renson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
5300 verts of corn today. Best corn in 15 years for me. Al and I put together a plan to chase the sun today. It was colder than forecasted and you had to get cerebral about finding corn but we nailed on S aspects followed by W aspects. Last run was 2100 verts that skied like 3500. This place has World Class corn ...... and a cold storm is coming in from the Arctic so we might be looking at May powder skiing!
It's such an intense feeling looking to the north and seeing an endless ocean stretching into the polar ice cap. It just looks so different, so deep and mysterious!
More later
Mark P. Renson
On Thursday, April 29, 2021, 08:15:06 PM GMT, Alex Friend <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
That’s fantastic! Skiing in Iceland is a life goal of mine. Looking forward to more reports.—Alex
On Apr 29, 2021, at 4:27 AM, Mark P. Renson <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
We've been fully vaccinated and we're here! Iceland is letting vaxxed people in.
We scored some nice turns outside of Dalvik yesterday and had an awesome dinner of fresh caught Arctic Char. Off to a corn harvest in a few minutes!
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