Day three – July 20th 2010

We started the day at 4:30, finally on time and somewhat fully rested… That is… Me, Maggi and Jón were fully rested but Gummi didn’t sleep at all the entire night, mainly due to excitement for the day to come, I think. I admit I was skeptical that he could do a 10 hour demanding hike on that day and I guess we all were.

I guess we all also agreed silently that we were a bit afraid of the days project as we were going to hike and climb the Lyskamm ridge (ísl: hryggur) which is 5 km long and very narrow with 600-1000 meter freefall in both direction. The ridge included two peaks, Lyskamm West (4,467 m) and Lyskamm East (4,527 m) and therefore this would be our longest, most demanding hike as well as most dangerous.

We didn’t know at the time but the day before two climbers fell to their death climbing the ridge. We also found out later that the mountain is known as the man-eater, as climbers have fallen through cornices (ísl.: hengjur) that had formed on the top of the ridge and climbers didn’t know they were actually walking on air.

In short… we were going to hike and climb a 5 km ridge and there was little room for error. One failed step of thousands could cost us our lives. (I guess this sounds overly dramatic but this was actually just a fact.) The Lyskamm also had the same difficulty / danger grade as the Matterhorn. We did know that and I guess that was the reason we all approached Lyskamm with full respect.

And so… with a knot in our belly we took off. For me the scariest part was hiking up on Lyskamm west as it was very steep and very very icy. One failed move would have taken both me and Maggi down without the slightest chance of stopping us with our ice axes. After we got up on the peak and started traversing the ridge (ísl: að þræða hrygginn) I went from alert to stupid and forgot about all the dangers and just enjoyed the experience.

It was incredible, pretty much the most incredible mountain experience I’ve had . The weather was perfect, sun and no wind which made everything a lot easier, and less dangerous.

After finishing threading the most exposed part of the ridge we hiked up on Lyskamm east to find out that there was a lot left to get down and rather demanding. The worst thing was that the snow had melted quite a lot, due to the sun, which made our decent (ísl: gangan niður) a lot more difficult.

After getting on safe ground we hiked down to the Gnifetti Hut and after 11 hours of pure pleasure we were relieved to get some rest and gain some energy for the next day.

I had no problems with the stoma except I ran out of food and water (I always needed more than the guys). Due to lack of food I took in energy gel which I had never taken before. This turned out to be a very bad decision as my stomach didn’t agree with my food of choice, which had effect on the days to come. More about that in my next post.

The Gnifetti hut was great. We had a private room, with bunkers, and the view from the toilet window was amazing – With Lyskamm East gnawing above us and a fierce looking glacier below us. We ate a lot, prepared our gear and went to bed filled with wonderful memories from the last days.  At this point I felt unstoppable and was full of confidence for the next days.