As planned, today our team spent the bulk of the day purchasing food, packing up the base camp equipment into our 4x4 vehicles and trailer, and traveling to our helicopter staging site across the many outwash rivers separating us from Mulajokull.

    4x4
    These signs littered the unmaintained road we drove for about 100km to get to the helicopter staging station.

    Icelandic volcano Hakla.
    This is a popular destination for backcountry skiers in Iceland in the spring.

    Today's drive out of Reykjavik took our team through spectacular volcanic and glaciated terrain. The lava fields of the Highlands in Central Iceland are some of the most raw and barren landscapes I have ever seen. Whipping winds scouring through basaltic lava field outcrops and depositing the sediment in enormous mounds...river channels carving out channels in the lava fields with what seems like ease...and high mountain peaks covered in glaciers reflecting the sun's light down on the road ahead. It is no longer a wonder to me why Iceland is considered one of the most active geological systems on the planet.

    Hofsjokull and Lava Field
    This is what much of the drive on the way out today looked like. Young lava fields being scoured by tremendous winds with the Hofsjokull Ice Sheet in the background. Mulajokull is at the base of Hofsjokull.

    Today. Was. Awesome.

    We are spending the night in an emergency hut near the end of the road, and tomorrow morning we will travel a bit further away where we will meet the helicopter to take us to the Mulajokull forefield. Our helicopter is set to arrive around 8:00am, and we need to wake at 5:30am to check out the weather and call back to Reykjavik to notify the pilot how it is looking. Weather depending, tomorrow we are set to begin sling loading all of our gear across the outwash rivers to the location of our base camp!

    team at hut
    We made it! This was taken at about 11:00pm once we had unloaded the vehicles and trailer. What a long day!

    In the hut
    Here I am typing out this journal in the hut at the helicopter staging station. The hut nearly fit five of us on some bunk beds.

    Author
    Date
    Weather Summary
    strong winds
    Temperature
    40
    Wind Speed
    25

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