Going Up

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.

Our day started at around 7 am, we had decided to sleep a little longer as we were still trying to make up for the lack of sleep from the nights before. We were therefore the last team out of the hut and took off with a stomach full of old „toast crackers“, nutella chocolate, butter, marmalade, tea and coffee.

Our original plan of the day was to go up on two peaks, Castor and Pollux. But, as we had decided to “sleep in”, we could only go up on one peak and Castor, the higher one, was our peak of choice. Castor is 4.228 meter high and is a relatively simple peak with snow and ice in somewhat steep slopes. On the top was a somewhat narrow ridge and then there was a long hike down to the next hut. The height increase was around 800 meters and we crossed around 6-8 kilometers from the hut, to the peak and to the second hut. It probably sounds short but in this high altitude it is quite a lot and was just right for our second day in the Alps.

The day went great, it was actually kind of perfect. Me and Maggi were tied together and went quite quickly up the peak and found out that our training had really paid off. The view from the top was great as we could see the challenge of tomorrow and got really excited, and alarmed at the same time. We arrived in the hut at around 16:00 and got our first break in our trip.

After a short break we prepared our gear for the next day, ate our dinner and went to sleep around 21:00 so that we could make an early start in the morning.

I had no problems with my stoma on day two, as I was careful to empty my bag regularly and ate on a regular basis. I had a so-called “astronaut-meal” (elemental diet) which really helped me get extra nutrition between meals (something the guys didn’t have to worry about). I also had to drink a lot more fluid than the guys and I put in a carbohydrate mix into it, to ensure I got enough salts and minerals. It worked great.

In the hut I did get into two “minor” problems. I had to change my stoma plate and found out that I forgot my razor (the one I use to shave of body hair on my belly). One staff member of the hut gave me his razor when I told him about my problem. I actually don’t know what would have happened if I he wouldn’t have helped me as I really needed to change everything… Problem number two was that I changed my plate and bag right before dinner and therefore I had to stand during the entire meal – as I cannot sit right afterwards. People were really surprised and really didn’t understand why on earth I was standing there… I just told them I was special…

[Note: I apologize for the delay. I was busy planning and celebrating my 30 year old birthday last week and therefore didn‘t have time to work on the webpage.]

We started the day behind schedule as we managed to set our alarms on Icelandic time, 2 hours behind schedule. On top of that, we were so tired the evening before, after travelling to Zermatt, that we had not prepared our gear in advance. On top of all of that, we found out that there were almost no stores open on Sunday which made it quite difficult to get food as well as getting money from the bank.

Long story short… Gummi and I barely managed to check us out of the hostel and get most of our excess gear in storage while Maggi and Jón ran around town trying to find a store and ATM (electronic bank/hraðbanka). This lead to us being 3-4 hours behind schedule and we started our hike at around 14:00, really tired after about 6-8 hour sleep in two days.

Not the best way to start

But then the magic began. We went up to Klein Matterhorn with a lift and entered our playground for the next five days. It was incredible.

We hiked up Breithorn and it took us around 2-3 hours to get up. The hike was short and easy but at the same time demanding as we were adapting to the high altitude and carrying +15 kg on our back. I had to breathe fast and deep and my heart was pumping like it had hardly ever done before. It was a new and strange experience.

We were on the top of Breithorn, 4.164 meters, at around 17:00. The view was breathtaking; we could see Matterhorn and saw some of the peaks we would hike in the following days, along with hundreds of other peaks of the Alps, including Mont Blanc in the west.  After a short celebration and pictures we headed down as we still had to walk down to our hut, Val d’Ayas hut, in 3.425 meters.

Walking from the peak, on a relatively narrow ridge, I suddenly realized how incredible all of this was, that I was actually doing this. For a couple of minutes I was filled with gratitude and joy where I was thinking about everybody that had made this possible – that is, helping me getting from cancer, ulcerative colitis and stoma limitations… to this incredible adventure. (The list turned out to be long in my mind and I plan on posting it on this page, as these people have really made a difference.)

The walk down was in bad snow condition as the snow had melted in the sun which made everything a bit more difficult and dangerous. There were a couple of big crevasses (sprungur) that we had to jump over along with a lot of “smaller” ones that we had to walk and thread through.

We arrived in our hut around 20:00, quite exhausted and hungry, due to lack of sleep and after the hike of the day. An hour or two later, we were in our bunkers falling asleep. Our stomacs were full as we got a big three course meal (pasta, meat and dessert)… which was a nice surprise as we didn’t think it would be this good.

The first day was very promising for the next days and we were all excited for the days to come. The weather had been extremely good and the weather forecast was promising. The following days showed us that the first day was just a warm up.

I had a couple of problems with my stoma on that day, some which continued the following days, they were:

• Due to our problems in the beginning of the day I didn’t pack up as much food as I needed, which made me a little bit “low on fuel” during the day.
• I made the mistake of not emptying my bag before starting the difficult part of the peak. This made my walk down a steep icy part a bit difficult, as my stoma bag was full and in the way. Maggi, my teammate, helped me out by belaying me down the worst part. (Hjálpaði mér að síga niður) As soon as I got on good ground I emptied the bag and everything was ok.
• Eating late in the evening meant I had to empty the bag in the middle of the night, which meant waking up, going to the toilet (which was far away) and trying to go to fall asleep again. This usually meant I lost an hour of sleep every night of our five-day trip.

Here is a video compilation that I made from pics and videos, I hope you enjoy

(Note: It took me a while to do all of this and therefore it is possible that there will be a couple of days until I will post day two.)

I’m back, and finally have access to a computer to tell tales of our travels and challenges.

The past 24 days have been incredible where one adventure followed the other. I feel like I’ve been travelling for 2 months and hardly remember the regular life that awaits… Work… what is that?

I have so many amazing memories and thankfully documented it well with pictures and videos. I plan on picking out the best pieces and show and tell anyone interested here on this page. I will write one post for each day on the mountains, about 8 posts in total, including videos and pics. This will take me some time, to go through everything and write it down, but hopefully my first post/day will be posted within few days. Following that, I will probably continue with some of my thoughts that I had already started writing, about my view on life and healing after surgery.

This means that this little webpage of mine is still alive and kicking, despite a short brake, and I guess the best is yet to come… hopefully.

I end this with a little sneak preview: The picture below was taken by Gummi Stóri where we were approaching the Lyskamm Ridge, which was the highlight of our trip. More on that later but the two Lyskamm peaks and the ridge between them turned out to be a far bigger experience than we expected, with the same difficulty rating as the Matterhorn.

Three words describes it best – Very, very exposed.

Since my last post we have travelled to Italy, to Lake Como, and are now rock climbing. We didn’t go up on Matterhorn because the weather wasn’t good, i.e. snow on most of Matterhorn, cold and windy. We got the information that the guides were not going up and thereby decided that we shouldn’t go either… It was a tough decision.

But at the same time it didn’t take us long to get out of Zermatt as we took the first train from Zermatt and headed south to Italy. We all agreed that Zermatt was not our place of interest and were relieved just to get from there to Brig, which is a town close by.

Now we are in Lecco, on day three and tomorrow Maggi and Gummi will leave to Iceland and me and Jon Heidar will stay longer in Italy, as our families are coming tomorrow.

The next two weeks will be family travelling time and I will probably not write much on the page during that time. When I get back I will put in videos, pictures and more from our days in the Alps.

Yesterdaz we came back to Zermatt after five days in the alps. In four days we hiked six peaks higher than 4000 meters and on the fifth day we hiked down from Punta Gnifetti in 4552 meter height down to about 2500 meters, hiking down at least 10 km through a glacier and more.

In total we were hiking/climbing for 40 hours, on average 8 hours a day. Total ups and down were probably around 4-5 -thousand meters… Thats a lot… especially since we were in this high altitude where every step is quite demanding.

Overall everything went great. We were increadibly lucky with weather and got tremendous views. We adapted well to the high altitude and no one got sick. Tired – yes… Exhausted… yes… At awe to the incredible landscape we were in… oh yes.

I didn¨t realize till on the first summit how incredible this all is. That is… that I am actually doing this. Two years ago I sometimes wasn¨t able to go to the store… A hike up a small hill wasn¨t even an option. This is so surreal and incredible that it only took me two years to get to where I am. I am still digesting this idea but every time I do I admit I get a little sentimental.

There are a lot of pictures and videos from this trip and I plan on putting some of it on this page, along with stories from our quests. I promise you it will be interesting ;^)

Matterhorn is the only peak left and hopefully the weather will be ok, it doesn¨t look great at the moment but we will find out soon. If not, then we will leave Zermatt and find some adventure elsewhere.

To fulfill a dream like this is incredible. To face challenges like these despite my limitations and acchieving them is something I cannot put into words now. More on that later.

Everything is ready. Soon I will take a short sleep as I will wake up at 3:30 and go to the airport. In 30 hours we will start our adventure.

We have an ambitious plan, 7 peaks in 11 days. A lot can happen and a lot can stop us from getting our goals. What is certain is that we will have an amazing adventure and experience something totally new. We are excited.

I don’t know how, when or if I can blog on the page during the trip but hopefully I will be able to put something on the page. But when I get back I will definitely have a story to tell.

Best, Ágúst Kr.

Everything is pretty much ready as the team will have a short meeting tonight and do the final planning. Following is an overview of the ups and downs we will take in our trip. The tops are mountain peaks and the “valleys” are the huts we will stay in.

The picture only shows changes from bottom to top and do not show actual distances, as they vary. But this should give a little insight into how our trip will be. The red lines show distances walked while the blue one show where we will take a lift or train.

Total height increase is around 6000 meters, only 2000+ less than Everest

Here you can see what I will take with me for the trip, as most of what you see will be on my back or harness – or on my body. I am almost ready and have filled my living room with everything. I haven’t figured out how I can get everything in my bags but, overall, I am surprised how little this actually is… (This isn’t everything as some of my clothes are still in the washer)

I’ve been talking a lot about how good life has been after surgery but I guess it is only this good because of how bad it used to be. Therefore I will try to describe how my life was for more than five years, living with ulcerative colitis.

The physical part

1. I had little or no control of my bowel movement, and therefore had frequent and urgent bathroom breaks throughout the day.
2. I went to the bathroom up to 15-20 times a day. A really good day included “only” 5 bathroom breaks. At the beginning of each day, there was no way to know if it would be a good or bad day.
3. In most occasions, I had less than 30 seconds from knowing I needed to get to the bathroom to actually getting there.
4. Bloody stool was a regular occurrence which left me quite weak, each time it happened.
5. I was regularly weak (usually every other day) or sick due to my illness and if I got a cold or cough my condition got twice as bad.
6. I was really thin despite eating every two hours and trying to exercise, mainly indoor climbing. My weight rocked from 65 kg to 75 kg during these five years, losing more weight every year. (I am now 86 kg and still thin)
7. I tried different types of drugs and none really worked, although they probably made it more bearable, mainly steroids. I also tried all types of diets, treatments and more, and got – I think – the best results out of that. Although no real solution.

The social, mental, and active part

1. Despite all of this, few people, outside my family and friends knew about my illness and, I think, few realized my actual condition. I even didn’t realize how bad it was until after surgery.
2. Everything I did was dependent on my condition. If there wasn’t a toilet there I usually didn’t go there.
3. I always knew where the next bathroom was and I always had an exit plan, wherever I went. This meant having my mind focused on new solutions every minute which could be exhausting.
4. I had a very strict diet as I had found out what type of food wasn’t good for me (or thought I had). I didn’t drink, smoke or eat any candy and in the end had stopped eating dairy products, bread, fruits, vegetables and a lot more.
5. This condition, and strict diet, had effect on my social life as life was quite easier in a controlled environment, i.e. at home. Therefore I often chose not to go to parties or venues, go to movies or theatres, didn’t go out hiking and more and more.
6. When I was in my worst condition I didn’t go for visits or even walks in my neighborhood due to scare of instant bowel movement. On a couple of occasions I had an “accident” driving from family and friends which took only 10 minutes to drive.
7. Despite all of this I somehow managed to adjust my life to these limits and do a lot of fun stuff. For example: Moving to Italy for two summers, going on vacations abroad, going hiking and climbing despite all of this, going to work almost every day, work as a university teacher (including long lectures) and more and more…

I admit I gave in to the limits that were in my life and I allowed it to affect my quality of life, during my worst times. But overall, I am happy that it didn’t let it control my life completely and have now promised myself not to let my limits stop me from getting the most from life. It simply isn’t worth it as it affects ones entire life.

And so, I end this long post with these words, which for some reason sound very true in my mind. (although a little dramatic in the end)

If you always put limits on what you can do, physical or anything else, it’ll spread over into the rest of your life. It’ll spread over into your work, into your mortality, into your entire being. There are no limits. There are plateaus, but you must not stay there, you must go beyond them. If it kills you, it kills you. (Bruce Lee)

I went hiking up Snæfellsjökul, a glacier on the west of Iceland, last Saturday with Gummi – the new member of the team. It was a mini practice round as we were hiking on a glacier, going through crevasses and spending the day on ice. We went up the north part of the glacier, which isn’t hiked that often as it a little bit more dangerous than the typical southeast side and we went on top of all three peaks of the glacier. The hike took 7 hours and it was a great day.

Everything went well except the fact that I fell on the top and injured my ankle… But it looks like it will be ok before we start our yourney - hopefully. (In Icelandic people say “fall er fararheill” which can be translated roughly that if you fall in the beginning it means good luck… hopefully that is the case for me.)

Here are two (great) pictures from the hike but you can see a lot more by looking at a page that Gummi and his friends are managing, about their mountain adventures. I recommend you check them out as the pictures from our hike was truly amazing.

It’s getting really close now, as we will fly to Switzerland on July the 17th. Everything is pretty much ready but at the same time a lot of small things need attention. Below is a brief overview of how our trip is planned.

After this, we will go to Milan where Maggi and Gummi will fly back to Iceland while me and Jón wait for our family in Milan. Following will be a family vacation where my family will probably to to Italy, France and England. We will return on to Iceland on August the 10th.

Here is finally some information about our team.

Maggi Smári

A 25 year old firefighter, emergency medical technician and volunteer rescue worker in Akureyri (north of Iceland). Maggi is quite active in mountaineering as he enjoys ice climbing, rock climbing, alpinism and ski mountaineering. He is also training/teaching mountain rescue as well as mountaineering fundamentals for the local rescue team in Akureyri. We met in 2008 when I lived in Akureyri for few months and have been doing fun mountain stuff since then. This will be his first mountaineering project abroad.

Jón Heiðar

A 39 year (very )old mountain guide, lumberjack, volunteer rescueworker and more, living in Akureyri. Jón Heiðar started just recently being active in mountaineering and has taken it by storm as he is quite active in ice climbing, rock climbing and overall mountaineering. Before that he was quite active on kayaks and motorbikes and, based on the stories I‘ve heard, he seems to be made out of steel, i.e. unbreakable. We also met in Akureyri in 2008 and have been goofing around since then. This will also be his first mountaineering project abroad.

[Correction: Jón contacted me and explained that he is not very old, hes actually only 38 years old, and that he has actually been doing mountaineering since he was a teen but started again some years ago. Jón - I appoligize ,-)]

Gummi (the Big)

A 27 year old programmer, working for the Icelandic emergency phone line (same as the american 911). He has been quite active, especially in ice climbing as well as rock climbing. He is the only one in the team that has gone to the alps as he has hiked Mont Blanc and tried to climb Matterhorn but had to go back because of sudden illness. He is new in the team as he is a substitute for Örn who injured himself climbing and cannot go with us (see older post). But he is a really good substitute as is very skilled and experienced in mountaineering and is a really, really good photographer, which can come in handy in surroundings like these.

And me

I feel I am the least experienced mountaineer in the group but I hope to make that up with good climbing skills, crazy organizing for the trip and a overall good mood.

The below pictures show the route we will be taking when we climb Matterhorn, among other routes. The first picture shows the west face and the red line, that starts on the right and is number 5,  shows where we will go up. This route is called called Liongrat (also called Carrel route) and starts from Italy. The second one shows the east face and the purple line, that ends on the right and is number 3 shows our way down. This route is called Hörnligrat and starts in Switzerland.

Someone suggested I would post some old climbing pics on this page so here are a couple of my favorite ones. Below is info about each pic.

1. On top of Snæfellsjökull, a glacier on the west part of Iceland, 1448 m high. Hekla, my daughter, was with me and my wife Björg as we took a snowmobile up most of the way but I climbed on the top, with Hekla on my back. “We” were the only ones “brave/stupid” enough to go up there as the peak was quite steep and icy. Afterwards I skied down the glacier – it was great.
2. On top of Kerling, the tallest mountain in the north of Iceland, around 1500 meters. It took us 8 hour to get up there because of incredible amount of snow. This is one of my best hikes.
3. Climbing in Italy, on a route I think is called Dormidoro. Me and my wife lived in Florence in the summer of 2006 and my buddy Örn came for a visit where we went climbing.
4. Near the top of Hraundrangi, a strange peak in the north of Iceland few have climbed as it is kind of dangerous and very exposed. See more about Hraundrangi here: http://is.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hraundrangi (sorry, it’s on icelandic)
5. Climbing in Cala Gonone in Sardinia – really, really great place and great great climbing.
6. Climbing in Munkaþverá, in north of Iceland. This climbing area is my favorite in Iceland. An old pic but really good one.
7. Climbing up a building in Reykjavík, the tallest one in Iceland. This was part of a venue last summer, and will be repeated this summer. (hopefully I will do better next time as I didn’t have stamina for the entire wall) See more on the building here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%B6f%C3%B0atorg_tower (the climb was however only 7 floors up.
8. Near the top of Hafrafell, which is in Hjaltadalur in the north of Iceland. We didn’t go to the top due to lack of time but the hike/climb was great and the scenery was even better. 
9. Ice climbing in Esjan last winter. This was actually my first real Ice climb, although just top rope. It was really fun and I’m excited to grow in this sport… that is If I have time and zero temperature.

originally I planned on doing this picture post to save time but I always end up writing an essay about everything

(Note. Pics 1,2,4,7,8 & 9 are all pics after I had the surgery.)