As challenging as the wind, rain and cloudy conditions are, they do make for dramatic lighting if you have the time to wait for that little cloud break to, just, move, over, a bit. Sigh.

This magical center for volcanic exploration even has a wild natural hot spring to cook yourself in, after a long day hiking, exceptional!

If you ever get the chance to go to Landmannalauger, Do it! And maybe prepare for the multiday trek to Poshmark. If you take a bus (yup- the adventure bus!) you won’t have to risk your own car.

There are so many stories, so many images, but I’m not so spontaneous at posting, so it takes a while. Stay with me, it’s quite an adventure.

In Landmannalauger, we studied the map, checked the weather, did those again, and were still challenges with both. I absolutely love and recommend GAIA GPS (or similar) to have a “you are here dot” on your topo map, and help you find the best way estimating distances and seeing the geographic challenges, though the river crossings are a wild card- small river, or large? Hopscotch, or wade, or maybe there’s a bridge? After wading across the river, we began the ascent to the pass two thirds of the way into the hike. The little red hiker man sign with exclamation is a new one for me, but it is reeeaaaly steep, with nothing to stop a tumble. Meh, whatever! Someone coming down said the wind on the ridge that we would need to cross was fierce, and folks on the other side were butt sliding down due to the exposure (and 300 foot drop). Maybe we could attempt that river crossing again? Of course after a few moments to ensure he couldn’t see that we chickened out. I noticed these folks coming down the ridge across from us- Amazing! The drama of the weather, the colors of rhyolite slopes, punctuated with snowfields is such an interesting image, adding a bit of scale to the scene.

When we got to our return river crossing, we saw the groups of people that were on the ridge, some were from Poland, others from Germany. It’s an illustration that this area really calls to the adventurers.