Today I'm proud to welcome a guest in my blog - Sophie. She has been kind enough to write her version of our epic journey to the top of Mount Esja. Enjoy and those who can - compare.
So sit back, relax and travel with us!
Hey everybody!
You might not know me yet. My name is Sophie and you can find me on some of Liina's pics I suppose. The reason why I write into that blog is simply because the „chief“ asked me to! ;) And it’s fun, by the way.
So, let’s get to business.
There’s a lot to tell about our trip to the top (or better said nearly-top in my case) of Esja, the „local mountain“ of Reykjavík. I guess it’s best just to begin with the beginning.
At first it had been the plan to start the tour at about half past nine o’clock. But since there were a few unexpected incidences like ripped trousers and serious stuff like that, I – as the last one to be picked up – had to wait until 10.15 for my fellow travelers to come. I should maybe also say that at first we estimated to be back from the whole trip around 1 pm and I am really glad that I managed to get off duty at my Au-Pair family, because at the said time we were to be found pretty exactly halfway to the top...
After we arrived at the base we went off nearly right away. In the wrong direction. So, after a nice little detour we managed to find the right path again back at the beginning. Like this we all were already warmed up and the shoes had gotten their first layer of stinky mud. Especially Liina was obviously very happy about that. Who would want white shoes anyway? ;)
But she was not the one who was dressed in the most inappropriate way. She got beaten masterfully by our Japanese fellow girl Yoshimi, who went up Esja with higher-heeled (not really high-heeled) boots, tight jeans, about 5 shirts and two shoulder bags. My deepest respect for making it up to the top with this equipment!
The first part of the ascent – described with „one boot“ on the map – was a bit exhausting because Liina started off in her usual running-pace, but not difficult. We made our first stop at a little river to taste the water. It was really refreshing and clean. And it didn’t even smell sulphurous like the tap water almost always does.
Daniel and Riikka then started to torture me with eating chocolate bars. As I am doing this funny fast-thing where I don’t eat any sweets until Easter, i could only enjoy the smell... :P
The part with the „two boots“ on the plan was maybe a bit steeper and the paths were not as well maintained as at the bottom but it was still no problem for us to climb up. The real difficulty started at the „three boots“ level. Maybe it was because none of us had more than two boots?
But maybe it was also because of the partly 90 degrees inclination in addition to the snow and ice between the rocks? Who knows...?
Riikka and I started to scout the heights first and soon came to the conclusion that it might be a lot easier to get up, then it would be to get down again. And even going up was everything but a piece of cake!
You would suddenly find yourself stuck in an icy depression with no foothold and unable to penetrate the walls with your fingers. When you then looked down below you and realized that if you got going here you would not be able to stop yourself for some painful looking hundred meters, you started to think about things, that usually only get mentioned in testaments.
After some time I decided to split up with the group to search for the „real path“ which I thought I had found. In the end, it led to a dead end that was nowhere nearer the top than where I had been before. The only difference: I couldn’t hear or see anything of the others. Scary experience. I was only waiting to hear somebody scream and fall... Thankfully I didn’t hear anything, obviously. Because they had had the same thoughts and had been calling for me...
Anyway I decided that it would probably be best if I found my way back to the „three boots“-sign and look where the others are. I could only find Daniel and Yoshimi sitting up somewhere on the rocks. They then called down to me, that Riikka and Liina had gone up to the top to look for the real „real path“. Riikka might also have had a bit more motivation to go for the top because it was practically her last chance to go there before she went back to Finland. And who knows if, or when she will come back to Iceland again...
I for myself was pretty fed up with the top and decided not to spend the next half hour in fear of death, but to rather eat my cheesebread. A good decision I think.
Nevertheless Daniel and Yoshimi headed to the top too, after Riikka came down the supposedly „real path“. Pretty much the only thing indicating it, was a rope that was nearly invisible from the bottom... Lucky us, climbing everywhere but there.
After those two vanished from sight, me and Riikka were waiting some time for Liina to show up. In vain, because she had gone down a pretty straight way – not quite the easiest one i think, but okay. So we met up with her a bit further down on the path.
Daniel and Yoshimi obviously decided to enjoy the view a bit longer and since we couldn’t reach them on the phone, we decided to go back down. Main objective was, that both Riikka and I were supposed to be home at 4 pm – which Daniel knew.
I did feel pretty bad leaving them behind on the mountain (after all people died up there), but I didn’t really know what else to do. We also asked one mountain-runner that rushed down past us and he told us that they had been alright, when he had seen them last.
So we continued descending and finally ended up at the bottom with wobbly knees and pretty exhausted. We were all looking forward to the next day...
When we wanted to leave with the car we were thinking about how to deal with the missing crew-members and decided to leave some money for the bus behind and write Daniel an SMS about the hiding-place. The plan failed due to the fact that Daniel had left his phone behind in the car. Wonderful!
Liina, as the only one who was able to delay had to stay behind with their stuff and wait for them while Riikka and I drove off to our workplaces.
Later Liina told me that she had had to wait for nearly two hours for the others to finally find their way back down the mountain... Explanation: they didn’t expect anybody to wait for them. Haha.
Kommentaare ei ole:
Postita kommentaar