The Iceland Traverse - Day 17 / Laugavegur Trail - Day 3 / Fommvorduhals Traverse

Today was our last day on the Laugavegur trail and our second to last day on the traverse. We were taking on the Fommvorduhals Traverse. 14km of beautiful rugged mountain passes and steep rocky climbs. We had some way to walk before we were on it though. We set out at a leisurely 8am, the clouds still hanging low in the valley. The weather was due to clear around 9:30am so we should have good views and perfect weather for the high rocky mountain passes ahead. We crossed the river in the Porsmork valley and followed it along to the east for a few miles. We drifted in and out of woodland until we came upon another cabin.

From the cabin, the trail climbed steeply up through old birch woodland. Nicely graded switchbacks took us up to a viewpoint looking over a waterfall. Sadly at now nearly 10am, the clouds still hadn't lifted. I was still hopeful they would lift later in the day but at this moment, we couldn't see further than a few feet. We crossed ridges lined with vibrant green moss and jet black rocks. Some ridges were very narrow with steep drops either side into the valleys below.

We continued up and up. Half the day was to be one big climb and the other half, the decent down to the ring road. We could hear the distinctly Australian voices of the people we met at the cabin last night. They set off before us and we managed to catch up. We could hear them so close but couldn't see them as the cloud had dropped even more completely obscuring any view. We soon joined them at the top of the ridge where the trail split off right. I continues to climb up and up until we reached what looked like a summit. Farout confirmed we were wrong. We had a quick snack at this spot and the clouds cleared for just a few seconds. We could hear waterfalls crashing down the valley bellow and we got occasional glimpses of the sun through the clouds. In the moments the clouds cleared, we could see the trail dropped sharply onto a narrow ridge then steeply climbing over and along a narrow path. A fixed rope had been placed on the narrow section as one slip could be disastrous.  Also, to get up off the ridge at the end it a straight upward scramble.

We made the climb down onto the ridge and back up the other side. The summit was finally in view. We made the last few hundred metres up to the summit. It was snow covered and snow fields lay as far as we could see. It was cold up there. Really cold. The snow had melted then frozen solid like a sheet of ice. We hiked around the edge of the first snow field and then scrambled down onto the second. It was like an ice rink. We slowly edged our way up trying to cut footholds with out trekking poles. One slip, slip again. It was 2 steps forward one step back, but we soon reached the edge and managed to get a foothold on the rock. From here there were flat snow fields and a few rocky passes that took us to Baldvinsskali Hut, our lunch stop for the day.

We had a quick lunch in the hut, but didn't realise we had to pay just to be inside. But it was a welcome break form the cold outside. The hut warden was pleasant but seemed rather fed up of  having to melt ice for water. When we stepped out of the hut, the cloud had descended again. The trail down was easy. A wide, graded track that took us down the side of the mountain with the river to our right. There was a helpful bridge to cross the river and back onto the easy path again. This took us all the way down, past so many big and different waterfalls and canyons that the river had carved.

We eventually arrived at Skogarfoss. The waterfall was spectacular, I think. We could hardly see it through the crowds so continued hiking to the bottom to get a view up to it. The Fommvorduhals traverse was complete. As was the Laugavegur trail. But we still had a short road walk down to the campsite. It was over quickly but this was probably the worst campsite we stayed in. It certainly cost enough money, had very little facilities, which doesn't really bother me, and was completely wet underfoot. We found a nearly dry patch of squelchy muddy ground and set up. We got an early night ready for our last day on trail. To the southern tip of Iceland.