SKI TOURING-Iceland May 2024

As you know, I’ll be working on special projects from now on, and this will include some snow time with long term friends and the occasional special trip.

The first of these special trips is a ski touring trip in northern Iceland, in May this year.

Most of the places are already taken, there are still a few spaces available.

This is for strong skiers, with some off piste experience, who either already have some experience with touring equipment or will take an introductory session, of a couple of hours, this season.

Here are the details:

Dates: May 11-16
Arrive Akureyri evening of May 11
Skiing May 12 to 16
with return flight Akureyri to Reykjavic on the evening on May 16

There’s an itinerary below, plus more details of the trip.

I see this trip as a celebration of everything the Performance Breakthrough teams have trained together to create.

Please let me know if you’d like to join us.

A 5 day ski touring trip in Iceland - May 2024

I keep going back to Iceland in the Spring - six or seven trips so far - and like our beloved Mt Chéry, it keeps delivering.
Iceland provides beautiful Spring snow, extraordinary terrain and wonderful golden light.

Ski Touring in Iceland in the Spring is less complex than in high Alpine terrain.
There are no altitude effects on breathing and performance, so skinning up is easier.
The snow pack is completely transformed and stabilised, giving a beautiful Spring snow surface, so skiing down is easier, too!
There is extended daylight, which is helpful logistically. There is no rush.

We still skin up our routes to earn the right to ski down them. The experience is simpler, smoother, easier,
though we still need to be fit enough to walk uphill on skis.

Early May is a good time for ski touring In Iceland. The touring season there lasts until the beginning of June, and I have skied there in excellent conditions in June, on previous trips.

Please bear in mind that you’ll need some experience on touring equipment - an introduction to skinning and associated skills.

Many of you have this experience already. If you don’t, you have plenty of time to fit it in this season, if you’d like to. For that, I recommend asking my colleagues in our BASS ski schools for an introduction to ski touring equipment and basic skills. A couple of hours will do it. You just need to be familiarised with the equipment:

putting skins on,
taking them off,
ditto ski crampons,
understanding how your boots and bindings work for climbing and for skiing,
making transitions from one mode to the other,
a little bit of skinning, 5 or 10 minutes would do,
plus an introduction to 2 types of climbing turn:
- the uphill kick turn
- and the climbing step turn, also known as the AV turn.

None of that is complicated, though it is specific and you need to arrive with this work already covered.

We’ll help you develop the rest of the skills over 5 days in Iceland.

Once again, I’m teaming up with my friends at Bergmenn Mountain Guides on the Troll Peninsula - they also run the heliski operation there that we have enjoyed many times.

A big thank you goes out to Erin, at Bergmenn Mountain Guides, for going out of her way to put this great trip together for us.

This trip will be based at their Karlsa Lodge (Details here)
Facilities include a hot tub with an amazing view across the fjord!

We’ll have transport to and from the routes.
We will have a mountain guide at the front, and I’ll be at the rear of the team.
I’ll be there to support your performance in this amazing location, as with previous Performance Breakthrough Level 3 and Level 4 trips.

Prices:
Lodge & Guiding cost: 5 Day program: 416,875 ISK pp, approximately €2,766, for min 6 skiers, max 8
What’s included, itinerary, packing list etc Details here

Performance Breakthrough fee £850 pp, (the same as my L3 off piste course in Chamonix)

Dates: May 11-16

Arrive in Akureyri in the afternoon of May 11th
The way the logistics work, at the end of the trip we’ll end up with an overnight stay in Reykjavic, before the international flights the next day. (13th May)

It will be fantastic to ski the awesome Icelandic spring conditions with you,
so please contact me to join this great trip.

Thanks again!

Best regards,

Hugh