Hello there from a several year hiatus. I've moved to Iceland to the town of Ísafjörður to do my masters degree. The population of this place is about 2600 people - Ísafjörður is located in the Westfjords, one of, if not the most isolated section if Iceland. The weather is bad enough that 40% of the flights in winter are routinely cancelled due to winds, and roads are regularly closed due to avalanche danger or dangerous driving conditions. And in Iceland, dangerous driving means dangerous driving. I was in a pass in my car under 'difficult driving conditions' and I was smashing through knee deep snow banks in the middle of the road while I could not see my hood due to whiteout. It's sure is not a nanny state here. Anyway, I digress.

Anyway, here is the town I live in.

Back in August a friend and I decided to spend a few days on the Hornstrandir Peninsula prior to starting school. We had mostly good weather - only a night of drizzle, although we were fogged in when visiting the (arguably) most spectacular part - the horn, at Hornvík, which is about half a km drop to the Arctic. One of the great things about Iceland is the lack of biting bugs - there are some midges around Lake Myvatn, and Norwegian wasps have recently gained a foothold. Amazingly, there are no mosquitoes here - they occasionally come on planes, but die out. We are surrounded by mozzies in Greenland, the Faroe Islands, Norway, and Canada - but none here. It's amazing. Then again, three months without sun was not so amazing.

I'll spare you the gory details of this trip - suffice to say, it was nice, though I wish I could have gone longer.

Some of the minor cliffs of Hornstrandir - not socked in. A beautiful day.

Álfsfell, one of the many mountains along our route.

The tabletop mountains of the Westfjords


One of the many bird cliffs of Iceland - wow, this place was smelly.



Tent tumbleweeds - drying out the tents after a night of gentle rain

A arctic fox, the only native mammal in Iceland in the intertidal near our rainy day camp

Weak northern lights as the midnight sun finally disappears in late August

Dropping into Höfn - a beautiful campsite with a beach, freshwater, and some wind protection - depending where you pitch.


A casual humpback on the boat back to Isafjordur - one of about thirty that live in the larger fjord, Isafjordarjup.

Anyway, those are just a few pictures. Drop me a line if you'd like to see more. If there's enough interest I'll put together a report from my next hike in Iceland, wherever it may be.

Awesome! I forgot how good you are with a camera. Thanks for this.