Icebreaker – first ice climb of the season

AURORA’s captain went ice climbing yesterday with Eirikur Gislason. The weather was very nice, -4deg C and clear skies, and we just had to check on one of the local crags. Recently we have had a sprinkle of snow on the mountain tops around Isafjordur and for the last four days there have been minus degrees in the mountains.  As we expected, the ice was very thin and brittle. For belays we had to dig up some old pitons as ice screws were useless. Eirikur managed half a pitch up into the route but turned around when the iceface got ready to fall down on us. But, this was a great day to be in the mountains and soon the ice will become better and we look forward to a good ice climbing winter.