Stepman

28/09/2024

I spent the last two days driving Boli (a modified Pistenbully snow groomer) across Vatnajökull to help with recovering scientific instrumentation on Bárðarbunga. Being up there really makes one appreciate how large this ice cap really is.

01/09/2024

Why ice caves are so much more tricky than glacier hikes or ice climbing.

Safety on Glacier ExcursionsSeptember 1, 2024/in safety/by stepI have received an incredible amount of very positive feedback about my recent essay, and it motivated me to address some of the questions that came up both in direct response to it and in other discussions.What makes ice cave tours diff...

27/08/2024

The tragic collapse of an ice cave left us mourning the loss of a life, a family torn apart and many lives irrevocably changed. I have just returned from two days on the site of the incident, and staring at the computer screen I keep asking myself the same question again and again: How on earth could this happen?

This post is my attempt at answering this question, because only if we fully understand what went wrong can we hope to prevent it from happening again in the future.

Thoughts on recent eventsAugust 27, 2024/in incident reports/by stepThe tragic collapse of an ice cave left us mourning the loss of a life, a family torn apart and many lives irrevocably changed. I have just returned from two days on the site of the incident, and staring at the computer screen I kee...

26/08/2024

... just to be clear:I have never, and will not, offered ice cave tours in the summer, exactly because I know how volatile those places are in these months.

29/07/2024

Okay today is the next of my training days! This one will just be "homework", in preparation for a more practical session next month. But I hope the problems are interesting and a good refresher.

If you would like to give it a go, see here:

https://www.stepman.is/2024/07/29/training-day-3-navigation-planning-theory/

The solution will be posted in a few days, but I don't want to make it too easy by publishing a "spoiler" immediately :)

Alright today is the next training day in my schedule! This one is work friendly since everybody can just do it at home in their own time. It is primarily a precursor to next month, where we’ll put these things out into the field… the idea about this episode is that some aspects of working […]

27/07/2024

Always great to help out with glaciology missions - here's a shot from when I recently went out with a team of Belgian scientists to retrieve the seismometers we had placed about a week prior on Sultartungnajökull.

Those are the moments when I learn much of the state-of-the-art information I can subsequently share on my tours!

24/07/2024

Rained out today -- a good opportunity to go though pictures from last week...

Here's a view of Þverártindsegg, at the edge of Vatnajökull 🇮🇸

05/07/2024

Wow it has been a while since I posted... I simply was too busy guiding amazing clients!

Here's a shot from a recent ice climbing trip. First time climbers and progressed from zero to clean moves in vertical to slightly overhanging ice!

24/06/2024

Another training day in the books! Yesterday's topic was hard ice rescues, pretty straightforward at first glance but as always the devil is in the details.

I would have loved some stronger participation - I know that as guides we can't always choose when we need to work but especially the Vatnajökull National Park and ICE-SAR both showed interest originally and neither showed up. Bit of a shame because it would have allowed us to go through a "full-on" rescue scenario (and as guides it might have been interesting to practice that "handover"), but not a huge deal anyway – there was plenty of ground to cover as It is, and we had a lot of fruitful conversations.

Next up: Navigation Theory & Planning, on July 29th. Details at https://www.stepman.is/tours/training-days/

25/05/2024

Today was the first of the monthly training days I am organising this year. The weather was not really optimal but we went over a number of things that are essential to successfully guiding ice climbing tours, including client safety, anchor options, belay strategies, coaching beginner ice climbings, and self belays -- because sometimes just climbing out yourself is just the most efficient way.

Here's Jan, who has clearly done this before too.

25/05/2024

Two days ago I summited Hvannadalshnjúkur with two clients on a fundraising campaign for clean water in Malawi. Conditions were a little wet in the beginning with rain and sleet and fairly poor visibility, but it cleared up just as we were approaching the final section to the summit.

A rather long, but excellent day for a great cause!

19/05/2024

Going through footage from the past winter... a panorama of Breiðamerkurjökull in last March.

It is becoming more and more obvious now which part of the glacier is sitting on solid land and where the shoreline to Jökulsárlón will continue as the glacier breaks up as it retreats.

07/05/2024

It's that time of the year again 🥰

Vág frá Dynjanda 🦄
Lilja frá Bár × Kandís frá Eyvindarmúla

04/04/2024

Today was my last ice cave tour of this season. I'm going to miss those places!

We might still drop in on my glacier day hikes if conditions allow, and we can often find amazing tunnels and other structures year round, but given that accessibility may deteriorate very rapidly with warmer temperatures or precipitation I am not offering dedicated ice cave tours during the summer months.

My program for April: WFR (Wilderness First Responder) recertification, a few glacier hikes, snowmobile tours with my friends , and a number of alpine treks to the highest peaks of Iceland.

05/03/2024

Never forget to put down the camera and admire the view with your own eyeballs.

02/03/2024

Met some fellow Austrians at play yesterday.

23/02/2024

15/02/2024

Happy days