Yep, it really is just what it says on the tin. I’m walking the Laugavegur Trail again next year. I meant to do it in 2020 but we know what happened. 21 wasn’t much better. 22 was all about the volcano. 23… well, life got busy. By the time you see this, I’ll have done my first Ranger camp and hopefully be taking a week off before starting to gather all my paper and evidence for my licence, so a 4-day trek across Iceland just wasn’t on the cards this year. But next year? Oh yeah, we’re going ahead with this.
When I did the trail in 2018, I did a monthly update post on how I was preparing. Reading back, there was plenty of shopping – which was entirely necessary; I needed a sleeping bag that could cope with Icelandic mountains, I needed boots and first aid supplies and to figure out what to eat – but there was no training. I think I did three walks in preparation and none of them prepared me in the least.
Now I’ve done the walk, I know two things. I know what the trail is actually like and I know why it was so horrifically difficult – that is, the first day was horrifically difficult.
I’ve looked up the length and altitude gain of day one. That one was the hardest in terms of the walk but it was also the hardest for half a dozen other reasons. I figure if I can get to the point where I can do day one without nearly dying, the other three days shouldn’t be a problem. And the way to practice day one without actually going to Iceland and trekking back and forth between Landmannalaugar and Hrafntinnusker is to go down to the Dorset coast. The round hike from Lulworth to White Nothe and back is about the same distance and about the same elevation gain. It’s a completely different profile – Laugavegur is pretty much a continuous climb whereas this one goes up and down like you’re walking along a Toblerone – but it’s as close as I’m going to get living where I do. Because we set off from Reykjavik at 7.30am and it takes 3-5 hours to get to Landmannalaugar, we don’t depart until lunchtime or early afternoon (as long as the bus doesn’t break down…) so I kind of need to get to the point where I can do this walk reasonably comfortably in four hours. Twelve kilometres in four hours is only three km/hr, that’s definitely doable but how long will it take to become doable when you bear in mind the hills? Also, I will get lost in the caravan park trying to walk back along the ridge but with practice, I’ll get used to that. I need to do it in winter because I need to be able to walk when it’s cold and miserable and keep up the pace but it needs to not be foggy or windy because it’s right by the cliffs and I’m not dying in the process of preparing my legs for this.
Second, food. I know I talked about this last time but I didn’t take it seriously. This time, I can be a bit more open. I’ve already done the post about how I have ARFID so you can see better now what I’m dealing with. I know perfectly well I didn’t eat enough on day one. I went out without breakfast, lunch on the broken down bus wasn’t substantial enough and then we route-marched the first mile in the drizzle. I need to have calories and I need to have them close at hand.
So there are three things to figure out. The first is breakfast. Breakfast was porridge with lots of cinnamon and diced fresh fruit to sprinkle. I’ve made it at home. I can’t eat it. It’s too wet and sloppy and my throat closes up in panic against it. Can I substitute porridge with flapjack? I know oats baked in a ton of sugar and syrup isn’t an ideal breakfast, it isn’t what I’d eat at home and I wouldn’t want to eat it except in a desperate situation like this but it would do the job, right? Oats for energy, eat the diced fruit like I did last time. Cereal bars – plus more for eating during the day. Cereal bars are great.
The second is dinner. I was onto the right thing last time, I just didn’t try hard enough. Dry pasta & sauce packets. I don’t like sauce. I have my pasta with grated cheese in a separate bowl but I suspect keeping a block of cheese in good condition outside for four days, even in Iceland, might be tricky. Pasta with Babybels? Or just get used to the sauce packets. I’m going camping this summer, so I’m going to try out some packets in an actual outdoors scenario. I do eat differently if I’m cooking and eating outside. Maybe I’ll take a packet of ready-grated cheese for dinner on day one, since day one is likely to remain reasonably cool, up in the Misty Mountains.
And the third is snacking throughout the day. I’m not really a three-meals-a-day person. I’m a grazer. If I can have pockets and packets of high-calorie high-protein snacks to nibble on all day, I’ll cope better. I used to swear by Kelloggs Start mixed with Galaxy Counters as something to keep in my pocket but Kelloggs don’t make it anymore. The other important thing about snacks is that they have to be fairly bombproof. They’re going to get squished and crushed and overheated. I foresee Babybels figuring highly in this category.
Next, I need to dress appropriately for the weather. On day one, I knew it was cold and wet so I piled everything on. A mile in, I was badly overheating and I pulled everything off and didn’t see it again until nearly bedtime. That’s not how it’s supposed to work. I need enough warm layers in my bag and enough on but not so many that I get too hot. That’s going to be a matter of making a good judgement much nearer the time – packing my bag for the expected weather before I set off and making last-minute adjustments once we get off the bus.
And last – yes, shopping. I need a new backpack. My straps have aged and thinned and the padding has shifted over the years and while it’s still a good bag, I think I’ll be eyeing up a new one if I’m going to be carrying it over the mountains for four days. I only need enough for the day – food, water, layers, waterproofs, basic personal first aid kit but that’s heavy enough. I’ll need to refill my blister plaster kit, which I’ve been slowly using up for the last five years. But I’ve got everything else. My boots are still good, my sleeping bag is still good, I still fit in the clothes I wore back then and they’re all still in good usable condition so shopping will be minimal. I even have the notebook I’m going to use as my mountain journal, although I’ll need to peel the 2020 sticker off the front and replace it with a 2024 one.
This time, since it’s a year away, I’m not going to subject you to a monthly prep update. I’ll do another one or two nearer the time (let you know how the packet pasta & sauce went!) and maybe I’ll do a post or two on the Lulworth walk in various conditions so we can better judge how my hill fitness is going. In the meantime, I’m off to Iceland again in a few weeks so fresh new Iceland content is on its way! And – update one minute before publishing: the Reykjanes peninsula is having a mega-rumble so I may even get another volcano! (May. There’s no guarantee of an eruption and it’s still three weeks away, which is plenty of time for it to start and stop again.)