REPORT: Unsupported Iceland Traverse FKT

Christof Teuscher
The Iceland traverse was part of a “double.” Two weeks later, I competed in the 450km/280mi Tor des Glaciers race. More info about the double at REPORT: The Ice and Glacier Double – Iceland Traverse FKT and Tor des Glaciers

Summary

On Aug 27, 2023, I was able to wrap up a new unsupported Fastest Known Time (FKT) on the north-south traverse of Iceland in 8 days, 11 hours, and 4 minutes. That’s 4 days, 15 hours, 41 minutes faster than Eli Burakian’s 2022 unsupported FKT and 21 hours, 14 minutes slower than Meredith Quinlan and Jess Baker’s 2018 self-supported FKT. I had good and bad times.

Just another day on the traverse, making my way through thick fog, wind, and cold.

The movie

Yes…patience please. I will post it here and on the YouTube channel. For now, I hope you’ll enjoy the photos below. Also, check out the KGW segment below.

KGW: Portland man traverses Iceland on foot in 8 days

Article + video segment (aired first on Oct 20, 2023): https://www.kgw.com/amp/article/news/local/portland-man-traverses-iceland-hike/283-3ec13111-831f-4ed5-920f-fbddf80a9bbe

The route

The north-south Iceland traverse FKT route was introduced and first completed self-supported in 2018 by Meredith Quinlan and Jess Baker. The route starts at the Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse, the northernmost lighthouse, and ends at the Dyrhólaey lighthouse, the southernmost lighthouse. The Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse is located only about 800 meters south of the Arctic Circle. The route includes the famous Laugavegur trail between Landmannalaugar and Þórsmörk. National Geographic listed the trail as one of the most beautiful trails in the world.

I followed the standard Quinlan & Baker route for the most part, with small deviations due to conditions, closures, or new trails.

The north-south Iceland traverse route is approximately 350mi / 563km long.

Some sort of half-baked report

I find it rather impossible to put this experience into words. I think the movie will do a better job at showing the amazing landscapes. So the following will mostly be a photo report.

My spreadsheets predicted that I might be able to get this route done in 10 days. So I packed food for 10 days and I figured I could stretch it for another day or so in the worst case. I was glad I didn’t have to.

I wanted to start around sunrise from the Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse. You can’t drive to the lighthouse itself. It took me 30min to hike there from the road. I started the watch at 5:30am on Aug 19, 2023. The sun was just about to rise. I then walked a little further north of the lighthouse to reach the beach. I felt very nervous and uncertain about this adventure, but at this point, I could not quit anymore. My ride had already left.

I did what usually works best in such situations: you start to move and try to get into the zone. The weather was fine (for now), although it was rather chilly and windy. At the very last minute, I exchanged my ultralight Gore-Tex jacket for a more solid version. I did not regret that decision. In fact, it was almost a lifesaving decision.

Needless to say that my pack felt terribly heavy. There was no way I could run with that sort of pack. Perhaps toward the end of the journey, when there would be very little food left.

The first few days were really hard on my shoulders and feet because of the pack weight and the road sections. Yet, I was generally able to crank out a few miles beyond my daily goals. That felt good and was motivating.

In true unsupported style, I carried all of my food and supplies from the beginning to the end and only filled up on water along the way. Whenever regulations required it, e.g., in National Parks or Nature Reserves, I slept in designated campsites.

On day 4 my pants started to fall down. Clearly, I was not consuming enough calories. But alas, I could not buy anything in addition and just had to live with what I had packed. Unsupported adventures are really unforgiving in many ways.

Like Eli, I had days of torrential downpours and days of relentless sun and heat. I was glad I packed both a more robust Gore-Tex jacket and shorts at the very last minute. Conditions can change very quickly and dramatically. I stopped counting how many times I took my pack off to add or remove layers. The saying that “If you don’t like the weather in Iceland, wait five minutes” does seem to have some truth.

As the days went on, I was able to get more and more ahead of my “realistic” pace plan. That has rarely happened.

Weather and conditions kept changing rather dramatically. One some days I really struggled with the heat, which seems rather absurd for late August in Iceland. On other days I was unable to stay dry and struggled with hypothermia. Whenever I could, I dried my gear and made sure everything was ready for another wet spell.

I feel I struggled the most with the paved road sections. Not so much because of the pavement, but more because of the drivers. Very few drivers seemed polite and left space. Many cars simply didn’t move over at all, so I had to constantly step off the mostly non-existing shoulder. Once I almost got hit by a reckless driver who passed a car and didn’t seem to have seen me.

The worst road section was most definitely the last 17 miles (12 miles on the ring road) to the southernmost lighthouse. I assume the traffic was worse because it was Sunday afternoon.

By then I was more than a day ahead of my planned schedule. I was incredibly relieved to be done slightly earlier as the weather was also supposed to turn sour again. The last two days were definitely the most challenging, mostly because of the rain, wind, fog, and terrain.

Anyway, I’m not really sure what else to add except that it was another one of these adventures that required a wide variety of physical, mental, and other skills. Thankfully, things somehow aligned. According to a ranger, I lucked out with weather. I guess it can always be worse.

Enjoy the photos below!

Oh, and yes, there is definitely room to do this faster.

The beach just north of the northernmost lighthouse. You could technically see the arctic circle if it were marked. Notice the big pack.

Leaving the Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse behind.

Cruising through tundra after clearing an initial gravel road section.

And then the paved road began…and seemed to never end.

No comment.

The first river ford had appropriate signage.

Making my way toward the famous Dettifoss.

More road. Always more road. And no shoulder. And pretty rude drivers overall.

Then it started to rain. And I also ran out of water.

Zpacks rain kilt in action. I used it a lot.

Heading into the deserty and dry section. I had to carry water for about 40 miles.

Oh yes, there were the black flies!

And there was sand too. A sandload.

Dark sand.

Endless open landscapes and interesting survivalist plants.

Fog and desperation.

Really cool mountains.

More rain, fog, and sand.

A decent campsite.

Oh yeah, more black flies.

A river I considered fording on a shortcut, but thankfully didn’t actually try.

Good times?!

It tends to be harder to move after sunset.

More endlessness.

More black sand.

More soft ground before sunrise.

Another sunrise, another day.

What will I see today?

It suddenly got hot and I had to put on shorts, which, thankfully, I had packed.

Drying feet after one of many river fords. I kept rotating through a collection of socks that I dried on the pack when it was sunny.

Þórisvatn is the largest lake of Iceland. I walked along its entire length.

Þórisvatn, still.

When one glacier disappeared, another one appeared.

F roads. That really is what they are called.

It’s softer than what it looks like.

There were many highs and lows.

Another day ends. Another windy campsite.

Another day begins. Usually with fording some river.

More of the same. Just keep going.

Freezing morning fog.

I had to put on more layers. I used every piece of clothing at some point during the traverse.

A typical lunch gear drying session while I ate a delicious Ziploc meal.

Water wasn’t always plentiful, but sometimes it was.

Every day I celebrated Cinco de Mayo.

Good night, stinky shoes.

The world-famous Laugavegur trail.

The landscapes were indeed spectacular. Geothermal activities everywhere.

It smelled pretty bad. But so did I.

More of the same.

John Day’s Painted Hills on steroids.

Then lots of green again. Plus never-ending rain that returned.

Torrential rain for the rest of the day…and night.

The only way to stay warm was to move fast.

I got soaked to the bones.

At least the scenery was great.

It was cold and windy and wet. The weather on the Laugavegur trail is infamously unreliable and precarious.

Several glaciers needed to be crossed later on.

Interesting dirt/ice piles.

The Baldvínskáli hut.

One of many waterfalls on the Skógá river. The Skógafoss is the most famous one, where every tourist stops.

Skógafoss…60m high. And it’s always a circus there.

Now the 17mi road walk began and never seemed to end. So many drivers who do not make any room…

Five more road miles to the finish…ughs.

An even narrower road.

The last climb! Really?

And suddenly I was there.

Dyrhólaey…the arch with the hole.

Gear and man wear and tear

Stinky feet. No major issues.

Leftover food at the finish. Not too many reserves.

Hoka Challenger 7: Not made to last.

Hoka Challenger 7: Not made to last. Parts of the sole started to fall off on day 7.

Hoka Challenger 7: The first time I “chafed” through the insole. I blame the sand.

Some stats and data

Start at the Hraunhafnartangi lighthouse on Aug 19, 2023, 5:30am.

Finish at the Dyrhólaey lighthouse on Aug 27, 2023, 16:34pm.