Cold Valley Offroad
Finally my first off roading tour for the new year!
Kaldidalur (Cold Valley) is a popular shortcut to get to Langjokull icecap. It is a little travelled high land road in the summer and even less during the winter when it has a big IMPASSABLE sign.
Ólafur Rögnvaldsson wanted to try his new 44 inch Super Swamper on his Nissan Patrol and since the last days got plenty of fresh snow this looks like a great idea!
Ólafur runs the popular weather forecast website belgingur.is so we take his advice and start out long before daylight since there is bad weather coming in from the north in the afternoon.
With the deep and powdery snow
Ólafur in the Patrol with his family.
Anton and his wife on their Land Cruiser running on 39.5 inch Super Swampers.
Kjartan Bergsson joins me as a co-driver. He is more of a Land Rover man but I think he enjoys what the Sport Trac has to offer.
Our team is the first one to pass the cold valley this morning so just getting through takes a while. Soon we are on our way up the slope on Langjokull icecap.
Kjartan driving my Sport Trac.
The snow is really difficult to day. A thin crusty shell is on the top with 50-60 cm of very loose and powdery snow underneath.
Even though I take my 38 inch Mudders down to 1-2 psi we are unable to get up to any decent travel speed.
As we get higher the "speed" is getting slower and slower. Although we don't get completely stuck we have to back out a few meters and try for the same track only to gain 60 cm (2 feet) or so for each attempt!
To say we are at walking speed is a gross overstatement.
At around 1100 meters high our speed is practically zero and even though other groups get to the same height they have no better results.
As we see the weather coming in from the north as forecasted we decide to head back the same way.
Today the big icecap wins!
Back on the road again. Even though there is still plenty of snow, Anton uses the opportunity to get some air back into the tires.
After the days work the underside of the Explorer is packed with snow. Here my tires are up to about 5 psi and you can still see how much they bulge out.
4x4 Off Roads!
Driving towards the sun on the way back. The afternoon sun is low and trying to break through the mist as we enjoy the scenery and look optimistic towards the future.
This has been a good day.
Thrandur
4x4OffRoads.com
