Er búin að vera í tölvupóstsamskiptum við bandaríkjamann að nafni Spencer Gray, hann og væntanlega einhver félagi(ar) hans eru að klifra núna í nágrenni skaftafells. Hann sendi mér þessa lýsingu á aðstæðum núna í dag.
Hi Otto,
Thanks again for this super helpful article. We had a successful ascent yesterday of a variation of the Scott and I believe Porcelain (China) routes.
I’ll send a fuller description with photos if it’s helpful soon.
Just a quick note to share with others at ISALP if you see fit about conditions. Looks like some weather coming in now for a few days, but in the last 4 days on and under the south face of Hrutsfjallstindar we saw this:
Very stable snow. 10-25 cm of snow added Tues afternoon/night (little wind) over the course of 12 hours, didn’t destabilize slopes. 2 French skiers were camped very near us under the south face skiing multiple couloirs in the area. The Svinasfell glacier was passable (carefully) with sleds. Crevasses obvious or still filled with solid snow. Except on the edges under the mountain itself where bridges are getting weaker. On the upper glacier between Eystra and Sudtindar, crevasses, except the very big ones, filled in still.
3 tiers of ice on the mountain: not very high quality anywhere on that south aspect. (Looked better on other aspects by beaten by the sun). Lowest tier the best (at roughly 1050m?). Some excellent screw placements. By the top, mostly degrading styrofoam with no ice protection except in shaded alcoves but still supporting feet and tools.
Of the established routes on the first ice flow, Scott’s was pretty fat and climbable, Porcelain/China had a baked but probably climbable first pillar, and on the route (Istrogli?) in between the first pillar looked good but next 2 immediately above had barely touching daggers that looked baked.
Thanks again for your help! Wonderful mountain.
Spencer
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I should add that the first Scott ice flow looked climbable but we didn’t climb it. We did a different one on the far left side of that basin with a quite fun opening set of overhung moves. And bivied below the second set of flows. I’ll need to check the description of Porcelain/China again, but we had a funky couple windy traverses on middle of the final cockscomb after deciding the Scott finish looked unprotectable and possibly not solid enough for body weight. (Given the way the ice forms up there in feathered rime patterns, I don’t know if it comes into more protectable condition.) I’m not sure if how we finished is the same as Porcelain/China, as the upper mountain seemed a bit bare of flows that may normally be in.