Básar | Thórsmörk Trail Volunteers

Apr 9

Back to the valley…

After a long winter away, we are very excited to be getting back to Thórsmörk.

Our teams are now ready and preparations in Iceland begin next week with gathering equipment, tools and work materials for the summer. The Langidalur base camp will open on May 1st as planned, and the first team of international volunteers will join us on May 8th.

We plan to use the first project weeks to improve signs and trail markers ahead of the main tourist season. From June, as well as returning to many familiar work sites, we intend to increase our long-range projects so that we can work on new remote sites throughout the area. That means that we will be forming more teams and organising additional wilderness camps this summer.

On Monday we will begin pre-departure Skype meeting for all volunteers joining us in May and June. The aim of these meetings is to go over travel plans, check equipment and answer any final questions.

We look forward to meeting our new team soon!

Feb 29

Student “conservation days” in Thórsmörk this summer…

International school hiking groups are a familiar site in Thórsmörk during the summer months, as they complete the Laugavegurinn hiking trail. This season, groups from the organisation World Challenge will be stopping-off to join our volunteer teams in Langidalur for a series of nature conservation days.

These groups are a welcome boost to our planned summer activities. The aim of these days is to include visiting school groups in environmental protection work in the area and to introduce them to practical conservation tasks. Projects will be guided by Forest Service (Skógrækt ríkisins) staff and volunteer team leaders who will work alongside the groups.

As well as hands-on work, the groups will learn about nature conservation in Iceland, explore the area and experience life at our volunteer base camp. This season, the teams will focus on erosion control work as well as the on going trail maintenance tasks. The activities will give participants an insight into the management of nature conservation areas in Iceland.

We are very excited about this new partnership and very much look forward to working with the World Challenge teams this summer.

Feb 18

Summer team ready

Finally, we have completed our search for volunteers for the summer and this week we are finishing the interviews and placement allocations.

We have been overwhelmed by the amount of interest and the number of applications that we have received. However places are limited and it has been a real challenge to make the selection. It is very nice to have so many volunteers return to Thórsmörk to join us for a second season.

As we are now allocating the last places and waiting lists have been crated for the teams, unfortunately we cannot consider further applications for this summer.

Each season, our search for volunteers begins in mid-December and runs for six weeks. The deadline for applicants is at the end of January.