Ferðafélag Íslands | Thórsmörk Trail Volunteers

Apr 20

Returning to Thórsmörk… our season begins

This week we headed back to Thórsmörk and Goðaland for our first visit of the season.

As well as visiting our volunteer camp at Langidalur, we were able to take a look at some of the trails and the work that was completed there last summer. Although the trails are very wet and muddy for hiking at this time of year, we found that the general conditions on recent worksites on the east side of Valahnúkur are encouraging (steps pictured below). Improvements on the Valahnúkur trail will continue this season and the work will begin when the trails have dried out. We added an Instagram reel from our visit.

We are very excited to welcome our first international volunteers and to get back to work on the trails in May.

Nov 4

Thank you to our volunteers!

We would like to say a huge thank you to all the volunteers who joined us in Thórsmörk this season. It was another amazing summer and we really do appreciate all the hard work that was done by our teams.

This year we were joined by 45 international volunteers and together we completed more than 200 weeks of trail maintenance and practical conservation tasks throughout Thórsmörk and Goðaland.

We do hope that everyone enjoyed their time with us at the volunteer camps and all those long sunny days out on the hiking trails.

Preparations for next season begin soon. Dates, details and application forms for our 2024 projects will be available here on December 15th.

Feb 23

Langidalur calling

Pictures from our Langidalur Volunteer camp.

We look forward to returning to Thórsmörk and Goðaland in April to begin our preparations for the summer work programme. Earlier in February, there was still a lot of snow at our our camp. Weather conditions in the spring can have a huge effect on the trails and we will carry out surveys when we arrive back to decide where to focus our work for this season.

These pictures were taken by our friends at the Volcano Huts in Húsadalur.

Jan 20

Our adventures on the Laugavegur Trail

Since we began our work with Trailteams in Thórsmörk ten years ago, the ‘hiking week’ has been a very important part of our 6-week placements. As well as providing a welcome break from the trail work, it allows our volunteers time to explore the area and enjoy the trails.

Last summer, good weather conditions meant that both teams were able to complete the famous 54km Laugavegur Trail. Although most hikers begin in Landmannalaugar, our teams set out from their home at the volunteer camp in Básar (close to the southern end of the trail). Hiking from the south means that they are able to enjoy Landmannalaugar’s geothermal pool at the end of their hike.

We would like to thank all the Ferðafélag Íslands Hut Wardens who we met on the trail, for their kindness and support and for helping our teams along the way.

Our volunteers shared pictures from the hike in August last year…

Applications for our 2023 summer placements will remain open until January 31st.
Full details including project outlines, dates and application forms can be found on our website.

Volunteer opportunities

Dec 8

Trailteam at Langidalur

When the Forest Service trail programme began in Thórsmörk in 2013, our first challenge was to establish a base camp for the work and a site at Langidalur was chosen. Developed in close cooperation with Ferðafélag Íslands, the aim of the camp was to provide basic facilities for the volunteer teams who were camping in the area during the summer months including shelter for cooking and a dry space for the teams to use in the evenings. Conditions were very basic at the start, but Langidalur became our home.