Skógrækt ríkisins | Thórsmörk Trail Volunteers

Sep 4

Thank you all!

As Autumn arrives in Thórsmörk, the time has come to pack our equipment and head home. We would like to thank all the volunteers who joined us this season, for their hard work and support and for doing such a great job out on the trails through rain and shine. It has been a truly special summer.

As we close the Langidalur base camp for another season we are reminded of all those great days on the trails and the nights around the campfire. We hope you all enjoyed your visit and returned home with some good memories of your time with us in the mountains.

Thank you for everything.

Have a good winter and hope to see you next year!

Jul 24

Our Long-term volunteers head home

The first half of our summer ended when our team of long-term volunteers and second group of 2-week volunteers recently completed their projects.

The team gathered for a last evening together at the Langidalur base camp before heading home. We would like to thank everyone who joined us, for their hard work and for coping with all that rain! We hope you are all now adjusting to life back home with dry feet, hot showers and real beds… We miss you all!

Jul 6

Our Long-term volunteers and Laugavegurinn

Just five weeks ago our first long-term volunteer team of the season began their adventures with us in Thórsmörk. Since joining us, they have completed over 60 weeks of repair work on the trails and have definitely left their mark on the place.

In addition to all that work, the team “enjoyed” quite a challenging hike from Landmannalaugar due to the stormy weather. We would like to thank our colleagues and friends at the Ferðafélag Íslands huts along the trail, for looking after our volunteers so well during those stormy days… for the shelter and for their support. It was really good to meet everyone safely back at the Langidalur base camp.

Now we are looking forward to the return of the sunshine as in the group’s final week we are heading north to new project sites close to Emstrur.

May 29

Training volunteer leaders in Thórsmörk

This week we have been training our volunteer team leaders and preparing them for the season ahead.

Five leaders from our operations team joined us for a week of induction and training which included helping to set up the Langidalur base camp and organise food and equipment for the teams arriving in June. The group tent is now up, the hut is ready and the new drying room is nearing completion. The Langidalur base camp is now ready for business!

The leaders course was organised and presented by Tony Newby and hosted by Ferðafélag Íslands at Langidalur. Tony helped to establish our training programme last season and has a long history of training volunteer team leaders in both the UK and Iceland. The course has been developed specifically for our programme and it addresses the challenges faced by our team leaders and volunteers, living, working and hiking in the area through the summer months.

Now we are ready…

May 21

The first volunteers of 2014…

Our first volunteers arrived in Thórsmörk last week to help with preparations at the Langidalur base camp. The team included EVS (European Voluntary Service) volunteers from the Hafnafjöður Scouts who joined for the first time this season. As well as general repairs at the camp, work included setting up a new composting system, planting a few birch trees and painting our hut – inside and out (they were also very good at lighting the campfire!).

The team had a chance to explore the area and help begin this season’s GIS data collection as we continue our work extending the pathfinder mapping project throughout the area. After ten days alone at the Langidalur camp it was good to have some company – Thank you to everyone who came to help!

Now we can start the summer…