When April arrives, we are very excited to return to Thórsmörk and Goðaland and begin preparations for our summer volunteers.
One of our first tasks each year is to survey the hiking trails, assess their general conditions and look for areas that have been damaged during the autumn and winter. These surveys are used to create a plan for work projects for the Trailteams. Each year priority is given to maintaining the most popular and well-used hiking routes with our remaining recourses then focused on improving conditions on other parts of the trail network including new sites that are chosen each season.
In recent years, some of our trail-building friends from other organisations including Landgræslan have joined us out on the trails in May to take a look at our past work projects and share notes on trail-design and best practices. This cooperation is very important as it links the ongoing work in Thórsmörk and Goðaland, with other trail projects around the country.
Hiking the trails for these initial inspections in April is one of the highlights of our season as it is an opportunity to revisit old worksites, see how they look after the winter and review the techniques that were used. This has helped us to learn about appropriate trail design methods for the area and steadily build up our skills over the last 10 years.
Pictures taken during a survey of the Fimmvörðuháls trail in May 2022.
Rye grass used to stabilise the trail edges.
Reducing the trail width with ropes and planting.
Stone water-bar
Information about our 2023 programme including placement dates and application forms will be available here on December 15th. Placement applications will be open from December 15th – January 31st.
Volunteer opportunities
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Thórsmörk Trail Volunteers 