Kerstin's Crafts: A full wet hike on half of a mountain

The local mountain of Reykjavik is called Esja. It is a long mountain range stretching from the East to the West with its highest point being 914 m above sea level. (Actually, its highest point is also called Esja.) Due to its closeness to Reykjavik it is the most hiked mountain of Iceland with around 80 trails leading up. And there is even a yearly competition called Mt. Esja Ultra where people run up and down the mountain and the one who can do it most of the times wins (Iceland actually holds a couple of crazy extreme terrain long distance runs ...).

Mt. Esja seen from Hafnarfjörður (I took the picture in April).

So when Gauti and I were invited to a family reunion in Reykjavik on sunday we decided to use the journey to hike up Esja. We packed ourselves into a layer of warm clothes under a layer of good rain clothes and started the journey. The wind was blowing strong that day along the South West coastline and strong wind in Iceland means wind gusts gaining power by rushing down the mountain slopes. When you are walking or driving between such a mountain slope and the coast you really feel how the wind suddenly hits you from the side trying to push you off the road and the best is to hold the steering wheel with both hands then. In addition, it started raining and grey clouds were disguising the mountain slopes. But we decided to be tough hikers and challenge Esja anyway. The main path up the mountain is well-marked and starts leading through some little forests and lupin fields, quite beautiful (though the lupins are faded by now).

The first part of the path leads trough little forests.

Quite a lot of people were on the path and some of them were runners (training for Esja Ultra?!). And then there was a young tourist couple walking up, both in chucks, tight jeans and thin jackets wearing trash bags over them against the rain, the girl with a huge fabric backpack without any suspender belt. Really, I do understand why the rescue teams are so often busy picking up tourists which are half frozen to death from some mountains!
But unfortunately, we didn't make it ourselves to the top. It was windy and it started raining, raining a lot. After only half an hour the rain had make its way through the good layer of rain clothes and we were wet, the wind pressing the wet cold clothes against our skin. The view on Reykjavik was ... non existing. The whole landscape beneath us was veiled by thick grey clouds and with no "great view award" ahead of us we decided to turn around and go back.
So we did not challenge the mountain but instead the weather challenged us. (And never never challenge back the weather in Iceland!) Here are some pictures anyway. To be continued on a clear day, I hope.