11

I am investigating the feasibility of a hike looping around Hofsjökull. This will take me through several “deserts” such as Hofsafrétt and Sprengisandur. On photos, this looks pretty dry, but Iceland is not the Sahara.

Sprengisandur
Source: Johann Dréo, CC-BY-SA, Wikimedia Commons

A topographic map appears to show plenty of streams in this area, but so do maps in deserts in the USA, even if those streams rarely have water (usually shown dashed but sometimes also when drawn as continuous lines). Should I expect that streams to be seasonal and dried out in September, or can I rest assured that in the chilly climate of Iceland with little evaporation, streams do not actually dry out?

Charlie Brumbaugh
  • 69,253
  • 35
  • 217
  • 423
gerrit
  • 27,162
  • 12
  • 91
  • 203
  • Whether the streams are dry or not will depend in part on how much rain falls in the area of their sources, and what the yearly variation is. See https://weather-and-climate.com/average-monthly-Rainfall-Temperature-Sunshine-in-Iceland – ab2 Jun 29 '17 at 03:39
  • @ab2 Right. I was looking at http://www.vedur.is for climate information, but all their weather stations appear to be in inhabited areas along the coast, which has a substantially different climate from the inland. The presence of a glacier should imply it cannot be too dry. Although Antarctica and Greenland are also very dry. Perhaps I should take a drill to take ice samples if all else fails ;-) – gerrit Jun 29 '17 at 10:15
  • @ab2 It also depends on the soil. Also at your link, there are no weather stations in any of the Icelandic areas described as "deserts". – gerrit Jun 29 '17 at 11:41
  • 1
    Even if these areas have no available water at all, how much of a problem is it? If you're OK with the worst case, then it doesn't really matter. Or, can you skirt the edges of these areas? Your picture, for example, shows snow off in the distance. What's the farthest distance from anywhere in Iceland to a reliable water (or snow or ice) source? What's the farthest distance if you plan your route carefully? Can you carry enough water to deal with that, then any intermittent stream you find are just a bonus? Maybe there is no problem here. – Olin Lathrop Jun 29 '17 at 11:44
  • @OlinLathrop Those are valid questions. There may still be snow on the glacier in September, I will likely not die of thirst. I'd say that intermittent streams would give me more freedom in my route choices. – gerrit Jun 29 '17 at 11:48
  • @Gerrit: Glaciers, by definition, have snow or ice all year. So yes, "the" glacier will have snow or ice in it in September, or any other month. – Olin Lathrop Jun 30 '17 at 11:03
  • @OlinLathrop Ice, yes. Snow, not necessarily. I'm not sure if I would need special tools to harvest ice directly. See this question. – gerrit Jun 30 '17 at 11:04

1 Answers1

5

This is from the well known trekker Andrew Skurka, who did an East/West traverse that would cross similar terrain to your proposed route.

Question:

I have asked around and everywhere I hear that water is sufficiently available in all areas, but I keep wondering about this ‘desert’ area that you also talk about. The area around Askja seems so dry and empty to me and running out of water there seems to be one of the worst things to do. So how was your experience on this?

Andrew's reply:

There’s plenty of water. You might have to carry some, but never much. Plus, you don’t burn through much water in those cool, windy conditions, hiking on flat terrain.

enter image description here

See source...

Tullochgorum
  • 11,741
  • 1
  • 47
  • 58