Author Archive: syspbad

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Sveinn Steinar Benediktson

Sveinn

Sveinn Steinar Benediktson, “Svenni”, (33) is an electronic engineer studying at the University of Art in Reykjavik, a musician and artist. When he is not driving jeeps and trucks he is guiding challenging treks in the interior of the country. He makes his own cameras, with plastic boxes or cartoons, that is all he needs. We remember one trek he did a couple of years ago with French proffesional photographers. Sveinn, who is fluent in English but doesn´t speak so much French, was their driver-guide. When the overcharged photographers saw Svenni take out a plastic strange looking camera, they thought that the boy was making fun of them or that he was just a simple guy. They certainly proved wrong when they saw his photos.

Gabriel Patay Filippusson

Gabbi Winter Tent

Gabriel Patay Filippusson,“Gabbi” (47) mountain guide. As son of Philippe and Sigridur, and brother of Matta he has the highlands in his blood. An experienced leader of many Icelandic expeditions, but also trips to Greenland, Alaska and the Sahara. Fluently speaking English and French, passionate supporter of Icelandic nature, talented photographer and has a special love for mechanics . Off-season, he is a carpenter and travels Iceland and the world with little regard for personal safety. This year, he is re-furbishing a sailboat to enable more extreme travels. He became a little bit more sedentary since his son and daughter were born but he is yet planning to take them on the road of freedom. Need we say more?

Aurélien Bihr

Img 3739

Aurélien Bihr, “Aurel” (or Orwellian, as our American clients call him), 44 years old, father of Adrien, 18 years old, who is his replica, lived several years in Iceland after having lived in Scandinavia. Self-taught, talented polyglot, this frank boy is above all a runner… of the woods, at heart. Tinkerer, walker, inexhaustible reader, even-tempered. Not a meat-eater, he prepares and eats the fish he catches and the game he hunts himself. He once sewed elegant and comfortable sealskin clothes for his son. He knows how to handle the needle with dexterity on a torn tent under the snow falling in large flakes. After walking all summer through the Icelandic highlands, when the season ends, if he doesn’t lend Gabriel a hand to restore an old sailboat or a Russian truck, he goes off who knows where to seize the strangest opportunities for work or relaxation on the other side of the world. New Zealand, a shipyard in Norway and recently he was on the island of Malta building film sets.  Aurélien is Fjallabak’s adopted son

Sigridur Lovisa Arnarsdottir

Sigga

Sigridur Lovisa Arnarsdottir,“Sigga Lolla”, (age: restrictive access) was born and raised in the village of Siglufjöður, north Iceland, a small, isolated herring port at the top of the world. However, she now loves Paris almost as much. She has been leaving in the mountains of Provence, where her fist child is born. She has been traveling to Africa, Scotland and South America. As the office administrator and wife of Philippe, she would agree that she probably has the hardest work in the organization. Her dreams alternate between India and California… sigga@fjallabak.is

Gabriel Patay Filippusson

Gabby

Gabriel Patay Filippusson,“Gabbi”, 36, mountain guide. As son of Philippe and Sigridur, he has the highlands in his blood. An experienced leader of many Icelandic expeditions, but also trips to Greenland, Alaska and the Sahara. Fluently speaking English and French, passionate supporter of Icelandic nature, talented photographer and has a special love for mechanics . Off-season, he is a carpenter and travels Iceland and the world with little regard for personal safety. This year, he is re-furbishing a sailboat to enable more extreme travels. He became a little bit more sedentary since his wonderful son was born two years ago but he is yet planning to take him soon on the road of freedom.  Need we say more?

Eruption at night

“I realized acutely how small and unsignificant we are, compared to the awesome power of natural forces,” says Valdimar Leifsson, an Icelandic filmmaker who captured those mesmerizing scenes at the Holuhraun eruption on Tuesday night. “Everything changes when night falls,” he says. It surely does.

“The heat emanating from the lava is much more visible during the night,” says Leifsson, who also captured the lava eruption at Fimmvorduhals, which preceded the Eyjafjallajokull eruption in 2010. “This eruption is more magnificent, the fissure is much longer, as well as the volume of the lava. “Standing close to the margin of the lava field, one realizes the unbridled force of the eruption.”

The Holuhraun eruption is, in effect, in the middle of nowhere, deep in the highlands of Iceland´s interior. Leifsson says it is a rather unique experience, not only to be present, but also to get there. “It takes three to four hours to get to Holuhraun eruption from the nearest farmvillage, Modrudalur. One sees almost nothing but black sand, and at times, you have to rely on small roadmarkers. It´s like being alone on the moon,” says Leifsson.

Þröstur Sverrisson

Þröstur Sverrisson (Thröstur) has been going to the mountains since his childhood. He has traveled in most part of Iceland and Fjallabak is one of his favorite places. He is an English speaking professional hiking and driver guide. He earned his masters degree in environmental history in Maine USA and has been working in the museum field for the last ten years, most of the time in the former home of Halldor Laxness Nobel laureate for literature. So don’t get surprised if he starts quoting Laxness on the next mountain top.