Jökull - 01.12.1953, Page 10

Fig. 2. Grímsvötn. View to the south from the lake at Vatnshamar 1 July 1953.
Útsýn til suðurs yfir Grímsvötn frá vatninu unclir Vatnshamri 1. júli 1953.
Photograph by Á. Kjartansson.
in turns by us walking behind it. In that way
we covered ab. 4 km per hour. Course N 54° E.
Having covered 18.5 km we settled down in
Camp II in ab. 1420 m height at 00:15 hrs.
Temp. then 0.5°C Wind SSE 3. Drizzling rain.
Tuesday 30 June. — We stayed in our tents
to 11:30 hrs. Temp. then 2° C. Wind SE 1—2.
Fog. Dry weather. At 12 hrs. the fog lifted so
that we could see both Kerling and Hamar and
determine our position, but soon everything
was again veiled in fog. Having dug a pit (Pit
II) we started at 16:10 hrs. and kept a course
N 70° E. As the snow was, if possible, still
more difficult than the day before, we made a
very slow progress. At 19:40 hrs. we had travel-
led 12 km and were in ab. 1600 m height.
Having continued 0.5 km, we found that we
had descended ab. 7 m, which could only mean
that the terrain was now sloping towards the
Grímsvötn depression. As we knew the slopes
to be crevassed farther down, we decided not
to continue in the dense fog, and pitched our
tents at 20:00 hrs. in ab. 1580 m height. Temp.
then 2°C. Wind SE 1. A pit 510 cm deep was
dug that evening. Temp. at 23:00 hrs. 1.5°C.
Calm. Fog.
Wednesday 1 July. — Temp. at 09:00 hrs. 3°C
Wind SE 1. Visibility 50—100 m. Drizzling rain.
At 11:30 hrs. the weather began to clear so that
we could see the two Svíahnúkar summits and
check our position. At midday we started off
towards Grímsvötn. We moved carefully down-
wards in a zigzag route between crevasses and
high dirt cones and reached the depression
plain (Fig.2) 2 hours later. The sky was then
clear just above the depression, but the upper
part of Grímsfjall was veiled in clouds and so
were the surrounding glacier cupolas. The
temp. down on the plain was ab. 5°C and it
was perfectly calm down there. Such a weather
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