Jökull - 31.12.2001, Page 68

E. Lyn Lewis
Figure 1. Approaching the southern edge of Vatnajökull from Djúpdalur. - Leiðangursmenn að leggja á Síðu-
jökal með álsleðann samanbrotinn á bakinu.
supplied without charge in return for a report on their
effectiveness to be written upon our return. Other
foods, in their immediate box or wrapping, were sea-
led into plastic pouches and, together with the tins
etc., were placed into plastic sacks inside canvas sacks
so that the contents were impervious to damage by
water. Three such sacks, each weighing about 25 kg
and containing food for three men for a week, were
allowed for crossing to Skútustaðir, at the south of
Lake Mývatn. The food itself weighed about 20 kg,
a ration of 950 g per man-day. The remaining two
weeks’ food, similarly packed, but somewhat more
varied and heavier, was sent by bus to await our arrival
at Mývatn.
In 1956 good mountain tents weighed about twice
as much as those sold for the same purpose today. We
had an “Arctic Guinea” made in a very new material,
nylon/cotton, by Blacks of Greenock who also supp-
lied our sleeping bags. At that time only major exped-
itions used motor transport over the ice, often “Wea-
sels” left over from World War II. Motor toboggans
did not yet exist and in any case would have been
useless when we left the ice. Man-hauling was the
only practical method for surface travel on ice caps
by small, impecunious groups. Davies was training as
an Aeronautical Engineer and we designed and built
a collapsible sledge out of T and L section alumin-
um alloy. It was a compromise, suited, we thought,
for use on both the hard ice and soft snow expected.
Figure 1 shows this sledge being back-packed up tow-
ards the start of our crossing. Also shown is a hazard
in approaching the ice cap - what we called “rock
flour soup”. Rock, ground fine by the ice and su-
spended in water, formed lakes of “soup" which app-
eared to be firm but really was a form of quick sand.
Carrying a heavy pack one trod with caution. This
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