Traversing Iceland – A Father-Daughter Adventure

[Kattt]

Wow Manfred. What an adventure you two had. Beautiful photos and a great story.

Please say hi to Hannah for me.

[natasha korotkova]

I came here from the Duplex thread — great trip report, thanks, and very very inspiring! I live in Germany at the moment and might as well take advantage of it and fly to Iceland eventually. On a special note, I wish I had the experience your daughter had as a kid. This is amazing at many levels.

[Manfred]

Thank you Natasha! My daughter, who is now 16, continues to be interested in backpacking treks with her father and we just backpacked together across Corsica on the GR-20. That was another amazing father-daughter adventure.

[Gregory Stein]

Manfred, we (family 2 adults, three kids 13,10,5) are going to Iceland this summer. We are backpacking same route as yours and hornstrandir. I have a duplex tent, but 0.54 oz material. I think to get triplex for the rest of the family (0.72oz material). Based on your experience, will these tents withstand the winds of Iceland? What was your duplex made of?

 

Thank you very much.

 

Greg.

[Manfred]

Greg,

wow, that is impressive – taking three children between 5 and 13 across Iceland. My daughter started 200+ miles backpacking trips with me when she was 9. We used the 0.54 oz Duplex across Iceland and it served us well. We used extra guylines that can be seen in the the trip report photos. That was essential for making the tent work in the high winds we encountered. I can’t say anything about the Triplex as I have never used it. My go-to backpacking tent for more than two people and high wind is the HMG Ultamid 4 that I have used last summer in Alaska. It’s the same weight as the Triplex (without groundsheet or any netting) and a little more expensive than the Triplex, but you don’t need to think as hard about the wind direction when setting it up. .

Enjoy Iceland! It’s truly spectacular.

Manfred

[Gregory Stein]

Manfred I appreciate very much your quick answer as I’m really THAT close to pull the trigger on Triplex. I did consider Ultamid 4 and since it lacks a ground tube (or any floor) I quickly ignored it. Adding a double inner netting will result in double price in comparison to the triplex. Also having two separated spaces is a drawback in my opinion. However, I will reconsider it, maybe it is still well worth the try. I would be glad to get any insight on this issue.

I have meticulously examined every photo of duplex pitched you have put in this thread. Of course I mentioned the extra guylines. What is the recommended length for guylines in general? Also how hard it was to use stakes in the ground of Iceland? What type of stakes have you used?

I misled you when I wrote that we are going the same route. We will start at Landmannahellir all the way down to Skogar

 

Thank you so much Manfred! We hiked with the kids for several days in the alps, but this kind of trip we never did. I’m planning it with a bit of hesitation as I’m a bit concerned about the little girl and the brutal winds of Iceland.

[Manfred]

Hi Greg,

it sound like you are going from Landmannahellir to Landmannalaugur to backpack from there the Laugavegur trail and the Fimmvörðuháls trail all the way to Skógar. That has the advantage of having huts along the way where you can get temporarily out of the weather if needed and warm up.

Given on our experience during the time we went the Ultamid 4 with two ground sheets would work for me, as we experienced insect pressure only around Mywatn where the midges were out in numbers. We used a mix of 6.5 inch titanium shepherd stakes and MSR groundhogs. Most of the times we would place rocks on top of the stakes to make sure they don’t get pulled out. The stakes worked fine for us in all the different kinds of ground we encountered.

I don’t know the length of our extra guyline.  I just bought 50 feet of guyline, set the tent up and cut the lengths of each piece in order to get the angle I wanted.

Hope this helps,

Manfred

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