Móskarðshnúkar Hike
[Photos taken 12 June 2025, posted online 14 May 2026. The weather so far is staying “typical” for May, bright window-weather days (beautiful but very chilly), interspersed with rainy/cloudy milder days.]
My hiking group gathered after work to hike up Móskarðshnúkar (“brownish-grey-pass-peaks”), the Eastern-most part of Mount Esja easily visible from the capital area, one of the very few hikes on my “bucket list”. It’s a 2-3 (?) surprisingly lightly colored triangular peaks on top of a regularly colored base, often shrouded in clouds. Everytime I see them I now say to myself “I’ve been up there!”.
This hike was speed-controlled by the guide who is a physical therapist, and she kept the pace very slow and steady, which was great since it’s just up, up, and up. She also gave me the best technical hiking pointer I’ve ever gotten: it’s actually your back leg that should be doing all the work lifting you upwards. Take short steps, and use your rear-leg butt, back of leg, toes to lift yourself, so the front of the forward-foot thigh doesn’t have to do much except hold steady. This saves the front of the thighs for the descent.
Lo and behold, this was the first time ever that I wasn’t the last one off the mountain, since I still had some juice left in the front of the thighs! Totally blew my mind!
Thursday 12 June 2025
