Atop Klakkur - a photo on Flickriver

Atop Klakkur

            I have written about the experience of driving around the Faroe Islands in a previous post, but I really need to write about the experience of hiking in the Faroe Islands.  However, I feel I have way more to say than is short enough for a single post here.  So I am going to break it up a bit over a few images.

If pressed I am not sure which is the better method to see the Faroe Islands: driving or hiking.  There are very compelling points for both.  Certainly hiking around the Faroes seems like the obvious answer and honestly it is an amazing way to see the land.  If driving the Faroe Islands comes with a surprising sense of solitude, hiking then can often leave you completely isolated and to your own thoughts while traversing one incredible landscape after another.

Hiking here is an adventure.  There are a few things to be aware of.  The first is that no two trails in the Faroes are the same.  The conditions you find at one will likely be quite different from the next.  By this I am thinking specifically of the logistics of finding and following the trail itself.  During my stay in the Faroe Islands I hiked trails that were composed in parts of gravel spread down clearly and easily.  Then there were trails of wide packed dirt.  These were also easy to follow.  I hiked single track dirt trails too that meandered here and there.  There were also several trails that were barely discernible boot tracks.  And finally there were hikes with no trails at all.  This latter category generally had markers of some type or another.  One trail had posts with green tips.  Another had stones.  A third had cairns.  In these cases you always had to be on the lookout for the next marker and mentally map out how you were going to get to it.  These trails were often climbing or descending hills.  Sometimes there were small marshes of soggy ground to squelch through.  Almost all the time slippery muddiness was involved.  I came back caked in mud up to my knees almost every day and slipped on more than one occasion.  One hike I got lost in a field in thick fog on this very mountain (but not this particular hiking of it).  I wandered around for ten minutes up a slope before retracing my steps and eventually picking the trail markers back up.  The logistics of navigating the trails in the Faroes can range wildly from very simple and straightforward to complicate and requiring careful attention.  In addition to that many of the trails involve lots of elevation and I soon discovered that the Faroese system of rating trail difficulty took for granted a certain amount of effort that I did not.  There "moderate" trails were often what I would have called difficult and their "difficult" were extremely strenuous.  There was a class above that even but I did not attempt any of those.  Those trails are highly recommended to be left alone unless accompanied by a local guide.  

In general I averaged about 10 miles a day with thousands of feet of elevation change spread out over those miles while I was in the Faroes.  Of the hikes I did, all stood out but some of my favorites included Drangarnir (more on that in a later post), Hvíthamar (the best hike for the least effort), Trælanípa and then Klakkur, from which this image is made.

I did the Klakkur hike twice, two days in a row.  The mountain sits above the city of Klaksvík, so it was very accessible while I was staying on the eastern side of the archipelago.  The locals often walk up it all the way from the beginning, but it is possible to drive to an upper trailhead to shave off a couple miles (and a couple thousand feet of climbing).  The hike is known for taking you out to a mountainous point that grants a stunning panoramic view of the surrounding inlets and islands but in truth the whole trek is characterized by stunning views, like this one looking back down toward the trailhead that I made on my return during the second day of hiking up here.  This is a trail that also had it all in terms of conditions. Some parts were packed dirt, some gravel, some were no trail at all and cairn stones to mark the way.  There was grassy meadows to cross and muddy hillsides and even snow.  It is almost constant climbing the whole way until you reach the top of the ridge that runs to the viewpoint.  It was exposed to the constant Faroese wind as well.  But the views...  I still think I preferred the view from Hvíthamar but Klakkur was a very close second.

Pentax 67
Kodak Portra 160

Taken in: Faroe Islands / Norðoyar / Klaksvík (show map)

Taken on: May 1, 2023

Tags:

Pentax 67

Kodak Portra 160

Klakkur

Borðoy

film

Medium Format « less

Sets appears in: • Faroe Islands

Groups appears in: • ~ PENTAX Cameras ~ • I Shoot Film more » • Mountain View • Analog Photography • Outdoor Photographer Magazine (Unofficial) • Blue Moon Camera • The Film Group • 120 • I Love Film • FILM* Club • Pentax 67 (6x7, 67, 67II) • I Shoot Kodak Film • Nature & Landscapes • FILMISM • 6x7 -COLOR- • Film is Awesome! • film's dead, but it just won't lie down • .film.forever. • Old School Film Photography • film will never die • Quality Film Photography • Pentax Medium Format 645 / 67 (Cropping Allowed) • I heart film! (Analogue Love!) • inspiring mountains. • -i want to jump in- • The Film Shooters Collective • Adventures in Film Photography « less

Camera: Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon SUPER COOLSCAN 9000 ED
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 24.0 (Windows)
Show full info

Stats: 6,191 views / 10 comments