Faroes Seven Summits!

I’m at the tail-end of my recovery from the Vermont Climate Run last month. All is going well, although I’ve been a little hesitant about hammering on any downhills before getting on the ground for my next Climate Run adventure—next week!

On Monday, I fly out to the Faroe Islands (via Iceland and Copenhagen). Specifically, I’ll be landing on the island of Vágar and driving across several of the archipelago’s islands to a basecamp on Borðoy before heading out to recon the trailheads of the 7 main islands’ high points the next day.

My plan is to climb each of the highest peaks on seven of the Faroe’s 18 total islands in one (long) day. I chose these 7 because they are the both the highest on their respective islands (all topping out at between 722 and 882 meters above sea level) and on the more accessible islands in the archipelago — 6 are connected by bridges and tunnels, and one by a short ferry crossing from Kunoy to Kalsoy.

Some of the mountains have distinct trails (particularly true of Slættaratindur, which is the Faroes’ highest summit), and some, like Kuvingafjall, have no trails at all. The summits are:

Slættaratindur (882m) on Eysturoy
Villingadalsfjall (844m) on Viðoy
Kuvingafjall (830m) on Kunoy
Kopsenni (739m) on Streymoy
Nestindar (788m) on Kalsoy
Norðanfyri Lokkaskarð (772m) on Borðoy
Árnafjall (722m) on Vágar

Assuming an average starting elevation of 100-200 ft above sea level, this endeavor represents more than 17,000 vertical feet of ascent (and an equivalent descent) over approximately 35 miles.

I’m hoping that the weather forecast gets a tiny bit better so I have at least one day of relatively dry & clear conditions:

Right now, it looks like next Friday, July 27th might be the day, which would actually be perfect from a planning and recovery standpoint since I’ll be leaving the Faroes on the 30th to join a fellow Sterling College faculty member and 9 students for a three-week field course on Cultural and Ecological Resilience in Arctic Norway.

Training, planning, and plenty of dreaming about the seductive beauty of the northern latitudes are all coming together once again, and I’m excited for this new adventure.