Los Alamos Mountaineers
Monthly Program:
Iceland—a journey through fire and ice
The July Mountaineers meeting will feature a talk by Kristen Honig entitled “Iceland—a journey through fire and ice”, on Tuesday evening, July 27.
In February 2020, Kristen embarked on a journey to visit the majestic ice caves of Iceland. An increasingly popular tourist attraction, most ice caves nowadays are filled with several hundred tourists clamoring for a glimpse of the scalloped blue ice. Instead of taking one of these traditional tours, Kristen traveled by helicopter to a remote network of ice caves on the Skeiðarárjökull outlet glacier of the Vatnajökull ice cap. There, a small group of 3 fellow photographers and a legendary Icelandic guide spent 5 hours touring a labyrinth of ice tunnels and caves—some barely large enough to squeeze through. The ice itself was filled with volcanic ash, sediment, rocks of all sizes, and abstract pockets of air. She returned to the United States one week later, just before border restrictions were imposed due to the pandemic.
A little over one year and two vaccination shots later, Kristen returned to Iceland in early May 2021—this time to witness an erupting volcano! She spent two nights at the Geldingadalir volcano, hiking 8 miles round-trip across steep terrain, and taking a helicopter flight over the volcano on a third evening. Despite all the news coverage prior to her departure, nothing could quite prepare her for the sight that unfolded when she crested the final ridge and stared down into the volcano. By this point in the eruption, the lava was concentrated along a single vent, which would erupt as a gigantic geyser shooting lava more than 1,000’ into the air. She was close enough to feel the heat and hear the roar of the eruption. One month later, the observation hill where she witnessed the eruption was completely surrounded by lava and the hiking trail itself was cut off. The volcano is still active today with lava creeping towards the coast, but the opportunity to witness the eruption up close has since passed. Kristen will share her highlights and photos from both of these trips to Iceland.
Mountaineers’ meetings are held on the fourth Tuesday of every month. When held in person, they take place in the planetarium of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC), 2600 Canyon Rd, Los Alamos, NM 87544. Recent meetings have been held electronically starting at 7:00 PM; the Mountaineers are considering when and how to return to in-person meetings. Registration details for this virtual meeting can be found at https://peecnature.org/events/details/?id=37213.
Ongoing Events
Monthly Public Meeting and Presentation:
Normally held in the planetarium of the Pajarito Environmental Education Center (PEEC)
on the fourth Tuesday of each month
Social at 6:45. Reports of recent and upcoming trips at 7:05pm. Program to follow.
Past presentations, and occasionally future, can be viewed here.
Visitors are always welcome! Free refreshments!
Get a 2020 Official Mountaineers T-Shirt
| Circumference | Height | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| dimensions in inches | # in stock | under arms | midriff | hips | collar to waist |
| Women's | |||||
| XS | 6 | 28 | 27 1/2 | 32 | 23 1/2 |
| S | 6 | 31 | 30 | 34 | 24 1/2 |
| M | 4 | 32 | 31 | 35 | 24 1/2 |
| L | 1 | 35 | 34 | 38 | 25 1/2 |
| XL | 6 | 37 | 35 | 40 | 25 1/2 |
| Unisex | |||||
| S | 5 | 34 | 35 | 28 | |
| M | 4 | 38 1/2 | 39 | 28 1/2 | |
| L | 5 | 42 | 42 | 29 | |
| XL | 5 | 44 | 46 | 29 1/2 |
Future Club Speakers: In addition to frequent presentations by nationally known adventurers, we love to hear from our own members....not that some of you aren't in that group. A presentation gets you a free club membership and dinner at the restaurant of your choice in Los Alamos.
LAM Member Presentations Wanted! The LAM Board would like to encourage our members to provide more of our monthly presentations. We understand well that club members are an active lot, with a wealth of activities in their repertoire that can and have been inspiring to new and old members alike. We have often focused our monthly presentations on the elite of the outdoor adventure world, and perhaps created the undesired effect of squelching the voices of our own members who participate in frequent beautiful and exciting adventures of their own. Although our own activities are not always "world class", they are representative of what we "weekend" athletes can and do accomplish. We want many of our programs to inspire the "I can do that" attitude in our members, not merely entertain. Shock and awe may have their rightful place, but inspiration to participate and shine is our true goal.
Trip Leaders: Post your trip by logging in and then going here. If you do not have an account, contact the webmaster. For overnight trips, please ensure that membership waivers for participants are current and recorded by the club Membership Chairperson prior to your trip. Non-members may participate in day trips. All club sponsored trips require the trip waiver. After the trip, please scan and email a PDF of the waiver to the Trip Coordinator.
Trip Leader Awards: The club will recognize trip leaders as described here.
GMRS / FRS Radio Usage on Club Trips: The Los Alamos Mountaineers encourage you to carry portable "family" radios as a safety measure on appropriate LAM trips, and urge participants to agree on a contact channel at the beginning of the trip. As a default, if no channel has been selected, LAM suggests channel 3.14. These three first digits of "pi" might be easily remembered in this scientific community.
Borrow Equipment: We have a limited amount of mountaineering equipment for loan (e.g., avalanche transceivers). Contact our Equipment Manager listed on this page.
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