North Iceland is entering its peak ski season, but the weather is not cooperating. Mbl.is reports that the Hlíðarfjall ski area closed at noon on Saturday and was not expected to reopen on Sunday, much to the disappointment of many capital-area dwellers who specifically traveled to Akureyri during schools’ winter break to ski.
Ski area director Brynjar Helgi Ásgeirsson says that around 2,500 people visited Hlíðarfjall on Friday, making it the biggest day of the season yet.
“There are a lot of people from the south in town,” he noted on Saturday. “The weather was good yesterday, but we’ve got a low-pressure system today and tomorrow, so I don’t expect we’re going to be able to open tomorrow, unfortunately. The wind is just too strong.” Forecasts predicted winds of up to 25 mps [55 mi/hr] on Sunday.
Indeed, high winds have been quite a problem at Hlíðarfjall this winter. In late January, ICE-SAR had to rescue 20 people from one of the area’s chairlifts when the wire was blown off its spool by a strong blast of wind. (The rescue took about two hours and no one was injured.)
Current conditions and information on ski area closures can be found on the Hlíðarfjall website, here.
