Keeps the Shovel in Her Bed

“I sleep with the shovel in my bed, when it’s that kind of weather,” Heiðrún Ólafsdóttir tells mbl.is and laughs. She takes care of the chalet, owned by the travel association FÍ, in Landmannalaugar, in the Fjallabak Nature Reserve in the highlands of Iceland. The area has seen unusually much snow this winter. Heiðrún is the only person residing in the area right now, and she has never seen this much snow in Landmannalaugar. Every day, she must dig her way with a shovel from one building to another.

She makes it into the chalet through a tiny opening, but every day, she makes sure she has other escape routes as well, just in case. The other day, she decided to make herself a cup of coffee, after having cleared the entrance, but ended up having to shovel for another hour to be able to turn on the gas for heating the water.

Even though she is the only resident in the area, she keeps busy preparing for the arrival of guests, most of whom arrive on weekends. Some people arrive for a day to bathe in the geothermal pool, while larger groups usually come over a weekend.

Heiðrún doesn’t mind the solitude and is relaxed despite the situation. She has no water right now and must melt snow for cooking. Everything happens at a slow pace these days, and she knows how to enjoy it. Once she has finished doing her chores, she likes to read. Her goal is to learn how to play the ukulele and be able to play “The House of the Rising Sun” before she returns to town. Cross-country skiing is one of the activities she enjoys.

She encourages people to come and visit while the weather is good.