Heydalur hot springs, Iceland – In the 11th century Iceland’s bishop blessed the geothermal water I’m sitting in. The hot pool is no more than a pock mark set into the hillside, in between a ribbon of snow reaching down from the ridge top, and the river that courses through the valley bottom to the fjord below. Tussocks of grass hide the rocks that form the pool’s edge. If it weren’t for the old tin shed standing adjacent,  the pool would easily escape view.

It’s a fitting end to our trip in Iceland’s Westfjords, one that has been constantly mediated by the remarkable human history resiliently bore in the landscape every corner we’ve rounded. And welcome material for the ‘A Skier’s Journey’ episode I’m here working on with Chad Sayers, Forrest Coots, and my brother Chad. By sailboat, kayak, and skis, we’ve ventured for 10 days through both fjord and icecap, soaking up the landscape and it’s storied past.

With a kind of gentle and stoic pride, our guides Runar and Siggi have shared not only the landscape they call home, but stories of their ancestors who survived almost a millennia along these shores. Their business, Borea Adventures, isn’t a typical one here. Towards the mid 1900’s, after nearly 1000 years of scraping a life from the fjords’ shores, the people left. Amongst some of those who moved to villages and never returned, the fjords were perhaps places to be survived more than enjoyed. Perhaps, because of that life, they can’t, or couldn’t, see the beauty the way Siggi and Runar do.

With their 60ft yacht “Aurora” and a fleet of kayaks, the two Icelander’s are carving out a new kind of economy in the furrowed fjords. They have a unique opportunity to not only visit but be a part of the landscape, respecting it’s past and it’s future. Few places in the world can you ski from the shore with such ease. The sailboat and kayaks form a mobile base camp. You point, and go. Seaweed under your ski boots and a myriad arrangement of steep couloirs and more gentle slopes quickly become the norm. Seals, whales, sea birds and foxes become your ski partners. And as we trace the shores and ascend their slopes, the spirits of lives lived here long ago keep our imaginations alive.

Iceland – A Skier’s Journey episode coming fall 2012.