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Fort Smith nurse takes on volcano Leah MacDonald has 'amazing' adventure in Iceland raising money for the Canadian Diabetes Association
Paul Bickford
Northern News Services
Published Monday, September 16, 2013
THEBACHA/FORT SMITH
Leah MacDonald, a Fort Smith nurse, went for her first hike last month. It just happened to be on the side of a volcano in Iceland.
"It was just amazing. You see these big green mountains just coming out of the ground," she said, adding the sometimes narrow trails were above steep cliffs. "There's nothing like it on Earth that I've seen."
MacDonald participated in the hike as part of the Reykjavik Marathon on Aug. 24 to raise money for the Canadian Diabetes Association. She was in the marathon's Conquer the Crater event - a one-day hike on a volcano.
The trek was on the Eyjafjallajokull volcano, which erupted in 2010 and blasted so much ash into the atmosphere it disrupted air traffic in Europe.
"My group didn't make it to the summit," MacDonald said, adding the full hike up and down the volcano would have totalled about 24 kilometres.
She estimated her hiking group, which included an Icelandic guide, covered roughly 16 km over about seven hours.
"We were just taking our time and we were at a more leisurely pace," she said. "This is my first hike in my entire life, and there was no way that I was going to go ahead and do 24 km right off the bat."
She said her group took many photos and had fun. MacDonald even had time to take a yoga break on the trail.
MacDonald raised $6,900 for diabetes research and support for patients, and to help seek a cure for the disease.
The 68 participants in the marathon or hike from Team Diabetes raised $425,000 for the Canadian Diabetes Association. Of those team members, 31 opted for the hike on the volcano.
"I'm 100 per cent going to do it again," said MacDonald, who had also visited Iceland in 2010. "It just sparked something in me. It was really amazing. I can't explain to you how phenomenal the whole adventure was."
The volcano is located about a two-and-a-half-hour bus trip south of Reykjavik, Iceland's capital.
MacDonald said when the hikers got off the bus, they were asked if anyone had a fear of heights. She said one section of the hike is titled Cat's Back, a narrow little ridge the hikers had to walk across.
"If you had a fear of heights, definitely it wasn't something easy to accomplish," she said. "It was like a sheer drop down."
In fact, three hikers turned around and went back down the volcano rather than cross Cat's Back.
"It was pretty treacherous," MacDonald said of the hike, adding there were steam vents on the volcano.
MacDonald said by the end of the adventure, she realized she likes hiking.
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