From Svartifoss everyone went their own way.  Elise, Alex, Will Spencer, and I hiked to the Sjónaripa overlook of the Skaftafellsjökull across the Austurheiði (eastern heath).  We ate lunch overlooking the glacier where I talked about the depositional features at the snout.  The glacier appears to have retreated very little in the past 6 years.  I chatted with a French couple in French for a few minutes, explaining what all of the students were doing here.

Next, we hiked along the cliff that rises above the glacier. We looked out across small kame terraces and a lateral moraine in addition to a large medial moraine coming off of a large nunatak just upstream.  Several ash layers in the ice provided zigzag patterns across the glacial surface.  They were particularly intricate where the ice sheared.

At Gláma, Will and I decided to try to summit Kristínartindar while Alex and Elise decided to take the lower route around the Skaftafellstunga (tongue between the glaciers). Our climb up to the saddle between the two peaks was steep but not treacherous.  The rocks appear to be a rhyolitic intracaldera tuff similar to the one in my senior thesis area in south-central Guatemala.  At the saddle, I decided not to ascend any higher.  It was already 4:00 and we were 9 km from camp.  Will went up, soon followed by Julie and Alana.  I watched Brian and Garrett descend from the summit on their own path. They kept running into cliffs and had to backtrack. Garrett finally traversed over to the main trail but Brian was ultimately successful in his descent. I had my camera ready just in case there was an opportunity to get a Darwin Award winner on film during his award-winning final act. I started to descend the west side with Brian, Garrett, Annelia, Neal, Aaron, and Anat to get a view of the Mosárjökul.  The descent was easy with beautiful views toward the sea across the Skeiðarársandur.  It took a few hours to get to the Sjónarsker (sun dial).  From there, the trail led to the farmhouse where I bought a sweater in 1996.  I took a photo of the grass-covered barn.

The last 1.5 km was on the road but it seemed to take forever because I could see the campsite as I descended the switchbacks. 

We had shrimp stir-fry for dinner, which was excellent.  Everyone went to bed right afterward.  We got quite a workout today. I figured I walked about 20 km.
 

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