This picture was taken during the Arctic fox monitoring that took place in Hornstrandir nature reserve in June 2020. The survey was carried out by 4 volunteers, and consisted of gathering data about the Arctic fox response to tourist activity disturbance at breeding dens. We spent 8 days in Hornbjarg, and for 5 of them, each of us sat alone in the cliffs, at 66.46°N.

This remote part of Iceland is a vast wilderness where no human lives in many kilometres around; a peninsula only accessible by boat for a few weeks during the summer. Wind is the language here, spoken with words that hit the land through violent waves. After a 3-hour trip in rough seas, we are transferred into a zodiac and land on the beach, where we carry our heavy supplies up a steep hill and set up camp.

Days begin with waking up to the sound of a waterfall, putting on wet, cold clothes, leaving the tent and climbing up to the Horn.
Each day it takes me an hour to reach the observation spot from base camp, after I have done the toilet hike (800 metres one way) and boiled some water to fill my thermos. I have no GPS or radio with me, so at night when I return to my tent I put some flowers outside to signal the others that I have arrived safely.

For more than 30 hours I sit alone in the fog, on the cliff’s edge, under harsh weather conditions. The monitoring shift lasts for 6 hours, and during that time I barely move on my spot in the grass, so as not to disturb the foxes.