The Samaya Project The Samaya Project

Our Icelandic Athletes

Photograph by  Klaus Fengler
Photograph by Klaus Fengler

Björgvin Hilmarsson

Björgvin Hilmarsson, born in 1975, lives and works in Iceland. He is not just one of our athletes, but also responsible for the organization of the Samaya project in Iceland.

Even though living in the capital Reykjavík, he spent his early summers on a farm of his family in the country side where his deep interest in nature grew stronger. Back in those days he started cycling like most kids and when teenager he followed his passion for two wheels even more and joined local competitions. Snowboarding, ice and rock climbing also became a big part of his life that eventually took him away from indoors lab work he used to do after his biology studies, to working full time as a mountain guide at Icelandic Mountain Guides, a guiding company based in Reykjavík, Iceland.

After a few years brake from serious biking he decided to jump on the saddle again when the full suspension bikes became popular and rediscovered mountain biking for both travelling and getting his necessary doze of adrenalin. To him mountain biking is the perfect way to experience beauty of nature as well as getting challenged both physically and mentally.

mountainguides.is

Photograph by  Klaus Fengler
Photograph by Klaus Fengler

Inga Fanney Sigurðardóttir

Inga Fanney Sigurðardóttir, born in 1982 and raised in the country side in North Iceland. After years of travelling around the world and hispanic studies she settled down in North Iceland again and raises her three children there today.

Inga started working as a mountain guide in Iceland at only the age of 20, adding varieties such as glacier guiding, guiding backpacking and trekking trips around her country.

Inga has specialized is trail running adventures since 2011 and is now the founder and General manager at the travel agency Thule Trails, which specializes in trail running

thuletrails.com

Photograph by  Klaus Fengler
Photograph by Klaus Fengler

Ingó Olsen

Ingólfur Már Olsen was born in 1980 and grew up in Reykjavík Iceland. From a young age he's traveled extensively both in Iceland and abroad seeking out exciting adventures and new challenges.

Ingó has worked as an adventure guide of all sorts for over a decade and is licensed to operate a great variety of outdoor activity tours. He always has a plan for exciting adventures along the way with surfing, sup or snowboarding on top of the menu. If the surf or the snow is not living up to expectations one of Ingó’s plan B is certainly going to be a treat.

It´s no exaggeration to say that Ingó is a pioneer when it comes to extreme sports and outdoor activities in Iceland. He has been at the forefront of the Icelandic snowboarding scene since the 90s, riding at a competition level  in the early days and his natural habitat seems to be on top of a board, be it a skateboard, snowboard or a surfboard.

Ingó is the founder, co-owner, CEO and head guide of Arctic Surfers and has spent the last 15 years exploring Iceland’s rugged coastline, discovering secret surf spots and finding new waves and adventures along the way. There is no person better equipped to run an adventure surf tour in Iceland than Ingó Olsen and he is very popular as such.

arcticsurfers.com

Photograph by  Klaus Fengler
Photograph by Klaus Fengler

Jón Heiðar Andrésson

Jón Andrésson, born in 1978. Jon started climbing ice and rock in 1993 and that was his passion for the next decade. In 1999 Jon started focusing on white water kayaking which lead him into becoming a raft guide and a safety kayaker as a summer job. Jon has travelled around the world with his kayak, climbing gear, skis or snowboard exploring rivers, waterfalls, peaks and climbs for over 20 years now. The climbing element in him took over again and now he is working his way through the IFMGA certification through ACMG, Association of Canadian Mountainguides. 

 In 2005 Jon founded a adventure company called Arctic Adventures which focused on multi adventures like rafting, glacier guiding, mountaineering, caving and sea kayaking to name a few. In 2014 Jon left his own company to focus on his professional mountain guiding career and the passion of developing him self as a true mountain professional. 

Today Jon is one of the founders and owners of Asgard Beyond, a new guiding service in Iceland that specializes in technical and private guiding. Asgard Beyond offers professional guiding service in ice and rock climbing, ski touring and sea kayaking.  

Photograph by  Klaus Fengler
Photograph by Klaus Fengler

Róbert Halldórsson

Róbert Halldórsson is born in 1986 and is raised up in the capital of Iceland, Reykjavík. Early he got the passion for climbing and in 2001 he started training hard for climbing and now spends his spare time looking for first accents all around Iceland.

After years of working as a carpenter he headed for the university of Iceland studying mechanical engineering. However, studying was taking a toll of the climbing so eventually he dropped out and found his path towards being a mountain guide. Since 2008, Róbert has been working as a mountain guide and is currently working on his IFMGA mountain guide certification in Canada through Association of Canadian Mountain Guides.

To day Róbert is one of the founders and owners of Asgard Beyond, a new guiding service in Iceland that specializes in technical and private guiding. Asgard Beyond offers professional guiding service in ice and rock climbing, ski touring and sea kayaking.