In August 2017, I packed up my backpacking gear in pursuit of exploration and solitude away from my daily urban environment in Atlanta. My wife, Karen, was already headed to Iceland to mountain bike across the Highlands in support of Climate Change awareness and non-profit fundraising. After her cycling adventure was complete, we decided to visit the Faroe Islands together in celebration of our 8th wedding anniversary. We had already been fortunate enough to visit Iceland in 2014, but I quickly got enthusiastic about returning again to explore deeper into the Southern Highlands region after studying Karen’s cycling routes. My best friend, Weston, decided to join the adventure to hike with me in Iceland while Karen was with her Climate Ride group. With a rough travel plan in place, we were all set to head north and explore the remote Nordic landscapes of Iceland and The Faroe Islands. Both countries sit in the middle of the volatile North Atlantic ocean with the lesser known Faroe Islands positioned 693km south of Iceland. Both share a climate heavily dictated by the gulf and jet stream activity which brought us variable conditions during our two weeks of travel. We experienced everything from calm weather to hail and 60mph winds. We moved through the landscape by vehicle, ferry and on foot. We hiked over 70 miles and gained over 24,000 ft of elevation while attempting to pass through remote valleys and scale mountains with varying levels of summit success. With no real end filmmaking goal in mind (this was technically a vacation), I pulled my Phantom 4 Pro quadcopter out of my backpack and flew among the birds and fog to document the beautiful and remote locations we passed through. Eivør Pálsdóttir, a Faroese singer/songwriter, was generous enough to permit the usage of her music for this edit and I’m extremely grateful.
Shot in the Southern Icelandic Highlands and the Faroe Islands: Mykines, Vágar, Streymoy, Eysturoy, Kalsoy, Borðoy and Viðoy. August 11th-24th, 2017.
Special thanks to my hiking companions, Karen Urquhart & Weston AldrIdge, EIVØR, Roy Lidstone, Jim and Margi Urquhart (for watching our dogs while we traveled), Paul Zizka, Alex Nail, Erik Huber, Louie Northern and Geysir Car Rental.
All 4K footage is available for licensing. Please contact doug -at- upthink.tv for all licensing inquires.
VISUALS ©THE UPTHINK LAB / JAMES DOUGLAS URQUHART
MUSIC ©TUTL Records/A&G Records
