In the summer of 2017, Skagfirðingasveit was on Highland Watch in Landmannalaugar. One of the volunteers on duty was five and a half months pregnant.

On 22 July, a call came in about a woman who had been injured on a ridge on Bláhnjúkur. The site was steep, exposed and difficult to reach. The team started up the mountain.

Photo: Smári Sigurðsson.

Listening to the Mountain and the Body

Early on, she felt that her energy was not the same as usual. She was slowing the others down, so she told them to continue ahead while she followed behind at her own pace.

That decision says something important about rescue work. Being pregnant did not mean she could not contribute. But it also did not mean ignoring limits. She had to listen to her body, tell the team honestly where she was, and trust the others to move at the speed the mission required.

Rescue work is full of those quiet decisions. People adjust, communicate and keep the shared task in focus.

A Helicopter Response

It soon became clear that carrying the injured hiker down the mountain by stretcher would be difficult. Additional rescue teams from South Iceland were called out, and the Icelandic Coast Guard helicopter was able to reach the area and transport the woman to hospital.

Contemporary news reports described fog and demanding landing conditions. They also noted that rescue volunteers who were still on their way from the lowlands were turned back once the helicopter had completed the critical part of the response.

Even when a helicopter becomes the visible centre of a mission, the work around it is still team work: the people on Highland Watch, the teams called out, the volunteers moving through the terrain, the local coordination and the helicopter crew all become part of the same response.

The Photo and the Rescue Trousers

After the callout, a photo from the scene appeared in the media. Her sister saw it and recognised her immediately.

The reason was not dramatic. Her rescue trousers were unzipped. At five and a half months pregnant, she simply could not zip them up anymore.

It is a small, very human detail in a serious story. The photo shows rescue workers in difficult mountain conditions, sheltering near dark rock while they wait and work. For the sisters, it also carried a private clue from that exact moment in life.

She was pregnant, slower up the mountain than usual, and wearing rescue trousers that no longer closed properly. But she was there with her team, contributing to the mission in the way she could.

A Team Story

This is not a story about one heroic person. It is a story about a rescue team: people who show up, tell each other the truth, adapt to the conditions and keep working together.

Highland Watch often means long days, uncertain weather, remote places and callouts far from easy roads. On Bláhnjúkur that July day, the team needed all the ordinary things that make rescue work possible: preparation, communication, equipment, trust and people willing to start walking when the call comes.

That is why the memory stayed. Not because everything was dramatic, but because it was real: a steep mountain, a patient who needed help, a helicopter in difficult conditions, and a volunteer quietly learning how to balance rescue work with the limits of pregnancy.

— Skagfirðingasveit Search and Rescue Team