The day our group of international journalists and representatives from Black Diamond Equipment and Polartec arrived in Iceland, the Eyjafjallajökull volcano erupted, causing enough smoke and ash to shut down all airports in northern Europe for almost a week, wrecking havoc on the global economy. We had planned to head south to ski the highest peak in Iceland, 2,110-meter Hvannadalshnjúkur. But road closures as a result of the eruption changed our plans and we headed north instead, to ski the mountains near the town of Dalvík.