Skiing Hvannadalshnúkur

Iceland’s Highest Mountain

Early-morning crisp cold alpine air filled our lungs on the 30th January 2020 whilst Guðný Diljá Helgadóttir, Rory Harrzn and I were ski touring up toward Hvannadalshnúkur, which is the the top of Iceland’s highest mountain Öræfajokull. To say it was cold was an understatement, it was Nístandi Kuldi. This is a term that Icelanders use to describe a piercing cold that stabs your body and reaches down into your bones.

Despite the low temperatures, touring up the stratovolcano was rather pleasant as the snow was nice and soft and the sun reached us at around 10:30am. I was on a split board while Guðný and Rory were on touring skis. We had decided to take the “standard” route up to Hvannadalshnúkur which begins at Sandfell and is an almost direct line to the caldera of Öræfajökull. The slope that leads toward the 1800m, ice-filled volcanic crater was long and rather uneventful as the glacier was well-buried under meters of snow and there were no signs of any crevasses beneath. 

At 12:30pm, five hours after leaving the car in Sandfell, we reached the ice-filled crater of Öræfajökull at 1800m. A slight breeze on the ice cap made it painful to stop for a break as even the smallest amount of wind had a serious bite to it! We pushed on and began the flat 2km traverse across the ice cap toward Hvannadalshnúkur. 

Unfortunately Rory had a binding fail halfway across the ice cap toward Hvannadalshnúkur and he decided to ski down without summiting. It felt like the breeze was minus 25 degrees Celsius as we were trying to make a temporary fix on his binding in order for him to get down safely. Luckily it was only a few loose screws and we were able to tighten them enough with a pocket knife for him to make it down.

To be on the safe side, Guðný and I decided to rope up on the traverse towards Iceland’s highest summit just in case of a crevasse fall, despite the risk being about as low as possible. The snow surface was soft enough most of the way up Hvannadalshnúkur that we managed to tour almost to the final summit face until the snow turned very firm on the final 200m. The typical textured rime ice snow was present on the summit slopes so we made the call to crampon up the final steeper section and then tour across the summit dome to the highest point.

Finally we made it to the highest point of Iceland!

Luckily there was no wind on the summit when Guðný and I arrived there at 14:30pm. Pizza that we had prepared the night before was on the menu for lunch as Guðný had carried it all the way up 2000m of altitude for us to enjoy there! Incredible panoramic views were unobstructed for miles in every direction and with barely a cloud in the sky it made for the best setting for a meal of pizza that I have ever had!

We could see all the way over to Mýrdalsjökull ice cap in the west, the Vestrahorn mountains to the east, down into Svínafellsjökull, Falljökull and Virkisjökull glaciers below and we could almost see our house just down toward the south. Stunning! We took some pictures and chilled out for a little while on the top of Iceland.

Time to ski down! Guðný and I carefully skied off the summit of Hvannadalshnúkur surrounded by some of Iceland’s most epic alpine scenery.

The summit slopes were not exactly in waist-deep powder so we had to take it easy and ski down slowly for the first 200m.

After the bumpy rime however the snow turned smooth and we were able to gather a lot of speed and straight-line it to get as far across the traverse as possible. Wooohoooo!!! The skins had to briefly come back on again for the traverse back across the top of Falljökull glacier for a quick 20 minutes of flat touring to lead us to our final descent.

On the slopes high above Sandfell we transitioned again into ski mode and took off down one of the longest ski runs in Iceland. The snow was soft and smooth overall so we could get some proper speed up and boost down the mountain, carving our way down!

The sun was beginning to set as we reached the steeper lower slopes of Öræfajökull, casting a beautiful orange light over the snow and lighting up the descent as we enjoyed powder turns in the couloirs of the final slopes. What an epic way to end an amazing day on Iceland’s highest mountain! 

Words and Photography by Rowan Bashford, Glacier and Volcano Expeditions owner and guide