Summer Adventures in Iceland
Five days of exploring Vatnajökull National Park
During the summer Glacier and Volcano Expeditions guided a five-day experience of Vatnajökull with some very happy guests from France.
John and Mimi came to Iceland prepared with their own camper van loaded up with outdoor equipment ready for adventures. Long before they arrived in Iceland, they had been recommended to approach Glacier and Volcano Expeditions by their friends who had been on a tour with us also. John and Mimi simply requested that we would allow five days to lead them to some of Vatnajökull National Park’s highlights. We took this as a perfect opportunity to take our guests to some of out favourite locations in Iceland!
During these five days we were blessed with lovely warm and sunny weather which allowed us to go glacier hiking, ice climbing, ice caving, mountain climbing, ridge top hiking, horse riding, mountain biking, canoeing, puffin and bird watching, drone filming, photographing, picnicking and loving the amazing summer weather here in Southern Iceland.
Skaftafell Glacier Hike
Day One
It was our first day with our new guests, so we wanted to take them somewhere impressive! Vatnajökull National Park is a beautiful place with popular locations as well as hidden gems. If one knows where to look there are some mind-blowing secret locations that are off the beaten path.
We had just the place in mind!
The sparkly white ice crunched beneath our crampons as we negotiated a route through a crevasse field. We were hiking up the glacier to a secret location that we occasionally took our adventurous guests to. We stopped every so often to admire and photograph the impressive scenery; its hard not to when it stares down at you from every angle.
John and Mimi understood that ice caves are not usually not accessible during the summer months as they are most often full of melt water so they did not anticipate that we would take them into an ice cave.
However we knew of one ice cave that is usually safe and accessible all round! (conditions dependant) So what better way to surprise our guests than to take them down inside an ice cave, when they were not expecting it?!
The access to the only summer-accessible ice cave is not exactly easy as the hike there is a challenging full day of walking to and from the cave.
A rope is required to safely access the cave as we needed to rappel off the steep side of the glacier. To enter the cave we first made a safety assessment and risk evaluation of the cave structure and the surrounding area. Once we deemed the location and cave to be safe and manageable we then rappelled off the steep side of the glacier and introduced our guests to the ice cave. They did not anticipate that we would be visiting an ice cave as we kept it as a surprise for them until we arrived there. Needless to say, they were excited!
The ice cave is created by a mountain stream that flows down from a side valley and down underneath the glacier. We all removed our crampons and ventured deep down beneath the gigantic expanse of ice! It is a truly surreal experience to stand beneath a moving river of solid ice that flows down from a volcano.
We took plenty of photos inside the ice cave then made our way back out to the real world again. A scenic packed lunch on the glacier followed, as we enjoyed the peace and quiet from being the only people in the entire valley. After lunch we continued exploring the glacier, and made it back in time for afternoon tea.
Iceland Volcano Hike
Day Two
Fine and settled weather on our second day led us to choose to guide one of our personal favourite hikes in Iceland! The hike is circuit that begins near Skaftafell. The route, which is not on a marked trail, led us through a birch forest, up into a sub-alpine moss meadow and through a boulder field toward a scenic ridge top.
To reach the ridge we had to climb up a steep section of the mountain which had a drop of hundreds of meters below. The wind blows between you and the mountain and when you look down to check your footing you can’t help but feel high up when there is so much air in between your body and the flat ground far, far below.
To prevent a catastrophic fall we used a rope for this steep and exposed 100 metres of climbing.
Glacier ice pours off Öræfajökull, Iceland's largest volcano, in every direction!
After lunch we continued to enjoy walking across the ridge. Five major outlet glaciers of Vatnajökull can be see from this one ridge! Skeidarájökull, Skaftafellsjökull, Svínafellsjökull, Virkisjökull, and Falljökull.
The Klyfberi rock arch! This bizarre rock arch is on top of the ridge that frames a scenic view of Skaftafell. Volcanoes really do make some amazing formations in some insane places. I do not understand how this structure has not been blown away in one of the many severe gale force wind gusts that have battered this ridge over the years.
From the Klyfberi we then descended the mossy slopes, stopping at alpine streams for a much-appreciated drink of pure mountain water.
The Iceland Volcano Hike is our most scenic expedition that we offer and you can find more pictures and information on our Iceland Volcano Hike page.
Good fitness and stamina is required to have the ability to complete this hike and we were lucky to have guests that were more than capable of this style of excursion.
Ingólfshöfði Puffins
Day Three
Warm and sunny weather inspired us to mix things up and head toward the coast to see the puffins on our third day of adventures.
Directly south of the Öræfajökull volcano lies a large rock right beside the sea, 76 metres high and 1km long. This rock is named Ingólfshöfði and it is a bird sanctuary and a nesting area for many species of sea birds including the Atlantic Puffin.
Ingólfshöfði is also of historical significance as this is believed to be the location where Ingólfur Arnarson originally landed in Iceland in or around 874 AD. Ingólfur Arnarson was the first viking to settle in Iceland.
To reach Ingólfshöfði we had to begin by crossing a deep and wide river with unpredictable banks of quicksand, then travel for 6km across a swamp, an estuary and over 1km of dry sand.
We decided to take our guests on a very special and one-off tour to Ingólfshöfði as we do not usually guide tours here. We also usually do not guide horse riding tours either, however we made an exception this one time and decided to make the journey to Ingólfshöfði on Guðný’s horses.
Ingólfshöfði is a great place to watch and photograph puffins bringing fish from the sea back to their nesting burrows to feed their young. We had to be mindful of Great Skuas swooping down on us while we watched the sea birds gliding in the wind. We ate a lovely picnic lunch and drank coffee on the cliff top with the waves crashing below as the puffins arrived back on the cliff tops with fish for their young in their beaks.
If you would like to visit Ingólfshöfði, our neighbour runs tours here during the summer months. His name is Einar and his company is called “From coast to Mountains”.
Click on an image below to view a larger version.
Ice Climbing &
Glacier Hiking Vatnajökull
Day 4
Sea birds called out through the breeze as we traversed Kviarmýrarkambur, a gigantic terminal moraine that separates the Kvíárjökull glacier from the Atlantic Ocean. We were heading toward the eastern side of the Öræfajökull volcano this time for a full day of glacier hiking and ice climbing.
One of the rock towers beside the glacier has a rock arch right at the very top which Guðný believes was created by two trölls that were kissing, but were caught out by the morning sun and hence were turned to stone.
Behind us lay 180 degrees of ocean vista whilst in front of us lay the mighty Kvíárjökull. This beautiful outlet glacier cascades steeply and directly from the top of Iceland’s highest volcano Öræfajökull, terminating just 3km from the ocean. A unique aspect to Kvíárjökull is that one can hear waves crashing on the beach and smell the ocean breeze whilst standing on the glacier. In addition to being a coastal alpine environment, both sides of the glacier are flanked with gigantic watchtower-like rock formations which makes it feel like the glacier is flowing out of a mythical castle. The entire place is absolutely mind blowing!
Ice climbing time! We navigated into the crevasse field in the middle of the glacier and found a perfect tower of ice to build an anchor and set up an ice climbing wall for our guests to have an introduction to ice climbing. Using their ice axes and crampons they enjoyed the challenge of climbing an ice tower and having an elevated perspective of the glacier.
After ice climbing we all sat down and drank coffee and ate lunch on the ice. Just as we finished eating the clouds darkened overhead and unpredicted rain began to fall. We were all prepared and put our waterproof clothing on and decided that it was then time to make our way back after our glacier expedition. We walked to the car beside the iceberg-filled glacier lake and not long before we reached the car the sun came back out again. Got to love the weather in Southern Iceland!
There are some more pictures of the ice climbing day in the gallery below.
In places the glacier ice is decorated with volcanic ash that is leftover from previous eruptions of Öræfajökull, Grímsvötn, Eyjafjallajökull and other volcanos. The wind has distributed the volcanic ash all over the glaciers and it provides a strange contrast to the bright white ice and its appearance is rather unique to Iceland.
Vatnajökull Volcano Hike
Day Five
Epic scenery and a big physical workout was our goal for our final day of adventures. We wanted to ensure that our guests would never forget the views that their eyes laid upon and that they also finished their five days with us happily exhausted.
We chose to hike for 8 hours in a location that is insanely scenic and so rarely trodden upon that only a handful of very lucky Icelanders have ever set foot there. The location is a small cluster of mountains that is completely surrounded by a glacier, a lake and a river. It is an isolated mountain paradise that one can only access by boat.
The only people that ever come here are sheep farmers that put their sheep here in summer time using a raft to float them across the river. They set them free here knowing that they cannot escape this mountain oasis and then they collect them in the fall time to take them back inside for the winter.
Guðný has taken part in this annual sheep round-up here and she knows her way around the area. She guided us into the valley where we then climbed a steep canyon to access a ridge top. Once we reached the ridge-top we were greeted with views of the seemingly endless Vatnajökull ice cap, multiple glacier outlets, glacier lagoons, Iceland’s highest volcano, the ocean and vast mountains clad with lush green plants for as far as we could see.
After we had lunch, we continued traversing the ridge which included crossing a gigantic crevasse-like crack. This crack cuts the ridge in half and the only way to cross the crack is to climb down the loose rock face on one side for about 8 metres and then climb back up the vertical and terribly-loose rock on the other side. Farmers have installed a chain here to hold onto when crossing this dangerous section of the ridge, as a fall here could be fatal. We used ropes as backups so that our guests could cross this section safely and it turned this treacherous section into an exhilarating part of the traverse, without the exposure.
After crossing the ridge crack we slowly descended back to the valley floor to finish up our five days of adventure.
Thank you for joining us John and Mimi, it was a fantastic five days of Glacier and Volcano Expeditions custom adventures and we hope that you loved every minute of it because we certainly did! :)
