Winter Glacier Exploring Iceland
Ice caves, ice climbing and photography in Vatnajökull National Park
Words and images by Rowan B, guide at Glacier and Volcano Expeditions
Despite the total lack of visitors to Iceland this winter, Guðný and I have still been exploring the glaciers around Skaftafell and Vatnajökull National Park. With the absence of guided tours on our schedule we have had the opportunity to explore the glaciers in-depth and time to focus on film and photography projects. It has always been a passion of ours to photograph the glaciers, so we are lucky to be blessed with all the time that we could ever ask for to search for new features, find new compositions, wait for nice light or conditions, and just enjoy being out in the beautiful wilderness here.
Temperatures have been dropping well into the minuses at times and this cold weather has caused many of the glacier lakes to freeze over, allowing easy access to the glaciers and unique opportunities to explore the frozen glacier fronts and so far we have discovered some nice ice caves and intriguing glacier features.
In between the long cold periods of fine weather were stormy periods with heavy rainfall. Some of the glacier lagoons have been frozen solid for months whilst others have been freezing and thawing with the fluctuations in air temperatures. During the warmer periods we managed to access the glaciers via their lakes on our packrafts a couple of times earlier this winter and we discovered a couple of nice ice caves that would be inaccessible otherwise.
Film making has been the priority lately and we are very proud to have released our introduction video which is now live on YouTube. The video displays the types of adventures that Glacier and Volcano Expeditions lead and the video also marks the beginning of our film making. Check it out below! :)
When the camera hasn’t been switched on to film mode, we have also been shooting a few stills on our recent winter glacier exploring trips of Skaftafell and Vatnajökull National Park.
Some of our other latest favourite shots are displayed in the gallery below. Click on the images to enlarge and scroll through as a slideshow.
