Guided tour on the Svínafellsjökull glacial tongue
in Skaftafell nature reserve
Almost everything I read about Iceland said DO THE GLACIER HIKE. Make the time, cough up some dough, and do it. And truth be told, I didn't need a ton of convincing to spend some the time out on one of Iceland's famous glaciers. My only regret? Not spending more time and money to do a longer tour or an ice climbing adventure out on the ice.
Iceland's glaciers and volcanoes and various extremes are the reason that this country is known as the Land of Fire and Ice. Active volcanoes and moving glaciers surely makes Iceland a unique spot and tops the charts for many bucket lists. Being able to walk out on this glacier with a tour guide educating the group all about the glacier, formation, and the island in the face of climate change is pretty amazing. You pull up to the glacier and look up to see this large sheet of "living" ice, crawling down the mountain-side making its way to the water.
Being out on this marbled looking ice makes you feel like you are on another planet. Every time I looked out at the wild landscape all I could think was A: this could be another planet and B: This ice looks like a gorgeous sheet of marble. Then you have to stop and think about how awesome it is to be out in Iceland with your crampons and ice axe walking on a glacier. And then you realize that your ice axe is sort of more for show as this is nothing more than a leisurely informative guided stroll, and your expectations of rappelling down glaciers is really on the other tour you didn't want to spend $300 or 4 hours on.
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| Glacier in Iceland |
