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This adventure tour will take you to Vatnajokull, Europe's largest glacier. An expert glacier guide will accompany you while you discover among the crevasses and glacier sculptures of Falljökull glacial tongue in Skaftafell nature reserve. Surrounded by majestic scenery, you'll be able to experience the power of the living glacier. It's a fairly easy to moderate walk with real ice crampons attached to your hiking boots.
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Iceland is the type of place that makes you feel small and fragile – even powerless when immersed in all this surreal nature and truly spectacular scenery. So let's take it up close and personal, feeling and understanding the strongest shaping force on earth - glaciers.
Before starting our hike, we need to gear you up. It's vital to have the correct footwear for glacier hiking. If you don't have proper boots, don't worry - we'll have you covered with boots to rent. Your safety is our number one priority wherever we go. We provide ice crampons and teach you to attach them correctly to the boots. Crampons make it easy to walk on the ice so that there's no worry of slipping. Other security items include helmets and ice axes.
This glacier tongue is an outlet of the immense Glacier Vatnajökull, Europe's largest glacier, which ice is 1,000 years old.
Glaciers are made from fallen snow instead of frozen water, as some may think. But how does the snow turn into ice then? Simply by compression due to the weight of the snow as it keeps accumulating. It's just like taking a handful of fluffy snow and squeezing it into a hard snowball and doing so for hundreds of years. The ice eventually gets so compressed that most of the air is forced out of it. This effect is what causes glacial ice to appear blue.
A glacier is a river of ice. It flows. That's because the highly compressed layers of ice are very flexible. At locations where a glacier flows rapidly, giant cracks called crevasses are formed. This is why it's so dangerous to walk on a glacier - the crevasses sometimes get covered by snow. Your guide may show you the ice ax spots that may look like solid ice and snow but are steep drops just covered in a light dusting of snow.
Iceland is known for unforeseeable weather. It is likely that you can see all 4 seasons in one day.
Dressing for that kind of weather can always be demanding, so we suggest dressing in layers. 3 or 4 upper layers are highly recommended, for example, a light t-shirt (preferably wool) next to the skin, then a fleece or heavy wool garment topped off with a waterproof windbreaker.
Jeans are not recommended for our trips as they are not suitable for the weather conditions, they become very heavy, cold and uncomfortable to wear when they get wet.
Lightweight hiking pants, track pants or long cotton pants are convenient and wear wind/waterproof pants over them. There is high UV and sunlight reflecting off on the glacier so we highly recommend using sunglasses and sunscreen even if it is cloudy.
You will need sturdy hiking boots that fit crampons for the glacier hiking tours. If you do not own a pair then we rent out suitable hiking boots as well as a waterproof raincoat and trousers.
It is good to bring your own backpack on our full-day or half-day tours. It’s the best carry-on for a small lunch, extra clothes, and other necessary items.
The scenery on the tour is full of stunning, breathtaking views that you’ll almost definitely want to capture forever, so you should definitely bring your camera along. Your tour guide will also be happy to take your photo.
This is surely a personal choice, we do not deny pregnant women on our glacier trips but we highly recommend you to take a closer look at our trip description and difficulty ratings, they will hopefully give you a better idea. We also recommend you to contact your physician, as pregnant women’s health can be quite different. If you have any further questions or concerns then feel free to contact us.
Lunch is not provided on any of our trips, therefore we recommend you bring your own lunch, snacks, and a bottle of water (you can refill it on the trip). It is especially important to make sure you bring lunch on our longer trips.
Crampons enable you to walk on the glacier ice without slipping. They are metal spikes that we attach to the soles of your hiking shoes.
Yes, we have specially trained and certified glacier guides on every glacier tour that we offer. And for our 3rd party tours we only partner with operators that meet our quality and safety standards.
Yes, we provide you with all the necessary glacier gear for our glacier hiking tours. Ice axes, crampons, harnesses, and helmets are provided. This will help you to complete the tour safely. The minimum shoe size to attach crampons is EU 35.
Iceland is known to have a lot of snow and when the snow stays long enough in one place than it turns to ice. Over long periods of time, the ice layers up becoming huge blocks called glaciers. It forms to create ginormous glaciers that sweep across huge masses of land. Iceland is home of the largest glacier in Europe that is called Vatnajökull. The Glacier Guides can tell you more about and everything you need to know about the Glaciers.
Rain is common in Iceland but we never let the rain be in our way to go forward with our tours.
That’s why we highly recommend appropriate clothing so you can stay warm and dry.
Nature is out of our control and therefore we need to adapt to the weather. Your safety is our priority so if your safety is compromised by going on the tour then we will cancel it and you will get full reimbursement.
The guide on your glacier hiking tour will provide you with all the information you might need when preparing for a glacier hike.
Yes, the parking fee depends on your car category.
Category A - Passenger car, 5 seats or less: ISK 750
Category B - Passenger car, 6-9 seats: ISK 1,000
Motorcycles: ISK 300
You can always check the newest fees here.
