We so thoroughly enjoyed our glacier hike in Alaska three years ago that we very much wanted to do another one when visiting Vatnajökull National Park in southeast Iceland.
Vatnajökull National Park comprises a significant part of east Iceland. It was formerly two national parks, Skaftafell in the south and Jökulsárgljúfur in the north, but they were combined in 2008 to add some territory in the highlands in between. We really wanted to see Jökulsárgljúfur and some other things in north Iceland as well, but time did not permit. So, while we say we saw all three of the national parks in Iceland, this is technically true, but we cheated a little since we missed out on Jökulsárgljúfur.
Skaftafell is a great place to go on a glacier trek, so I booked a Glacier Extreme trip with Glacier Guides. I tried indoor rock climbing with some friends back in January, and it was so much fun that I thought I would like ice climbing.
Vatnajökull itself is an icecap on top of a volcano. At 8100 square km (I am not even going to try that conversion for you), it is the largest icecap outside of the poles. (Source: Lonely Planet's Iceland) Many glaciers hang down from this icecap. Skaftafell is at the south end of this giant formation.
I booked our August trip to Iceland back in March, but I should have booked it in January. The travel agent had originally booked us a hotel in Geirland, 45 minutes west of Skaftafell. Given that we would be going to the park one day and then back further east of it the next day, I said that we would really like to be further east, closer to the park. Quite fortunately, we ultimately were able to get into the Hotel Skaftafell, 10 minutes from the park, from a waiting list. Make your arrangements early.
We met the Glacier Guides at the park and were fitted with crampons, harnesses, and special climbing boots, and issued ice axes. The boots were quite a bit more comfortable than my own--there seems to have been a revolution in hiking boot comfort since I bought mine in 1995 or so. I clearly need new boots.
We met our guide, Steve, from Oxford, England, his assistant, Láki, from Reykjavík, and the other eight people on our tour, all together in a tour group from Russia. How interesting that of twelve people, only three were native English speakers, and yet we were all speaking English to each other. Even Russians speak English now. I pointed out to Eric what a privilege it was to communicate so easily in a foreign country in our own language. "What's the point of conquering the world if you can't get everyone else to speak your language?" he replied.
We boarded a yellow school bus and went off up a bouncy dirt road. Each bus had a different name, and we noticed that ours was named "Lebowski."
We then hiked something like 1.5 km (1 mi) to the retreating edge of the ice.
We set off crunching along the glacier. I just love stomping around in crampons. Steve and Láki showed us how to walk up and down grades on the glacier, which was a little more challenging than it sounds.
Steve gave periodic fascinating geology lessons. He explained that glaciers are formed from snow. The snow turns to ice as it gets compressed under the weight of more snow. I think those of us from the northeastern US are probably somewhat familiar with this process. He said that the glacial ice was 60 m (200 ft) deep. Underneath the first few hard meters, however, it was the texture of honey. This is why it flows on a thick river.
Rocks on the glacier change its shape. Very small rocks get heated through by the sun and melt the ice underneath them. Rocks just a little bit larger rocks shade the ice underneath them and form peaks.
Steve told us that we could fill our water bottles with fresh, 800-year-old glacier water.
South of the road is a very flat area called the sandur. This area is flat because it was formerly underwater. Over the last 10,000 years, basaltic lavas coming down from the volcanoes have built up a 110 km (65 mi) long, 20 km (12 mi) wide strip on the southeast edge of Iceland. (Source: Classic Geology in Europe 3: Iceland)
Next, it was time to climb! Láki climbed up to the top of a vertical wall and mounted rigging points while Steve explained the climbing technique. We would use special climbing axes, one in each hand. One of the Russians, Antony, was eager to climb multiple times, and told us he went to a climbing gym twice a week. They have climbing gyms even in Russia now! Actually, this was somewhat easier than climbing in a climbing gym, because you didn't have to look for handholds and toeholds. You could just make them wherever you wanted!
It got more difficult where the curvature of the wall got steeper near the top, but it was fun and exciting!
There was only one hiker slower than we were, an older lady from Siberia named Natalia. She had actually lived her whole life in Siberia.
Antony climbed it with no axes, just his hands.
We all had to spend a while standing around while other people were taking their turns climbing, and Eric started making the "And my ax!" joke. Antony understood it and started repeating it along with him.
We next went to a place where we could lower ourselves into a crevasse and climb back out. Our guides set up two climbing areas, one easier and one more difficult. Antony said we were going down into Moria. Eric shouted, "You shall not..." and Antony joined him on "...pass!"
It seemed much easier than the other spot, but Steve said it was just that I was getting better at it.
He told us that, when lava hits ice, it can cool quickly and form very tiny particles. The fine ash is so light that it can rise high enough to interfere with airplane engines. It is presence of ice near the volcanoes, he said, that makes Icelandic volcanoes dangerous to air travel. The volcanoes in Hawai'i, where there aren't any glaciers, do not cause this problem.
Glacier mice are rocks that get covered in moss. They are large enough that they form peaks rather than holes underneath them. Eventually, they fall off their peaks and go rolling down the glacier. They land upside-down often enough that they develop moss on all sides.
Steve told us that glacier mice have three organisms living inside them. One of these organisms is the water bear (as, Eric pointed out, discussed on the new Cosmos by Neil deGrasse Tyson). The water bear is one of the toughest organisms in the world. In experiments, water bears have survived both boiling and exposure to temperatures near absolute zero. This is how they survive living on a glacier underneath a volcano.
Eric joked that, to future generations of Icelanders, glaciers will be as legendary as elves and trolls.
Eventually, we got back to the dirt and removed our crampons. I missed them.
Overall, Eric estimates, from various waypoints he took along the way, that we hiked somewhere between five and six km (3-3.5 mi), about half of it on ice. Hard but exciting work!
We returned our equipment, thanked Steve for his guidance and geology lessons, said goodbye to Natalia, and went looking for a geocache in the parking lot.
We had an unremarkable but relatively inexpensive (for Iceland) dinner at a cafeteria in the gas station across from our hotel. We had a pizza and scalloped potatoes. I tried Vatnajókull, a beer made from glacier water.
For only one night in Iceland, we stayed in the same place as the night before. We had a comfortable night.
On to Jökulsárlón Glacial Lagoon.