Hiking glaciers in Sólheimajökull, Iceland

On an afternoon on the second day of my Icelandic road trip, I went hiking on Sólheimajökull, which is a glacier tongue of Mýrdalsjökull, Iceland's fourth-largest glacier. I'd seen pictures of people hiking up all sorts of cool places (cool? Get it? Ha ha) and I'd always wanted to be one of those people wearing really awesome-looking gear.

But first, in order to go hiking I had to get there. Getting to Sólheimajökull was a challenge in itself, though - we missed the turn-off the Ring Road more than once, and when we finally made it in the right direction the roads were awful! Completely unpaved gravel road - hearing gravel clatter and hit the metal underneath the car was almost frightening.

With that sort of road, no wonder all the vehicles look like this.

Iceland - where even the buses have monster wheels.

We did make it to the carpark and the foot of Sólheimajökull, though, and just in time for the hiking too it seemed - the guide was handing out gear just as we pulled in!

I was fitted for crampons (my guide had to rummage in the other basket for the kid-sized ones, ha ha!), handed my own ice-axe, and given a pair of waterproof pants to pull over my jeans (it was ice, after all). Just having these made me feel more professional already - like a real hiker.

Since I was going up on ice, I also made sure to dress really well with scarves, thick gloves and warm socks. After all, ice was going to be cold, wasn't it?

My pair of crampons.

Crampons are these spikes that attach to the bottom of a regular shoe and make walking on ice really easy, digging into the ice instead of you slipping around everywhere. Walking around in them on the ground was strange for a little bit, but once we got to the ice they were absolutely perfect - just like walking on regular ground, except on ice.



The ice was as blue as water, not the regular white stuff you usually see, and that surprised me. I thought if anything that the ice would be like compressed snow, but really it was more like an giant iceberg. From the bottom, Sólheimajökull seems unimpressive - although beautifully carved and sculpted, the dust

Once we started hiking, it became painfully clear to me just how out-of-shape I was - while everyone in the group was happily climbing uphill, I had to be conscious of taking really deep breaths and I could hear my heart beating in my ears. Clearly, living in a flat full of girls constantly feeding me slutty brownies and cheesecake wasn't doing me that much good!

After what seemed like a forever of effort and endless white, we finally made it to the plateau and I could stop and catch my breath. And you know what? The view is always better from the top.

Sólheimajökull and the hills behind it.

Although the glacier looks still and unchanging, it's actually more like a frozen river - it's ice, but it moves and flows the way that water does. Wind, heat and shade all combine to form a maze of shaped ice and valley. In summer when the temperatures rise, the glacier is less stable and more prone to collapse than it is in the winter cold, although the glacier is still there all year round.

I never knew that glaciology was an entire subject area, but then I realised that of course it must be - what else are scientists doing down in Antartica?

It was clear that he was passionate about and fascinated by glaciers. "Every day up here is different," he said. "The ice is always changing."

I was briefly reminded of the song Around The Riverbend from Pocahontas.

Almost like a North Pole expedition team!

It was fascinating to be up on the glacier looking at the thousand different shades of snow and ice and how they were all sculpted by the forces of nature. I don't think it really hit me that I was standing on ice until I saw some of the ice melting and forming small streams, carving out even more of the ice along its way!

About halfway through, I started to feel really warm because of the sun beating down on us. It didn't make any sense to me, since we were literally standing on ice - but I started to regret bringing those extra scarves and gloves. There wasn't even any wind either, which I had learned by now was very unusual for Iceland, although I was appreciating not having to battle against wind!

On the way down, we stopped to take a look down a cave that had formed in the ice.



Called glacier caves, these are formed by meltwater running through and under the glacier. From above, they don't look like much - it's when you go inside, being careful not to step in the meltwater on the ground, that it looks truly spectacular.




The blue from the inside of the cave was surreal - the most vibrant, vivid ice-blue. The sides of the cave, too - grooves and ledges of all sorts carved by meltwater. As if a testament to nature being ever-changing, glacier caves are only temporary and ones like these would collapse once temperatures rose in summer.




As we finally headed back down from the glacier, we happened to chance upon this group of people having a go at ice-climbing. I felt kinda bad for the guy climbing - I bet he must've been really stressed with so many people watching him climb! Ha ha!




On the way down, our guide started telling us about how the nearby volcano Katla, Iceland's most active and destructive volcano, was due to erupt soon and how there had been up to 300 minor earthquakes a day in the area, signs of imminent eruption.

My inner adrenaline junkie started paying attention - how cool would it be if we had been hiking and Katla had gone off, melting all the ice and forcing us to run to run uphill to get away from searing hot molten lava? I secretly started hoping that Katla would blow her top while we were hiking. Of course, that might not have ended very well, but it would be the most awesome thing ever.

I made a mental note to head back to Iceland when the next volcano erupted.



After an admittedly exhausting time hiking the glacier, I was ready to head onward to the next destination. One thing did seem a little bit strange, though, as I checked the mirror in the car - could it possibly be that going up on the glacier had given me a tan?

Íslenskir Fjallaleiðsögumenn - Icelandic Mountain Guides
Sólheimajökull Exploration
Address: Stórhöfði 33, 110 Reykjavík
Email: info@mountainguides.is
Tel: +354 587 9999
Fax: +354 522 4971

Disclaimer: I was invited to review this tour by Icelandic Mountain Guides. All thoughts are my own and I received no compensation for this review. Icelandic Mountain Guides did not ask that I go tanning on the glacier.