Holy Smithereens!

Travel Ideas for the Luxurious Adventurer

  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Destinations
  • PR / Media
  • Contact

Glacier Hike and Ice Climbing in Iceland

October 29, 2013 by Jean Holy Smithereens 2 Comments

Hike a Glacier. Climb an Ice. 

For many years, they sounded like flights of fancy that I can only imagine myself doing. So when I knew we were actually going to Iceland, a place filled with, well, ICE and glaciers, I wasted no time searching and booking for a tour.

Arctic Adventures in Laugavegur St in Reykjavik
Arctic Adventures in Laugavegur St in Reykjavik

Booking with Arctic Adventures was a breeze.

All communications from day 1 (of when I just inquired online) which was months before the trip until thousands of kilometers and hours later, when I finally set foot on their office- turnaround was very quick and someone always assured me that my trip/s are booked. So when D-Day came, I was very excited to spend the day ice climbing and glacier hiking with them.

They picked us up from our hotel promptly, and we drove about 40 minutes outside of Reykjavik.

IMG_0041
Getting Ready: Glacier Hike and Ice Climb. The Blue Ice Tour by Arctic Adventures
IMG_0043
How to walk with Crampons: Glacier Hike and Ice Climb tour with Arctic Adventures

Our guide Dori, wasted no time in rounding up our group and thoroughly explained the safety guidelines as most of us haven’t done any of the 2 activities of the day.

Most of all, he explained how to use CRAMPONS. 

IMG_0053
Crampons: a necessity when ice climbing and hiking
Crampons: a necessity when ice climbing and hiking
Crampons: a necessity when ice climbing and hiking

Going Ice climbing or hiking without crampons is akin to ice skating without skates. Yes, it is a necessary gear. The sharp spikes will help you maintain grip and balance on ice. So without them you’d be slip and sliding all over the ice.

It is important to have your crampons fitted perfectly
It is important to have your crampons fitted perfectly

Dori made sure all of us had perfect fitting and adjustments in our crampons.

Crampons, check. Pickaxe, check. Ready to ice climb and glacier hike!
Crampons, check. Pickaxe, check. Ready to ice climb and glacier hike!

We were soon climbing the glacier, and the first thing I noticed was the Crunch. Crunch. Crunching sounds everytime someone cleanly stepped on ice , with crampons digging the ice perfectly. It has this nice sound to it, that gives the same effect when you hear bubble packaging pop.

CRUNCH. CRUNCH. CRUNCH.

IMG_0066
Glacier Hiking in Iceland. Don’t forget your crampons!
Glacier Climbing in Iceland: Get your pickaxe ready

All this time, I’d been keeping Dori’s words of wisdom in my head: “Walk like John Wayne. Never like Helena Christensen”

What that meant was, keep an open distance between your legs when you walk. It’s the safest way. If you keep your legs together, the crampon teeth may get caught with one another, or your legs–and, you wouldn’t want to fall face-down on a glacier right?’

IMG_0063
Dropping an ice to see how deep this Moulin is

Every so often we would stop around a moulin ( aka glacier mill). This is a vertical shaft in a glacier, formed by surface water percolating through a crack in the ice.

Dori also told us about the dangers of just gallivanting off on your own in a glacier. A number of people have , as I can imagine, just frolicked off then disappeared into the glacial ground. All of them were found, luckily, and were more dazed than hurt.

After about 30 more minutes of hiking, we finally stopped into an ice wall:

IMG_0082-001
Dori of Atrctic Adventures shows how “easy” it is to ice climb

Now when Dori demonstrated climbing on ice, it looked real easy. Kind of like having super velcro attached to your arms. He even made sideway moves while in the ice.

Surely this can’t be harder than rock climbing right?

P1030742
Ice Climbing in Iceland: It ain’t like rock climbing.

 

Ice Climbing in Iceland:It ain't like rock climbing
Ice Climbing in Iceland:It ain’t like rock climbing

HA. Ha. ha. This makes rock climbing seem like playing jack and stones!

Well, for one, you need Double the strength.

For the upper body/arms:1.) Strength to stab the ice with your pick axe strong enough for the blade to wedge cleanly, in order to 2.) hoist yourself up to the next level! AND 3.) the strength to GET THAT BLADE OUT of the ice once more, the repeat number 1.

For your feet: Strength to use your toe and picks from the crampons to kick inwards and lodge your foot there, hoping it is stable enough to get yourself higher.

Ice Climbing in Iceland
Ice Climbing in Iceland

P1030738

It’s definitely an experience that I thought would be easier. But I’m so glad that we tried it. Because I know for sure that I will do it again!

Here’s a short video of how the day was:

Ice Climbing and Glacier Hiking in Iceland
Ice Climbing and Glacier Hiking in Iceland

Disclaimer: Arctic Adventures kindly gave us a discounted rate for the Blue Ice tour.

«
»

Filed Under: Adventure, Adventure Travel, Europe, Iceland, Outdoors, Uncategorized

About Jean Holy Smithereens

Jean is a lover of luxury travel and adventure, always looking for that "Holy Smithereens"-inducing moment on her travels. Follow the blog and other social media pages of Holy Smithereens to get the ultimate travel ideas for the luxurious adventurer!

Comments

  1. jan says

    October 29, 2013 at 7:02 pm

    boss!! ang galing!! this is the coolest thing evarrr 😀

    (parang game of thrones lang when they were climbing over the wall. haha)

    Reply
    • Jean | Holy Smithereens says

      October 29, 2013 at 7:42 pm

      Hey Boss!! Haha! thank you. i haven’t seen that episode yet! im sure they weren’t as clumsy as me haha! but hey you should try it im so sure trip mo to 🙂

      Reply

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

LET’S GET SOCIAL

  • Facebook
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

INSTAGRAM

--
[instagram-feed]
  • Home
  • About
  • Blog
  • Destinations
  • PR / Media
  • Contact

Copyright © 2023 · Web Design by Fancy Girl Design Studio