Ice Breaker

I decided that it was about time to take a proper trip again. The destination was a simple choice of where I could go on the cheap. Iceland was the winner. For this trip I wanted to do things that I did not have a chance to experience the last two times I was here.

My first Iceland bucket list item was seeing the northern lights. On a 4+ hour trip in a convoy of super jeeps I got a peek at the lights for 15 minutes. They ended up being very dim and did not yield any good photo results. The hunt was not a total bust as we were rewarded with some tricky off-roading up snow and ice covered terrain, fireworks, and a new treat; Icelandic vodka + hot cocoa.

For my second adventure I wanted to finally do a glacier walk (they are not offered in the summer, I wonder why?) and test my athletic inability with some ice-climbing. Yes, my fat ass made it to the top after a struggle that involved my crampon falling off mid-climb and having to restart from the bottom again. But I digress, it was an absolutely beautiful day for a walk on the Sólheimajökull Glacier. It was a fun time walking around with crampons on and an ice axe, avoiding crevices and the fresh snow hiding deep drops. The blue ice and views of the glacier pool forming after the receding glacier are truly spectacular. I will let the photos below do the talking for how beautiful of a hike it is.

Tomorrow I set off on a six hour drive for the Southeast coast, where I will be exploring ice caves, the Black Sand Beach of Reynisfjara, the Jökulsárlón glacier lagoon, Diamond Beach and hopefully experiencing a better showing of the northern lights should weather permit.