Remember when I said in my last post that Nia and I were most excited about seeing Puffins and Icelandic horses on this trip? Well, not so for Nick. Ever the adventurer, he decided his “must do†was hiking a glacier. And he really wanted us to all do it together (cue me panicking). But this seemed really important to him and I had already failed him on being his SCUBA diving buddy, so I decided to give it a go.
We arrived at the glacier guide service HQ and met Katerina, our adorable, young, petite guide for the day. She took us to a nearby van where we each received a climbing harness in case we fell into a crevasse and had to be pulled out (cue more panicking), crampons (spikey things that attached to our boots), and an ice axe for climbing assistance in tricky areas.
We then got into a rugged Land Rover to take us to the base of the glacier. This was really happening…
Let me go on a little tangent and tell you about our guiding company, Melrakki Adventures. It was a 2 person operation. Our guide, Katerina, was from the Czech Republic and her boyfriend is from Iceland and they live out of a van they renovated. They were both previously tour guides at a larger glacier guiding outfit but didn’t like how big the group sizes were getting or that you spent a majority of the tour time hiking from the parking lot to the base of the glacier. This inspired them to set up their own company 2 years ago and what makes them unique is that they cap their groups at 8, use a Land Rover so that they can take you right up to the base of the glacier and start an hour earlier so that you’re the first ones on the glacier. I can’t even tell you what a difference this made in our experience and would highly, highly recommend using them. Even better, their prices are in line with the other companies that have much larger group sizes!
Now back to the climbing experience. We drove to the base of the glacier and had to cross a rickety bridge (only 1 at a time!) over a river that was made from glacier runoff. We then had about a 10 minute hike on gravel/rocks until we stopped to put on our crampons.
It took awhile to get them on but then we were good to go and taking our first steps on the icy glacier. There were some important rules when using crampons: 1.) do not get too close to your neighbor to avoid spiking their leg, 2.) walk like a penguin with your feet apart a bit so you don’t spike yourself or trip, 3.) always go perpendicular up a hill, not sideways, lest you tip over and 4.) they only work if you use lots of pressure, so step with force and trust they will hold you. And lo and behold, they held. But I had to put a lot of faith in those little metal spikes…
Our entire tour was 3 hours and I’d guess that we spent about 2 hours of that hiking on the actual glacier. It was a serious workout. My calves and gluts hurt soooo bad. Guess I don’t work those muscles enough!
We stopped at one point when we found a glacier stream and Katerina put her ice axe across the stream and showed each of us how to do a “Viking Push-up†and take a drink from the stream. It was a very novel experience and yes, the water was as cold as you’d imagine! Nia loved it so much she did it a few times. I was a little worried that it would be dirty from the volcanic dust that was on the glacier but it was crystal clear and so delicious. We even went ahead and refilled our water bottle in the stream!
I ended up really loving the experience and am so grateful that Nick encouraged us to go. It checked off so many boxes: unique experience that was new to us, no crowds, top-notch tour company and stellar views. Would highly recommend glacier hiking with Melrakki Tours to anyone coming to Iceland. Basing yourself in Skaftafell for a night or two sets you up perfectly.
