Iceland Day 5
Day 5 in Iceland continued the majestic ice theme with a hike on Falljökull glacier! Yes, we hiked up onto a glacier, and it was incredible. But first before the hike, we went to Fjaðrárgljúfur Canyon, which had some excellent views.
Then it was time to hike Falljökull glacier! We met our guide at the tiny airport near the glacier (they have a lot of helicopter and propeller plane tours over the glacier). We hopped in their super jeep with one other family, and headed in. This photo was taken from where the super jeep was parked. Note the tiny people walking up (not us).
Jen, near the base of the glacier.
View from on the glacier, part way up.
The four of us on Falljökull glacier. We had much bigger/scarier crampons than the ice cave (understandably), plus everyone had their own ice axe. The harnesses were not used, but we were required to wear them in case someone slipped and needed to be rescued.
Looking up the glacier.
Here's a view of the surrounding landscape from about half way up our hike.
The four of us, up on Falljökull glacier, complete with crampons and ice axes. It was awesome!
Our guide had us peer down this very deep crack in the glacier (and she kept hold of us in case we slipped).
Our group was handling the hike well, so our guide had us hike up some more. It got a bit steeper up here.
Molly and Jen on top of the glacier. Well, not really, as it is really tall. But on top of this part at least.
After a sunny start (a rarity in Iceland), the clouds rolled in. And I don't mean above us, they rolled into us. It got very wet and rainy, but we were prepared.
We had to learn how to hike downhill in crampons.
All of us drank from the river flowing on the glacier doing a Viking pushup on the ice axe.
The glacier was truly magnificent. It's impossible to capture the scale of it in pictures. And Falljökull is really just an outlet glacier of the huge Vatnajökull glacier which covers 8% of Iceland.
After our hike, we headed to new lodgings. There's not a lot of civilization around the glacier, so finding a place was challenging. Jen found an AirBnB about 20 minutes away that would let us spend just one night. It looked like a metal warehouse building from outside, but was a lovely 2 bedroom apartment on the inside.
The house may not have looked like much, but the view was not bad.
Table of contents for the whole trip
