Iceland. Laki - Nupstadaskogar - Skaftafell
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 76.13 mi
- Elevation gain
- 7,356 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Experts only
- Elevation loss
- 8,953 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,727 ft
- TrailRank
- 24
- Min elevation
- 262 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Coordinates
- 423
- Uploaded
- October 21, 2018
- Recorded
- October 2018
near Kirkjubæjarklaustur, Suðurland (Lýðveldið Ísland)
Viewed 1129 times, downloaded 45 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
One of the "old" backpacking tours. Set up by a Frenchman, who lives in Iceland, several years back. Paths/trails only visible for a total of a few km. One does not need crampons crossing Sidujokull but crossing Skeidararjokull means full gear: crampons, ice axe, ropes, carabiners and other necessary equipment for cravasse-rescue operations. And the knowledge to use the gear. This way across Skeidararjokull is the "old" one and much more complicated / boring / hard than the one I have used the last years. River Djupa was a bitch (as well as the river flowing into (the former/now vanished) Graenalon ) - one would have to get up early to cross it (get across no later than 6 o´clock in the morning, as its volume decreases during the cold hours of the night) but after the eruption in Vatnajokull glacier in 2011 it went from flowing in one lane to spreading out into 4 - 5 lanes - which are very easily crossed. So - the first part, Laki - Nupstadaskogar is easy but because of the tricky Skeidararjokull, the second part calls for expertise knowledge of crossing glaciers. There could also be problems in the mountains between Skeidararjokull and Skaftafell and the ridge / saddle might be impassible, as happened in 2016 (overhanging snow / risk of avalanches) - so people should know what they are dealing with. And one thing: check map.is. google maps are showing old landscape. Compare the Graenalon lagoon for example.
Comments (2)
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Hei Brynjólfur,
Do you have any current information (for the summer) about where you can access the eastern edge of Sidujökull? And cross the Dujpa? It's about a connection Langisjor - Graenalon - Skaftafjell.
We (my wife and me) are very experienced (glacier) trekkers.
It would be great if you could help - Thanks a lot!
Hi! I believe that noone has "exact" information about the conditions up there now (7th June). Actually, there hasn´t been a certain spot to point to, in terms of being the correct one to get on to the glacier. The changes from year to year are too radical. One has to improvise when arriving. Same about fording Djúpá. The ford is just north of where the river splits (as seen on the map here) into three lanes. One can expect the depth of the river to be up to hip across the ford. In case of serious snow-melting (early summer (whenever summer arrives...)) one might have to wait until early morning next day. If Djúpa is still flowing in many lanes (as from 2011) crossing is not a problem (might call for some zig-zagging: it is all about choosing the shallowest parts of each lane). Where do you plan to access the glacier close to Langisjór? or do you plan to wade across Skaftá? Cheers!