Laugavegur - variant
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 33.66 mi
- Elevation gain
- 6,204 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 7,644 ft
- Max elevation
- 3,588 ft
- TrailRank
-
48
4.3
- Min elevation
- 737 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- one day 9 hours 36 minutes
- Coordinates
- 3666
- Uploaded
- August 17, 2008
- Recorded
- September 2006
near Skeiðflötur, Vestur-Skaftafellssysla (Ísland)
Viewed 15198 times, downloaded 829 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
Note that for Icelanders the trail only runs between Landmannalaugar and Þórsmörk (or Básar), the leg between Þórsmörk and Skógar (Fimmvörðuháls) is only included by foreigners, who often do the trail south to north - Icelanders almost always start in Landmannalaugar.
Waypoints
Mountain hut
728 ft
Básar
10-SEP-06 11:39:41 Our destination
Tree
1,270 ft
Bjórgil
A nice place for lunch. If it rains note that the lava on the southern side actually forms an overhanging shelter
Waypoint
1,873 ft
Bláfjallakvísl
One of many rivers to ford. WikiLoc could use a pictograph for river crossings ...
Mountain hut
1,591 ft
Botnar
09-SEP-06 12:59:14 The third overnight stop on a "normal" (four day) hike. We just walked past.
Waypoint
0 ft
Bratthálskvísl
The second river to cross, this one is normally very shallow. The ford shown is that on the route via Álftavatn, on this occasion we forded the river far upstream.
Summit
2,936 ft
Brennisteinsalda
One of Iceland's most beautiful mountains (in terms of colouration).
Waypoint
0 ft
Grashagakvísl 1
This is where one normally wades across Grashagakvísl on the way to Álftavatn. If heading for Hvanngil you may want to check out the upstreaam location ("Grashagakvísl 2") where we managed to jump across though the river was in flood.
Waypoint
2,464 ft
Grashagakvísl 2
This is where we made our "stepping stone" way across Grashagakvísl despite it being in flood. Risky but rewarding .....
Mountain hut
1,949 ft
Hvanngil
A very comfortable hut where we spent the night.
Mountain hut
3,422 ft
Höskuldsskáli
This hut is where most people spend their first night (if hiking north to south), usually taking an evening stroll to the ice caves on the other side of Hrafntinnusker. We made a brief stop on our way past in the pouring rain ...
Waypoint
726 ft
Krossárbrú
Although my track ends on the northern shore of Krossá I felt I should indicate the location of the bridge - it isn't obvious.
Waypoint
840 ft
Ljósárbrú
This river runs in a deep gully underneath the bridge, well worth stopping to look down!
Waypoint
1,784 ft
N Emstruá
There are only two ways to cross this river - across the bridge or on the glacier where it originates. Any variations on the Laugavegur theme are constrained by this fact.
Waypoint
1,210 ft
S Emstruá
Like its sibling, the Northern Emstruá, this river can only be crossed via the bridge - in this case a pedestrian-only affair with interesting approaches on both sides.
Mountain hut
761 ft
Skagfjörðsskáli
This is really too grand an affair to be called a hut, I guess "lodge" would be a better fit.
Tree
2,959 ft
Stórihver
The name means "big (hot) spring" - this place is about right for a lunchbreak if you started your hike at Landmannalaugar and intend to spend the night at Hrafntinnusker.
Comments (2)
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I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
yay!
I have followed this trail View more
Information
Easy to follow
Scenery
Moderate
One of the most beautiful trails I've done. Everchanging, unique scenery, great trail planning.
Weather conditions affect the experience strongly (as everywhere else in Iceland) so plan accordingly.