Snæfellsjökull traverse
Trail photos
Author
Trail stats
- Distance
- 6.99 mi
- Elevation gain
- 4,751 ft
- Technical difficulty
- Moderate
- Elevation loss
- 2,864 ft
- Max elevation
- 4,761 ft
- TrailRank
-
45
5
- Min elevation
- 250 ft
- Trail type
- One Way
- Time
- 5 hours 17 minutes
- Coordinates
- 1580
- Uploaded
- July 21, 2010
- Recorded
- July 2010
near Ólafsvík, Vesturland (Ísland)
Viewed 6893 times, downloaded 104 times
Trail photos
Itinerary description
We had been having a heat wave for days, the temperature hovered around 20°C and there was no wind. Luckily I had plenty of liquids because there is no water to be had until at an elevation of more than 1300 metres.
My route basically followed the skyline in the title photograph from left to right. for more photos visit my SmugMmug album, just click the title of this track above (sorry about the captions being in Icelandic!).
Waypoints
Summit
4,511 ft
Antenna Shed
19-JUL-10 15:44:40 Just below the westernmost of the peaks, "Vesturþúfa", this antenna shed nestles on a little hill. You can walk all the way up there without ever stepping on snow!
Car park
2,156 ft
End
19-JUL-10 17:59:38 This marks the location of the summer road which crosses the peninsula east of the glacier. the images were taken just short of the raod and show, respectively, the view towrds the road and towards the glaicer.
Panorama
3,333 ft
Glacier's Edge
19-JUL-10 17:24:15 This location marks the edge of the glaicer proper - though there are disconnected snow fields at lower elevations.
Car park
213 ft
Start
19-JUL-10 12:41:44 This is where I started the hike, though the second image was made at the end after I hitched a ride back to my car.
Comments (4)
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Very nice pictures indeed!!
I went to the top one week before, but as "sily tourist" on ice track :( I hope to reach the pick again next summer
Greetings from Madrid
Pakitín
If following your route, do we need ice axe or crampons? Is this a technical hike? The ice cracks in the pictures look dangerous. I was in Iceland 7 years ago and I may go again this summer. I will find many tourists, it seems... :-(
But still an amazing country.
The common way to explore glaciers is to go there in spring when crevasses are still filled with snow. This definitely requires full glacier equipment, i.e. crampons, ice axe and a line with at least four people.
I used a different approach, I did this late enough in the season (late summer) to give confidence that all crevasses would be visible - I then simply stepped over them or avoided them. I think I was quite safe - but I obviously cannot guarantee anything.
I would bring all the equipment (though a line and belts don't really make sense unless there are four or more people) and use it if needed. You can rent the gear in Reykjavik.
Hey! Thank you so much for sharing this track.
Could you please tell us the current state of the road? Is it feasible with glacier equipment? If we want to do it in the next few days, is it safe? Thanks again.