I found this hike from a guide on the Golden Circle that specifically said not to do this hike because it’s too difficult. It was recommended to have crampons and an ice axe to get over the snowpack. I didn’t have either, but thought I’d see how it was up there. I was right at the end of “snow season”, so it should be fine, I hoped.
The hike starts at Skogafoss, and follows the river all the way up to it’s source. While hiking up there are countless more waterfalls as you get higher.
Starting out in a dense fog, I held out hope I could get above it as the elevation went up.
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Finally, got ahead of the clouds, and the first glimpse of a glacier
Fimmvörðuháls is a volcanic mountain pass that goes right in between 2 gigantic glaciers.
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Unfortunately you can’t bring your dog. This is the ominous bridge marked in hike logs where the difficulty supposedly ramps up quite a bit.
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The environment started looking more like the moon than anything else.
There was an overnight hut way up here.
The snowpack ended up being not too bad. There were some nearly vertical climbs at some spots.
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At the highpoint of the ridge are two volcano craters - Magni & Móði. They are brand new, formed in an eruption in 2010 that was famous for shutting down European flights for a week.
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Magni was a vibrant red color, while Móði had iridescent rocks that change color with the light.
The north side of the pass had views looking out into Þórsmörk (Thor’s Valley)
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And a proper view of the daunting Mýrdalsjökull glacier.
Beginning the descent, there is one of the strangest and most impressive scenes, a massive, perfectly flat plateau that looked like a giant cut the mountain top clean off with a knife.
To make it over there, you need to cross the crux of the trail, a skinny ridge line referred to as the Kattarhyggir (Cat’s spine).
While it looks quite scary, and requires some fixed rope climbing down the start, it wasn’t as bad as many trail reviews say. Although it wasn’t raining or snowing while I was there.
The final trek down into the valley has to be one of the most stunning places on earth. I have never seen anywhere quite like it.
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In order to get back to your car, you need to book a ride on the most badass bus on the planet and go crashing through rivers and mud for 2 hours.
A great hike. I was almost scared off by trail reviews, but it ended up not being very difficult. I do think the thing that can make it hard is if the weather turns, so make sure you have the right gear.
After camping at the waterfall again, the next morning I head out to check out the Golden Circle, first stop at Gullfoss.
Map
Glaciers
There are four huge glaciers that define central Iceland, but Iceland has over a hundred of them.
