[bind10-dev] Iceland travel tips

[Shawn Routhier]

On Apr 24, 2012, at 5:46 PM, Tomek Mrugalski wrote:

> Hi,
> 
> 
> 
> - Glaciers. You can see a glacier and actually walk on a glacier. There
> are couple options available. The easiest and most expensive one is to
> just book a trip. IIRC that is around 20.000 kronas or more. The other
> possible way is to drive to base of the glacier and take a tour from
> there. I paid for it 6300kronas for 1,5h experience (it was in
> south-eastern part of Iceland, but I assume similar price level is in
> areas closer to Reykjavik. Those two gets you a guide, cram-ons (the
> thing you put on your shoes with sharp tooth-like blades that make
> walking even on slippery ice very easy and usually an ice axe. Ice axe
> looks awesome, but is mostly useful for photos).
> 
> The last and cheapest option is to go on a glacier on your own. Contrary
> to some popular concerns, you don't die automatically if you haven't
> paid. We (DHCP team) did this and apparently we are still alive and are
> well. Glacier is basically an enormously huge chunk of ice. It melts
> slowly, so its surface is actually very porous and is not slippery. We
> walked for a 100 meters or so. Shawn enjoyed is so much that he booked
> an all day trip.
> 

Having just got back from the glacier I thought it might be useful
to add some comments.

The tour bus option is indeed about 20k (there are two companies
that do them for 19,900 Krona).  I think both of the companies will
come to the hotel to collect you and drop you off so you don't even
need to get to the central spot.  This gets you 3-4 hours or so on the
glacier.   The whole trip is 9-10 hours.

The guide stated that the ice is basically safe now.  In the winter
snow drifts into the cauldrons and crevasses making them difficult
to spot.  If you do walk into one you may go through the snow and
get trapped.  Now most of the snow has melted so they are visible
and you can avoid them easily.  There are some that have snow
in them - it tends to look a little like a gravel surface.  Walking on
them could lead to falling through and is not recommended.  Also
walking to the edge of a cauldron or crevasse is not recommended
as the edges could collapse.

Crampons are useful as in some places the ice can be slick but
didn't seem to be truly necessary.  As Tomek mentioned the ice
axe is basically for photos - except if you try the group that does
ice climbing - though I'm not sure where they could climb.  One
thing they were useful for was giving a little more height to my
shoes.  I was in running shoes that are not waterproof the crampons
helped keep my out of the water.  You could also do this by avoiding
the streams.  :)

I did the 3 hour tour and was happy with it but once you get up on
the glacier a bit it is somewhat the same.  If you wanted to hike up
farther you could see the ice falls which might be interesting but
the guide figured that at a 5 hour hike (there and back).  We didn't
get anywhere near them, I'm not sure if there might be more dangers
that far up.

You won't see a lot of blue ice.  As the ice has had chances to melt
and re-freeze it gets a more white color instead of the traditional blue
of glaciers.

While you won't get to see as far if it is raining you might actually get
a better view of the glacier itself.  They do run the tours in the rain.
Obviously you should have good gear to stay dry.  I believe one of
the tour companies can help with this if you need it.

The tour I did stops at a couple of waterfalls one of which you can go
behind.  (Be prepared to get wet).  (I think the other does as well.)

If the crater erupts while you are on the ice you have about 2 hours before
the flood hits.  Run to the sides of the glacier and get up the dirt side.
Running to the bottom of the glacier is contra-indicated as that's
where all the water is going, you don't want to be there as well.
I think she also pointed out that this one is overdue for an eruption. :)