We booked for glaciers walk tour today with Extreme Iceland, and the tour start at 10 AM. We reach the meeting point, which is next to petrol station opposite of Skaftafell Hotel (Freysnes) at around 9:30 AM and some travelers already getting ready there as well. After a while, tour guide is here, and they open up a container there in which it is full of safety equipment and glacier gear. We sit on the table one by one, and he is helping us to measure our shoes size in order to get a suitable ice crampon for each of us, along with ice axes, helmet, and safety gears.
Once it is ready, we board s mini bus and they lead us towards Svinafellsjokull glaciers location which is on the back of Skaftafell Hotel there.
Special hill on the road side.
Sue Hui getting ready for the glacier walk.
To the left is Skaftafell glaciers, and to the right is Svínafellsjökull Glacier, our destination today.
Sunrise incoming from the east side.
Bucket of ice crampons.
Ice axes.
Target glaciers, just on the back of this house.
Tour guide helping each of us measuring the shoes size.
Everyone is busy wearing the equipment.
Tour guide briefing while on the way to destination.
The group are divided into two, and luckily all 8 of us are assign with a same tour guide. We have a walk in normal road for around 10 minutes before we start to surrounded by glaciers all around us. It was so stunning, yesterday we just watching over these glaciers from top of a hill, and today we gonna step on it!
Our tour guide instruct us to put on our ice crampons correctly, and we start to make our ways onto the glaciers! First feeling stepping on the glacier make me feel so small and powerless, when immersed in this surreal nature and truly spectacular scenery.
Svinafellsjokull glacier tongue is an outlet of immense Glacier Vatnajökull, and the ice is 1,000 years old. It was make up by fallen snow with constant compression due to the weight of the snow as it keeps accumulating, for hundreds up to thousands of years. These ice eventually get so compressed that most of the air is force out of it, causing it to appearing blue. The glaciers is also called river of ice, as it keep on flowing.
What a great day for this!
Finally we are standing next to glaciers.
Team A getting ready for the exploration.
Hybrid getting ready as well.
Thin ice on the glaciers.
Getting ready while listening to the safety briefing again.
Let's start the walk! Photo credited to Hybrid.
Snow capped mountain, hill, and the glaciers in one.
Crystal blue ice within.
Zoom in of the crystal blue glacier.
Team A look so small there.
Stepping on glaciers, unique experience.
Jenson: Hey, keep on moving please.... Photo credited to Hybrid.
Unreal scenery. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Jenson standing on glaciers. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Continue our walks~
You can see that there is quite some soil on these pure white glaciers, according to our tour guide it was due to some landslide that happen less than a year ago, causing the soil from nearby hill to drop onto these glaciers. Imagine that without those soil, this place will be even more incredible and spectacular!
Certain area with lots of soil.
Tiny people on the glaciers.
Very spectacular view towards the glaciers.
Came over here guys.
The incredible surrounding of Svínafellsjökull glaciers.
CJ with the great glaciers.
Pure blue in color.
Giant cracks called crevasses.
Have to be extra careful not to step into these crevasses.
Tour guide telling us history about the glaciers.
We are surrounding by these great glaciers.
Glad that we having this weather for today tour.
Size of other group of travelers is like ants.
Our tour guide finding a spot to axes for some clean ices for us to try, which is as old as 1000 years!
Continue axing!
Century old ice axed fresh from the glaciers.
Tasting the ice. Photo credited to Hybrid.
CJ ready to test the ice too. Photo credited to Hybrid.
CK with the great glaciers. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Ying Ying with the great glaciers. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Gary with the great glaciers. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Me with the great glaciers. Photo credited to Hybrid.
On to another direction. Take 1.
On to another direction. Take 2.
On to another direction. Take 3.
Awesome in every perspective.
Awesome in every perspective.
Awesome in every perspective.
Group pass by the great glaciers.
We are so small and powerless under this natural wonder.
Cool tour guide waiting for us.
Another view towards the Svínafellsjökull glaciers.
Why we enjoy the scenery around, I accidentally discovered that there are something there in between the crevasses. I looked carefully, and come to surprise it was a DSLR camera down there! It might look near, but it is definitely not easy to reach it, and it is extremely dangerous.
It looks so near to reach.
But it is impossible without proper climbing gear.
Huge blocks of glaciers.
Finally there is chance to utilize the ice axes!
Group photo take 1. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Group photo take 2. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Group photo take 3. Photo credited to Hybrid.
Group photo with our tour guide! Photo credited to Hybrid.
Ready to join team A back and return to the car.
The crevasses to the right is where the camera is.
Tour guide is leading the way.
New incoming group heading towards the middle of the glaciers.
Team A is here.
Before i broke the thin ice.
After i broke the thin ice, the hole to the right.
Newly formed thin ice.
Crystal blue ice within.