Who hasn’t, at some point in their life, dreamed about strapping on a harness and spikes to scale a mountain face and climbing to the summit of somewhere like Mt. Everest? We certainly have. But how about upping the ante a little bit and scaling a glacier in Iceland?
With this guided glacier tour in Vatnajökull National Park on PlacePass, you can actually say that you scaled a glacier in Iceland.
Sign up and you’ll be getting suited up in some seriously technical gear provided by your guide. The harness and helmet seem standard compared to some more intense glacier trekking gear like ice axes or crampons.
Before you know it, you’ll be stomping your way across the vast sheet of ice that seems to go on forever. On this tour you’ll encounter Falljökull, which translates to “falling glacier,” and it’s easy to see why.
Credit: Eric Yun 
Credit: Eric Yun
From the top of the glacier you can see the jagged wall of ice with a vibrant blue hue. It has this jagged formation and color because every so often huge blocks of ice break off from above and fall to the bottom with a thunderous crash.
Your guide will take you to the site of the icefall where you can see the chunks of ice that are the size of a house littering the steep, tall face, like they were just mere pebbles. The deep, pure blue chunks signal newly sheared pieces, and the whiter chunks signify the older pieces.
Need another humbling fact to go explore these glaciers in Iceland ASAP? Many scientists estimate that most of Iceland’s glaciers will be gone within decades if the current melt rates persist. Even Falljökull has been spreading out due to the melt rate toward the end of the lagoon it sits on.
Explore the majesty of Iceland’s glaciers and learn a thing or two about how to conserve them on this guided glacier tour from PlacePass.