Trekking Solheimajokull Glacier

The glistening Solheimajokull Glacier is full of cracks, crevasses, volcanic ash, and people looking for an adventure. Sadly, the glacier itself is receding faster than a 30 year old man's hairline, which means it could potentially be gone in decades. The water right in front of the glacier, known as a glacier lagoon, is from the melting ice. It never used to exist, but every year the glacier shrinks, the lagoon grows. With that being said, there is no time like the present to visit Solheimajokull. If you wait too long, it unfortunately might not be there.

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If you decide you don't want to trek Solheimajokull, you can still park for free in the lot and walk to see it in all its glory from afar. To actually step foot on the glacier though, you need a guide. We decided to book through Arctic Adventures because of their small group sizes, fair prices, and great reviews. Spoiler alert: we loved it!

In the Solheimajokull parking lot, you'll see a big yellow school bus. You can't miss it. That is where you check in and meet your guide for the tour. Once the whole group is there, your guide will take you behind the bus and brief you on how to not die while on the glacier. Just kidding, but your guide will tell you basic safety rules and give you your gear. You'll get a harness (which is to look cool for pictures), helmet, crampons, and ice axe. I didn't know what I was doing, but I sure looked the part.

We made our way to the base of the glacier by walking along a gravel path and across black volcanic ash. At the footing, our guide taught us how to lace up our crampons. If you don't know what crampons are, they're the spiked device that you wear on your shoe to grasp the ice so you don't slip. It's also a funny name. Crampon. lol. At first, they felt a little foreign walking in them. Like a little baby deer learning to walk for the first time, but you get used to them quick. Remember to pick up your feet as you walk. Now that the crampons are on, it's time to get crunching. To the glacier!

The views got better and better as we trekked.

We would walk for a little, then stop and our guide would talk to us about the glacier, answer any questions, and let us take all the pictures we wanted. Then we would continue to walk. At one point we tried water straight from the glacier. So cold, clear and refreshing. I bottled that baby up in my water bottle for later.

Overall we had a great experience and I would recommend Arctic Adventures for trekking on Solheimajokull Glacier. It was about 3 hours long and the perfect amount of time spent on the glacier.